Your Beak's Sharper than Mine!

A noisy day today as the residents in the road behind my back fence were having the hedge running the length of my fence cut shorter and thinner and the cuttings chipped. It's been a bit of a trauma for them as it's a private road and the hedge is the responsibility of the 2nd home owners in the end bungalow, who've been selling the property and moved out earlier this week. They wouldn't get the hedge cut back and it meant that large lorries were refusing to come down the road due to it being narrowed. I had mixed feelings about it as it was a scraggly 4ft above my fence, but the birds love it and it stopped me being overlooked as my bungalow is higher. In the end 2 of the 3 other households paid to have it reshaped and it took the contractor all day. I had asked if they'd leave 4-6 inches above the fence to stop me being overlooked, but they didn't. I would hate to live on a private road, it just seems to cause arguments. I filled up the feeders before the work started this morning and got a photo of the great tit looking anxiously at a sharp thorn on the pyracantha hedge. I spent some time today sorting my car insurance renewal and my home emergency cover renewal. The price increases on car insurance were across the board when I looked at a price comparison website, but I managed to get £30 off from my existing provider who I've been happy with. The home emergency cover I added an excess to which reduced the price by quite a bit. I washed the car this afternoon, then heard on the weather this evening about Saharan dust over the UK - doh!