Swan song

Somewhat irrelevant, but I love this piece of music.

It's the first part that I love so you don't need to listen to all of it. If you bothered to listen at all.

The swans.

I went to spend a day brushcutting at the Reserve as an antidote to four days staring at screens in the studios.

No close encounters with hares (I may have seen one in the distance) or near misses with raptors or owls (though I did scare a pair of buzzards off their nest and they screamed and screamed). I did see a fox and a muntjac running across the ride. Not together. Unlike in Leanne's video.

But watching these swans feeding was a peaceful blessing and I felt myself relax.

There were also some rowdy coots and a very handsome grebe.

Later, I saw another swan with six large cygnets and was screamed at by terns. Only one pair have nested on the tern rafts and they have to see off everyone themselves. Hard work for the parents. I left the area as soon as I could so they could return to their chicks.

Son of Bob has almost forgotten me, what with me being away or feeding super early for five days. But I saw him today and he seemed to have the inkling of a memory that I do not pose a huge threat.

I cleared a load of peanut shells and squishy suet from the patio and swept the path. Put clean water in all the saucers and inspected my small trees. I have decided that to bonsai may NOT be cruel and so I am wondering if I should cut back the poplars. It is, after all, the only way I can keep them. The man told me to leave the rowan until next year. Then I cut back her roots (!) and re-pot. In spring.