Wet behind the ears

Today was probably not a good day for fledging. Unless you're a duck. These are clearly not ducks but, despite that, seem to be having a fine old time. It has rained all day, on and off, but only if you describe 'off' as raining enough to make you quite wet as you dash from house to car; and 'on' as wet enough that you give serious consideration to leaving the kids to go to after-school club so as not to have to dash from house to car... (I didn't, but it was a close call.)

These are the first fledglings I've seen this year and here you can see dad (uppermost on the fat ball) showing junior what's what, while his very much rounder brother looks on and waits for his next meal to be delivered beak-to-beak. I guess every family has a self-starter. Later, the parents were checking out our nest box, which hasn't been used so far, but in this terrible weather is obviously being sized up as a suitable home for brood number two.

Must buy some more fat balls tomorrow - this is the last one. Hopefully we have also seen the end of the crazy rain - we've had about four inches in the last two days which is good for lazy gardeners who can't be bothered to water the garden, but not so good for the delicate seedlings. Also, the bit of the courtyard in front of our neighbour's house is flooded again - which is partly our fault as our house has no gutter on that side yet. Must call the carpenters again, again, again....

That aside, today was about trying to find homes for all our boxes of books (and failing) and making curtains for Conor's room (and succeeding). Tomorrow might have to be about buying bookshelves, though Mr B is putting buying fruit trees surprisingly high on the agenda.

Watched the last two episodes of The Bridge last night - ooh, very exciting. Can't wait for season two.