Renewal.

As we shift towards an internet shopping culture - with all the attendant cardboard boxes and bubble wrap, you would think that we would rapidly develop recycling facilities to suit. However, our local authority's recycling policy never fails to amaze me on this score. Apparently it is too bulky to provide local collections from the village, so everyone has to make a round trip of about 20 miles to get rid of it. Not really sure how we are conserving anything with that one. So we save it up until we have enough to make the trip worthwhile. Today we decided we had enough to make the trip (ie we were running out of space and the utility room was rapidly becoming a significant fire hazard).

Popped in by the loch on the way home. It was cold and windy but spring was definitely in the air - and the birds had one thing on their minds. They ignored blatant attempts to curry affection with bread and went about on their business regardless. There seemed to be two drakes for every duck too so it was quite boisterous at times. They were swimming around in threes and occasionally the dominant drake would have a go at the subordinate one. The loser swam off (only to try again a bit later) and the winner would put on one of these displays.

The daughter (sporting colourful spring showerproof) was not at all impressed though. Had to bring her home to thaw her out.