Green-bottle fly

Yesterday we ate in the garden, raising a glass of white wine to my Mum, and giving thanks to her for helping us move into our current house, which we couldn't have afforded on our own. We had home-made summer pudding for dessert, one of her favourites, but it was to prove very costly indeed...

As I was eating it, I bit into a raspberry and was aware of a sharp pain. I assumed this was a seed becoming lodged between my teeth, and once I'd cleaned them , didn't think much more about it. At breakfast this morning (porridge with peach, blueberries and pecan nuts) I found that it was excruciating to bite on one of my upper left teeth. I went back to the bathroom and used floss and a dental hook to try and remove the offending pip, but with no success.

Before ringing the dentist I asked Pete to have a look and see if he could see it. He reported that he could see something dark, but that it looked as though it was lodged in a crack in my tooth. So it was off to an emergency dental appointment, where it was confirmed that the pip had cracked the whole of my tooth, which the dentist feared might need to be extracted. I was numbed up, and he removed the pip and then filed down my tooth. Luckily the crack hadn't gone as far as the root, so they'll be able to fit a crown to the stump - but that certainly won't be cheap! In the meantime the rough, filed stump feels extremely odd, but at least it's no longer painful to eat.

Somehow I haven't felt much like photography, so this green-bottle fly, sunning itself on fleabane flowers, is as good as it gets tonight!