Mandarin Force be with you

This is one of the reasons I go down to the local park so often, spending so many days seeing the same usual birds time after time (though granted there's an interest in trying to get different / better shots of those). You see every now and then you'll get a little belter like this Mandarin Duck just popping up. His was a brief performance, but capped a tiring daylight portion of the day cleaning out stuff in the garden and garage in the unseasonal warmth, with things deposited at the tip, all after a windy bike ride into town to collect Mel's contact lenses and spin by the farmers market for the first time in ages.

Dinner to make soon (only fair, Mel was making the basis of the Christmas Eve dinner earlier), before the big event of the weekend.... Off to see Star Wars at the Dominion. Fingers crossed JJ Abrams hasn't screwed anything up....