Watchful

It rained for the entire day - at some points only lightly, but at others the downpour was torrential. The ground in this area managed to absorb it all though, so things could have been worse: parts of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire and Kent were flooded, a football pitch seems to have disappeared in Wimbledon, and there was a small tornado in Luton. South Newington in Oxfordshire recorded 10.8cm of rain, and even Wellesbourne, on the other side of Stratford, received over 4cm.

One of the issues of living in a house constructed by Georgian farmers out of blue lias stone and hubris is that lias is porous - not so much as to actually let rain through, but enough to chill the walls so that the interior temperature plummets. Originally the place was rendered, which would have helped with insulation, but a previous owner had the render stripped off. "That's the best thing that ever happened to that house," one of our neighbours used to say, admiringly; my invariable response being, "You wouldn't say that if you had to pay the heating bill." Today, faced with spending some money to warm up, R and I decided to leave the heating switch alone and go to Hillers for coffee and cake instead. By the time we got home I was so sugared-up on chocolate tiffin that I was almost vibrating, which kept me warm for the rest of the day.

Also busily fuelling themselves at Hillers were a good number of birds - all the usual small garden suspects, plus a Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Chiffchaff. Just ten minutes in the otherwise deserted hide provided me with over a hundred photos, of which this watchful Blue Tit was my favourite.

R: C5, D5.