The new under-gardener

In most years by mid March the lawn would have had its first cut, and possibly even a second, The Gardener commented this morning. But the weather this year has meant that it's either been too cold or wet, and unfortunately for us the grass keeps growing anyway.  She's thinking of having the lawn mower serviced as the forecast is for more rain until the end of the month. Still, despite her concerns about the garden there is, as yet,  no sign of us disappearing into a lush meadow of long grasses.

The crow rather likes this state of affairs, and regularly visits  the garden to de-thatch small patches of lawn for us.  He's looking for leather jackets and any other munchable grubs and insects that he can get his beak on.  Ideally The Gardener would like him to start in one place on the lawn and methodically work his way across it, but he's not quite got the hang of it yet.

This crow is quite distinctive with his patches of white and I see him (or her) regularly.  The crow's other half sits in a nearby tree and keeps an eye on what's going on locally and when necessary gives a couple of cawing warning notes to tell the apprentice under-gardener that he needs to get back up into the trees for safety.