Bright & Beautiful

No blip yesterday after a day spent on the computer with head wrecking stuff and then all photos were grisly, so that was that!

Today I was up exceptionally early - 5.45am to be precise as it was Birdwatch Ireland record my patch day. The weather forecast was promising but when I staggered up it was mizzling. Nonetheless I continued, accompanied by my friend Ginny who's thinking of doing something similar next year. We arrived , still pretty murky but no longer drizzling and off we ventured. After a slow start the warbling and chirrupings picked up, I had to pretend to know what I was seeing and hearing! I'm not too bad until it comes to warblers and there were a lot of them - if in doubt, the little beige job singing its heart out is a willow warbler. We were both thrilled to see the first swallows, two of them, had arrived.By the time we'd finished two hours later, the sun was starting to look promising. We brought croissants in Lidl and a coffee in Skib which was just awakening and ate them in the car park - ravenous!

By the time we were home it was the most beautiful day and it's reached the tropical highs of 17C! Himself and I did the circuit maximus over the mountain (in shorts - long ones)  and had it all to ourselves.  We treated ourselves to a cuppa and an oaty biscuit in the Heron Gallery where this very simple but colourful jamjar of flowers caught my eye.