Calculated risks ...

What a fantastically sunny day!

I went out in the morning (unusually for me!) because the sun was so bright - and cloud was forecast for later.

I'd been tipped off about a rarity and found it, but not well enough for photographing. I also visited the kestrel box, which was occupied but with the sun behind it ..

This is where my calculated risk comes in - when I first moved in with mum I hardly left the house for seven months, I felt I needed to be on hand at all times. It was mum's CPN who said I needed to take 'calculated risks'. So as it was still amazingly sunny when I put mum to bed I decided to head back out to Sunk Island.

I'm so glad I did.

I saw the baby kestrels  (above - at least four of them in there), a beautiful sedge warbler, hares, a hunting barn owl - there was even a sunset over the gasworks as I left!

When I got home, mum was downstairs, sitting on the settee as though the day had just begun. I was very annoyed, which is so unfair of me. I'll take the risk again - and if she's up when I get home it hardly matters, does it?

In other news, I finally finished one of my many ongoing crochet projects (I'm going to rip some out so they don't keep glaring at me)

Meet my jolly snake draught excluder!