Poppy seed heads

We were woken up at 3am by our alarm going off, nothing was wrong but it was hard to get back to sleep again after that. A morning walk with Xena always helps to clear my head though.

I had to drop off my mounted images for the social club exhibition - it is being held next month. A few years ago it was sponsored so I won prize money and I sold one of my  prints so it was quite lucrative for me, but there is no sponsorship nor prize money this year, but it's still fun to enter. I took some photos of the gardens after I handed in my prints, and I love the shape of these poppy seed heads.

Tomorrow we leave for Devon, so this afternoon I was amending my Sainsbury's food order that is being delivered tomorrow at the holiday house when I heard a noise coming from the kitchen. It was a magpie that had flown in a window but was now trapped as it could not find the window to get out again. Poor thing was getting quite stressed as it was pecking at a window that does not open, and I had to try and get it to move to one that does. While this was going on Xena was looking on in fascination - she is very good, she never barks at other animals or frightens them, it was more as if she was amused at my pathetic efforts to get the bird to another window, as I was very wary of that large, sharp beak! I finally got the bird to another window that opens, and it flew off looking quite exhausted - and I was left to clean up the mess from all the bird poo!

Gavin is working first thing in the morning and we plan to leave at about midday. During Covid times check in times are much later as they take longer to clean and sanitise between bookings, so we can only check in at 5pm. I hope we don't have bad traffic or else we could miss the Sainsbury's delivery!

Today is my sister's birthday and while things seem a little calmer in Durban today she cannot go out to celebrate. Everyone is hoping that when shops finally re-open again there will be food available, because at the moment the shelves are bare.