The sands of time

I took advantage of going to the hairdresser yesterday to give Bruno the Peugeot his annual carwash. Months sitting in the square leave him encrusted with bird poop, cobwebs, and goodness knows what else. I spent ages and gallons of water using every tool at the carwash to get him sparkling, to the frustration of the guy waiting behind me. 

So I was not best pleased to look out of the window this morning and find that the Sahara had visited overnight, with its inimitable yellow glow. It's clearing a little now, but it's been gloomy all day.

In more exciting news (to me, anyway) I inadvertently found where the kestrels are nesting! I haven't seen or heard them since mid-April; I guessed they had found somewhere quieter or perhaps didn't like the obscured view from their perch once the plane tree had leaves on it. I was wandering around the back of the house trying to find inspiration for the BCLookup challenge when I heard one. It sounded as if it was coming from the amphitheatre, and sure enough after a few minutes' waiting I saw it swoop in with something in its beak and disappear into a hole high in the wall. Unfortunately it's behind a locked gate at an awkward angle, so I couldn't get a shot of it, even when it flew out again. So the only proof I have is the heavily cropped photo in extras, which I only took to prove to myself it wasn't a pigeon. I'm not going to enter that in the challenge!

I went back in the early evening in the hope they were out hunting again, but no luck. I will try again though.