PEEKABOO

Too much choice today from the RSPB reserve. Here's an Emerald Damselfly which was easier to snap than the Emperor Dragonfly that was hunting over the pond and wouldn't rest for a second. Extras are a Common Darter which was posing nicely, and a Little Grebeling, which didn't realise how close it was to me until its parent suddenly called it to safety among the reeds.

I spent ages there enjoying peace and quiet after noisy neighbour problems last night. We were in the middle of dinner at about 8.15 when Dave-next-door started hammering (he has to fit in his DIY around irregular work hours, but that was a bit late), and then Jason on the other side who thought it was us, retaliated by stamping up and down the stairs and turning up his music so loud that the walls were shaking, then not answering the door when B went and knocked as loudly as he could. This truly illustrates how bloody thin the walls are. Eventually he got Jason and asked him to turn it down, and Jason realised that it wasn't us doing the hammering and went round to ask Dave to stop as he was trying to get his kids to go to bed. We haven't followed it up yet, but sometime tomorrow when his kids are at school I shall be asking him if he thinks he has a problem with something we're doing just to come and tell us, not go straight to retaliation. We don't complain about the screaming, shouting and meltdowns (often from him) we hear through the walls because we reckon he's having quite a tough time with unhappy children, and we'd appreciate a bit of respect in turn, especially when we weren't even causing the noise.

So that's why I needed some peace and quiet.