All about birds

Today was destined to be all about birds. A friend was moving her chickens from her allotment to a new des res in the country proper, and I'd promised to help with dismantling the coops. The day dawned fair, I turned down the offer of an early morning bike ride and instead had a leisurely breakfast in the garden with a new glam male blackbird for company.

At the allotment the chickens were most discombobulated - there were 3 juvenile robins hoping about after their parent, all teasing me, pose, pose, wait till you get the camera out the bag then fly off. (I caught this one in the park on the way in).

In the meantime the cyclist had come across some guys cycling BORIS BIKES up the hills. They were doing it to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support, and were hoping to do the first stage of the tour in a day, and get the bikes back to London before midnight. According to their twitter feed, they have finished the cycling and are now racing the clock with the bikes in a van, back to London. If you fancy supporting them in this mighty endeavour here's the link

In other news, the Oxfam Trailtrekkers are well into their 100km challenge. I shall be joining them to offer tea and wince at their blisters early tomorrow morning at Hetton. The weather has been good again for them, and no rain forecast either. Last year, one team finished in 13 hours, no sign of such heroics/craziness this year.