My room is not messy mum !!

.. It is an obstacle course designed to keep me fit.

Long old day today, trying to awaken daughters on a non school day before 7 was a struggle, but eventually they got onto auto pilot and we left our evening accommodation to Sat Nav our way to the competition venue. Within 20 minutes, youngest was with her other competitors and I was staring into a coffee cup wondering how many more of these it was going to take to keep me awake.

We survived. One silver medal and happy child. She would have been even happier with 2 (as she went into 2 categories) but as I reminded her one of her team mates is only getting back up to full fitness after illness so next competition they can all get back on that leader board. So a good day methinks.

I did escape to have a walk along the Thames, we were just along from the Caversham Road Bridge over the Thames path. We attend Reading comps twice a year so the walk along there is a welcome distraction between displays. The water was incredibly high today and flooding along the path too. I hope the sun is going to pull it's socks up to dry out all of this extra water so everyone can enjoy the picnic/playarea space again soon.

I was also quite intrigued with my chosen Blip. As I started looking into the Black Swans history realised they are quite rare, and a few years ago there were various groups asking people to report any sightings of them.

With a bit of help from the Dept for Environment. Food and rural affairs I have found out ...

The native range of the black swan is in southern Australia, including Tasmania. It is also native to New Zealand but the present breeding population is derived largely from introduced birds.
First Record of Black swans imported into GB was around 1791. The first known record in the wild in GB was of breeding at Carshalton, south London, in 1851.

Black swans are popular subjects for aviculture and have been widely introduced onto park lakes and onto the River Thames. Some birds present in the wild may have escaped from captivity but probably most will have been released deliberately.

Black swans are frequently observed throughout GB. Breeding activity has been noted at many, widely scattered locations in GB but breeding success has generally been poor and the species is not currently self-sustaining in the wild state. Probably more than 150 individuals are currently at large. (This was about 4 years ago)

So my sighting turned out to be quite rare.

I seem to remember seeing Black Swans at Churchills house or reading about some connection, I will investigate this further tomorrow. Hot chocolate beckons with an early night.

And apparently it's Mother's Day tomorrow, so to all Mum's and those who do the job of a Mum, hope your day is special :)