Today was one of those days when I woke up at 04.00 and couldn’t get back to sleep – brain too full of ideas for painting Jane Austen characters on to calico (you know how it is). Life likes balance though so Mark didn’t wake up until almost 11.00. I took my cake offerings to the Bath WI stall at the ‘Flavours of the South West’ food festival, popped in to the Guild Hall Market for some ribbon and zips and went home to sit in the garden while waiting for Mark to get ready to go to lunch with Gavin (I am not going to describe the food – from the Jerusalem cookery book – as I would not want to be responsible for anyone damaging their keyboard by drooling on it).
The sun shone and the birds chirped noisily and Rio the cat meowed and all was well with the world…except that I realised I had rudely misidentified some little brown birds. We have so many house sparrows hiding in the sparrow hedge, I did not spot that some of them were actually dunnocks!
sparrow in the sparrow hedge
me? a sparrow?I think not!
dunnock
Ah well, I am sure the meal worms soothed the ruffled feathers.
The well-trimmed lawn brigade would be ashamed of us, but we have Mark’s parents’ tortoise holidaying with us at the moment and his pen is in the way for us to cut the grass, and Tommy-Fred the tortoise enjoys eating the buttercups (yes I know they are daisies in the photo, but you will have to take my word for his buttercup habit)…
Tommy-Fred the tortoise
And what about the bees? They love the clover…and I love the bees…
bees in clover
bees…love the sound of them and their furry cuddliness
buttercups and daisies – so much prettier than a manicured lawn
and there surely can be little in life as nice as rolling in the clover (and checking one’s paws are properly clean, of course)
roll me over in the clover
lovely clean paws
while Max sits inside in his favourite Amazon box.
cat in a box
Our first strawberry is almost ripe, the peonies are in bloom, the roses are out, the geraniums are buzzing with the sound of bees and the hanging basket is a riot of colour…life in the garden is good.
first strawberry
day lilly – not allowed to bloom long enough to droop, as very poisonous to cats
peonies
blush pink rose
hanging basket
hold still!
bee on the geranium
love in the mist
Mind you, it all proved too exhausting for Rio, who found a handy hebe’s shade to snooze in.
cat nap
Deere Diary... 
Oh! you did have a lovely time in your garden! And with sun too… something we haven’t seen for a few days here. I take your word about the buttercups, Tommy-Fred certainly looks like a buttercup-man 🙂
Tommy Fred is over 100 years old – originally he belonged to Mark’s great grandmother – and he sometimes struggles to find his food, so we either have to sit him in the middle of a pile of food or feed him by hand. He just opens his mouth wide and waits for someone to pop a buttercup in.
I wonder…. if I just open my mouth wide, will someone pop a chocolate in?