Stormy

They're calling this one Storm Otto, and it was forecast to be bad in Scotland and northern England today, with winds of 75-80mph. I haven't seen any news reports of severe damage though, and I hope this means that it left those areas at least relatively unscathed.

Here in the Midlands the weather wasn't actually threatening, but it was very windy, as you can see from the state of this blue tit I photographed from Hillers' bird hide this morning. I'm with Lev Parikian when it comes to blue tits: "We tend to say ‘oh look, a blue tit’, when what we should be saying is ‘oh my GOD just look at that beautiful thing and it’s hanging UPSIDE DOWN from the feeder LOOK AT IT’." They're not merely gorgeous though, but feisty as well: in my experience, very few birds can look outraged as effectively as a blue tit. This one reminds me of me, when I've just got my hair looking respectable and then I step out of the door, and the wind turns it into a matted mop that looks like an old pan scourer.

R and I heard this evening that the Boy Wonder was expecting us to go and see him yesterday, which is a little bit lovely but mostly upsetting. Neither of us had realised that he already understands the rhythm of the week - but, of course, he is very advanced...