LATE BLOOMER

My little potted nectarella tree given to me by my parents quite a lot of years ago has finally broken into abundant bud, several weeks later than usual.

The bedraggled feather comes from Percy the Persistent Pooing Pigeon who uses a couple of roosts above our back yard in order to fill it with guano. We've tried to shoo him with a fake owl with LED light-up eyes to no avail, and now we've hung up some sparkly tape around the place which is supposed to frighten him off. It's no exaggeration to say that as soon as the weather makes it worthwhile going into the yard we're going to have to borrow a jet-washer and get some bio-hazard suits to wash all the s**t off the various surfaces where it has accumulated. I've also had to remove the bird feeders because that's what attracted the bugger in the first place.

Ongoing apologies for my lack of engagement with comments recently.