Last Saturday in April

It's been really cold all week. We had the 'Blackthorn Winter' and now 'The Cowslip Winter'....about time we had some spring.  On some nights the temperature forecast was so low that I brought the greenhouse plants in to stand on the floor just inside the patio doors, other nights I just covered them with fleece. And of course it rained, not all day everyday but sometime on most days. It's really getting me down and I've had several days feeling well under par hibernating on the settee with snooker on TV and book in hand.

Anyway...........when I went up the road for the Following A Tree post last weekend, at a moment when it wasn't raining, I took this photo of the view over the village.. The Barley or Wheat is growing well.

On the other side of the road this huge field is recently drilled - Barley? Wheat?  I looked but couldn't find any seed in the drill lines so it might be a spring sowing of Oil-seed Rape as the seeds of this are tiny.

Buds on the Hawthorn waiting to open.

I've been sorting photos on and off all week and putting them into my new photo storage box, found some very old ones to share on local Facebook Groups. But looking at some of the photos is making me so sad for a life lost that I may have to stop!

Talking about local internet sites - on the Nextdoor website someone was moaning (People moan about the strangest things!) about low flying aircraft over their village and someone else offered this website to see more  https://airplanes.live/ https://airplanes.live/. What fun! Transport plane flying in from China and a Chinese registered huge airbus flying the other way. Ryanair, Tui, and Easy jet holiday planes coming and going across Suffolk from Luton and Stansted airports and lots of little  planes buzzing about over small airfields, Apache helicopters from the Army base at Wattisham going round and round in loops and a plane registered from the USA but coming from the East. Then a massive French registered Hercules coming out of Mildenhall and the East Anglian Air Ambulance took off  and went round in circles near Cambridge and a Coastguard plane came into the area from up north........... I could spend too much time watching this site!

No boot sales this weekend as rain is forecast both mornings - what a surprise!

I've been very bad at reading and commenting on other blogs just lately and answering comments, making me feel very guilty so I'm taking a few days off blogging although the end of the month frugal month  notes is almost done for Tuesday and I'll do the library book photo on Friday or Saturday.

Be back then

Sue

Pied Wagtail

I recently mentioned the Kestrels unusual behaviour of perching on the gravestones in the burial ground over the road - rather than where they are normally seen - higher on a telegraph pole or a wire.

Looking out of the patio doors the other day I noticed a 'something'  on the neighbours roof. I zoomed in with the camera and found it was a Pied Wagtail and that's unusual too as they are usually seen on the ground walking and wagging their tails.

The Illustration from the book" A Sparrow's Life's as Sweet as Ours" by Carrie Ackroyd. 

They were once considered a bird that lived close to water and are often seen on sandy beaches but now can be seen anywhere from city streets to country gardens. It's ability to adapt to urban living has made it more successful than other Wagtails - The grey, which is also a permanent resident and the yellow which is a summer visitor . Numbers of the yellow seen in this country have halved in the last 30 years (I've never seen either).

No one knows why they are constantly tail wagging but it makes them easy to spot on the ground.

John Clare, the nineteenth century poet wrote a poem for children

Little trotty wagtail he went in the rain

And tittering, tottering sideways - he never got straight again

He stooped to get a worm and he looked up to catch a fly

And then he flew away e're his feathers they were dry.

Back Tomorrow

Sue