A pop to the duck pond

Although it's another super day, we decided not to go whizzing off because we weren't up and dressed till after midday so the day was half gone we had domestic things to do.

I decided to pop to the duck pond as I haven't been there for ages, and there's always a blip there. There were fantastic clouds over the north and south of the city. In fact, all round, but right above there was blue sky. Mind you, there was a chilly wind, although a girl I was talking to at the pond was in a teeshirt. She didn't notice it was cold until I pointed it out.

The usual little dramas going on. Three male mallards trying to drown one female - they were right in at the side, but ignored my shout of 'Oi! Stop that! Leave her alone!!' I think I may have alarmed a few passers by, wondering which mugger I was yelling at...

There was one swan away over on the other side going crazy, splashing, having a good wash, I think. Then it came nearer. I took a few shots, but it actually looked as if it was in distress. It was rubbing its head frantically, preening the wing feathers frantically, grabbing at its legs. Every now and again it would wheel right over and its body would be upside down, legs thrashing. I spotted the tee shirted girl taking photos, so I went over and we had a chat about it. We were worried it had hurt its wings, but then it did a great big FLAP. So the wings were all right. We wondered if we should ring the Swan Helpline, but it seemed to settle down after that, but that was a good hour, almost, of frantic whirling and splashing. Maybe it was just happy...

Shot in RAW again and guess what happened... Yes, for the first time ever, my card (4GB) was FULL. And I've taken millions of LARGE shots of Percy the Pelican in one sitting! Of course, now I'm sitting twiddling my thumbs while they download, then I'll take another hour or so to faff around. Still not convinced.

I chose this one, the last shot I took today. It's one of my favourite views. I had to tidy up the sky as there were several spots... dust on my sensor?

They didn't operate on Uncle A today - they were going to decide finally this morning. I think this is much better. A full anaesthetic is not nice. I will pop up to see him this afternoon and bring the evening paper. I don't think he'll want the Creme Egg I have here, so I'll just eat it now..

I seem to 'pop' a lot of places! We used to have a Japanese student living with us in NZ (he came for a week or so and stayed for three years) and we'd say, 'We're just popping into town' or 'I'm popping out'. One day he said, "What is all this 'popping'?"

Right. I'll pop to the toilet. Then pop my earphones in, pop to the shop to get a paper, then pop on the bus and pop into the hospital to see Uncle A. And that's enough popping for one day.