Chewing the cud...

I may have overdone it a bit today.

This morning was the fortnightly breeding bird transect in Thorpe Wood - strictly I should have started at 5.30am, but I decided 6am was early enough. This still involved me waking at 4.30am to take the painkillers and give them enough time to work. I have to say it was lovely to be out in the woods on such a beautiful, sparkling May morning, and my leg felt so good I went round twice! Possibly a mistake...

Pete had a dental appointment at 9am, and when he returned we headed out to Castor Backwater, where I'm leading a walk on Saturday. I wanted to see how much I could manage. I made it round the complete route, including five stiles, but it was really quite painful at the end, partly because the painkillers had pretty much worn off. When we got home I snoozed in the sun for a while, then had to get up quickly to answer the door, which precipitated another killer spasm. But it's eased off this afternoon, which is just as well, as I've got to drive Ben to Cambridge in the morning, as he has a physics exam.

The river valley was looking wonderful - a veritable froth of creamy hawthorn blossom, white cow parsley and yellow buttercups. There were oodles of banded demoiselles on the wing, as well as large mayflies, which were dancing in their thousands in sheltered corners. The cattle have now been turned out, and we met a particularly frisky bunch of bullocks, who were very interested in Rosie. Fortunately she's now too old to care very much, though she did bare her teeth when one actually sniffed her! These much calmer cows were on the other side of the river, mostly Friesian Holsteins, but with a scatter of Jerseys, which are not often seen round here. Such a timeless scene...