Ethereal

After a couple of grey days, it was a beautiful autumn morning, the type of morning when you can feel the sun warming your back while you inhale air as cool as well-chilled white wine. 

I went down to the river again, hoping for more willow emeralds, but they were nowhere to be seen. I didn't have much time to spare, but spent a few minutes watching the migrant hawkers patrolling a sunny stretch of the river. They were really a bit too far away, and I didn't hold out much hope of a good image, but when I looked on the screen I realised that I loved the watery background as much as the dragonfly I'd been aiming for.

The second part of the morning was spent talking to a group from the Royal Forestry Society about the value of an old field pond that's now been surrounded by a planted woodland. It was an interesting gathering, though I was surprised by how many of the attendees I knew - quite a social occasion.

This afternoon we went over to see Molly. She had a touch of pneumonia last week, but fortunately a combination of antibiotics and steroids have cleared it from her system pretty quickly, and she was quite chatty today. However, the cocktail of drugs seems to have had some other undesirable effects so she's back to the doctor next week, with the prospect of further tests in the pipeline.