Coal tit

Having given Roley his flea treatment this morning I washed all the dogs' bedding, and completely bottomed out the kitchen and snug to make sure there were no dusty corners where his little friends could lurk in wait for a less poisonous host to happen past. This was an act of selfless generosity on my part, because as long as R is around I generally don't get bitten by insects - he's obviously far sweeter than I am.

When I finished my chores and R reached a break point in his work, we went out and sat on the patio with a pre-lunch drink and enjoyed the lovely weather. There were quite a lot of small birds about - they weren't terribly keen on us being there, but the braver among them made little sorties between the big Portuguese laurel (where I suspect a large number of them live) and their feeders of choice. The blue tits and great tits seemed to be largely in a peanut mood; the house sparrows were eating seed; there were three goldfinches squabbling over the nyjer seed; and this little solitary coal tit was keeping itself to itself and quietly lunching on the suet balls.

I'm away now to get an early night, in the hope that when my alarm goes off at WHAT TIME???!!! o'clock, the sky will be clear and I'll be able to see the blood moon - and if I'm not too sleep-befuddled, maybe even get a shot of it. Provided it doesn't herald the end of the world, I'll see you tomorrow!