Verdant landscape

Saturday
We are over in England again for a long weekend, for a family event on Monday. We came over through the tunnel yesterday evening, and stayed the night in Ashford. This morning we drove up to my brother and sister-in-law's in Dore, on the western edge of Sheffield. We had a good drive up, with no significant delays, arriving around lunch time. It was a beautiful warm, sunny day, and after lunch we went for a walk, not too far from their house. We did have to modify our path at one point when we encountered a swarm of bees! I don't know when we last saw the Derbyshire countryside in such gorgeous weather! At the house we were entertained by the blue tits in a nesting box at the back of their house. It is a box with a built-in camera, and they've had it for four years and I think had just about despaired of it ever being used, but this year it is being used, and the eggs had just hatched out on Thursday. Judy was thrilled this afternoon, as she had thought the male had abandoned the female - they hadn't seen him at all for a number of days - but then this afternoon he showed up and was helping to feed the five hungry mouths. This evening we drove across the Pennines to Roger's sister's in Appleton, so we can go visit Roger's Mum tomorrow, who is still in hospital after falling and breaking her hip just after Easter, when we were here last. She is making progress and is very impatient to be allowed home, which they hope will happen soon.