Evening birds

Best-mate Derek called in for coffee mid morning and we had the usual great chat, including finalising arrangements for tomorrow night when Carl and I are taking him and Rita out for a meal to mark a big birthday he's recently suffered from. It only towards the end of our chat that Derek told me the sad news that Dolly, my favourite of their three cats, had been ill during the week, had been to the vet twice, and last night had to be put down. So sad.

I'd fully intended getting out and about and doing one of my grab-a-DART-and-do-a-walk-at-the-other-end routines. The day began beautifully yet again (the third day in a row which was more like summer than spring), but had begun to change as Derek left. To top that, the magazine client wasn't playing ball in such a way that I'd manage to meet her deadline for the next issue, and another regular client got in touch asking for design/artwork for his usual annual report (naturally, overlapping with the magazine).

All in all, then, it was mid afternoon by the time I got out and about, and then I only got to the far end of St Anne's Park in Clontarf (the bit near the Bull Island causeway). The pond was as popular as ever, and a small family group had brought along bread for the children to feed the ducks (and the gulls too, naturally). The feeding frenzy went on for a good while after the bread-throwing, which was when I got this shot of the gulls giving up and heading away.

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Yet again I've had to do some back-blip catching-up (and still I'm left with a 2-day gap with blips which need a bit of work done on them before this can be filled). Anyway, back-blips to date are:
YADPI
From a height
Stop!
Pancake queue