Squirrel!

If you are, like me, not particularly mechanically minded, then getting one of those little lights on your dashboard - the unfamiliar ones, featuring something that looks like, perhaps, a genie's lamp - will commonly result in a very heartfelt sigh. 

However, I was with the Minx when this happened, this morning, and she promptly leapt into action, getting the manual out of the glove compartment, and telling me that I would need to go to Halfords to buy some coolant and then add this to the engine, while I was still drawing breath for another sigh. Grudgingly, I admitted this didn't sound too tricky and, once I'd dropped her at work, I drove back down into Chorley. At this point, I realised that she'd left her 'phone in the car. Never mind, I'd deal with that next.

The experience at Halfords was excellent, as a member of staff grabbed me as I wandered morosely down the aisles and took me to the customer service desk, where I was only required to give her my car registration number in order for her to provide me with the correct coolant. Hooray!

This will sound a bit feeble now but I gave a further sigh when, on reaching the car and reading the bottle, I discovered that the coolant needed diluting. Fortunately, there is an Asda next door to Halfords, so I was able to go and buy some water, drink half of it and then top up the bottle with the coolant. And then I put it in the engine. Hooray again!

At some point I must have acquired the Minx's work 'phone number so next I was able to call her office but she didn't pick up, which still left me with the issue of getting her 'phone to her. And it was at this precise moment, in this instant of mental weakness, that I thought "I'm having one of those days". Now, as someone who doesn't believe in luck, as such, I also don't believe in runs of bad luck and my reaction to my own forlorn thought was to buck myself up. I drove back to the Minx's office, managed to get into the building and then gave her a huge shock by being in her office when she returned to it. Oops.

It was shortly after this - when the Minx had run out of swears and I was back outside - that I saw this little chap, mooching around on the ground. Even by being super stealthy, I'd still alarmed him enough that he was half way up his tree by the time I'd got my camera out. But actually, at least in comparison with my usual standard of wildlife shot, I think it's rather good.