"Willow Wren"

I didn't meet my daughter and granddog for our usual Wednesday dogwalk. I know, now that I am feeling better, that it is extremely unlikely that contact with me would spread norovirus to their household but I wanted to be one hundred percent sure. My granddaughter is in the middle of the A level examinations that she has studied so hard for. I would never forgive myself if she caught the virus and it ruined her chances of achieving her aims. As it happens I haven't got my strength back for a long walk anyway.

My daughter very kindly made us a huge cottage pie and left it at the gate, together with some of Frankie dog's special food for Ollie dog. I've been thinking about the pie all day and couldn't wait to tuck in. It was absolutely delicious. :)

Another very damp day. My image is of a chiffchaff about to feast on ants and aphids. The bird was mentioned on Springwatch in a piece about Gilbert White. He was one of the first ecologists and in his Natural History of Selborne first differentiated between the chiffchaff, willow warbler and wood warbler. Originally it was thought that these three birds were one, known as the willow wren.  This is the first chiffchaff I have blipped on my own property this season