Born to be Wild

'Eat your greens' was the motto today on the lake with the swan parents encouraging the five a day. Not yet even a week old but my they have grown. 

Lovely to see a full set of seven cygnets so all well and George and Zelda were taking their parenting skills seriously. Watching their behaviour you couldn't miss how protective they were, always keeping their new arrivals between them, gently hissing at the most well behaved dogs, showing the chicks what to eat, where to eat it and managing to give me the eye as a warning. I took it. The gentlest and most devoted of parents.

The grebe chicks are still three and looking healthy with the parents catching food in abundance now they are getting much bigger. Not that they weren't before! 

The skip arrived today so I spent the morning untangling the metal work to go in it. Our field had once been let by the previous owners over the years to some/many dodgy/shocking tenants who who just discarded 'stuff' into the hedgerow. Even asbestos. Appalling. 

Very excited now that the work on the patio is going to commence on Monday - fingers crossed and a following wind .....