Nectar-seeker

So today didn't really go as planned. It was a rather hectic morning, dropping Ben at the bus-stop, taking Pete to Castor Hnglands NNR and driving Alex to work, before taking the car in to the garage to have new front tyres. All went smoothly until I returned home and realised that I'd forgotten to remove the house key before I handed the car-keys over to the garage. Of course, it had to happen on one of the few days when everyone was out (Chris is in Bulgaria) and when we'd been punctilious about locking all the doors and windows!

Fortunately, the sun was shining so I sat on a bench in the back garden for a while (where I spotted the first large red-damselfly) and answered a couple of emails, before deciding to walk into town. As I approached Bourges Boulevard I decided that it wasn't too far to divert to Lizzy's school and see if she had a key I could borrow. I'd never walked to it before, so took a rather circuitous route through the back streets, which was almost like being in another country, with many Asian food shops, halal butchers, sari shops full of brightly patterned silks, gold dealers and cafes. It was a bit further than I'd anticipated, but I was eventually rewarded with a key.

From there I walked back into town and enjoyed a very welcome cup of herb tea and cake at John Lewis before getting a few more things needed for Molly's party. I took the bus home and had only just arrived when the garage rang to say that the car was ready! Once I'd picked the car up, I went to  buy a new pair of safety boots and then, after another reviving cup of herb tea, it was time to pick Pete up and get some food shopping from Sainsburys.

So, my day didn't really go as planned, but I certainly got plenty of exercise and actually managed to achieve quite a few things that needed to be done. However, all this left little time for photography, so I had a rather swift evening stroll round the cool and breezy garden to find a blip for Tiny Tuesday, which is kindly being hosted by JDO. I nearly drew a blank, but this Common Carder-bee saved my bacon!