I am told that I need to update my Weblog!! So here we are, my problem is often that by the time I finish work, both outside, which is usually about 6.00pm or sometimes a little later and will get later as the season goes on, and then the inside work, i.e. emails and stuff that I am supposed to be writing, let alone the three books I am working on, I often don’t feel like doing anything except watching mindless TV. So apologies when there is a gap, it’s because I am getting old and tired!!

It is pissing with rain, the hardest rain we have had for a while and the drains are holding up! Hooray, a couple need some alteration, but generally the paths are going to be a joy to look after now this has been done.

On Monday Mike and I were having fun playing with sewage, quite my favourite job, this time it was the men’s urinals for a change. I won’t go into detail, suffice it to say that after some hard work with drain rods, a screw driver and the hosepipe, plus a good bucket of hot water and disinfectant, the problem was solved, swiftly followed by a shower!

The birds are doing well, I did ground Fortina as she was sitting again, so her auntie Alexandria is out and already flying loose. I also switched Mosquito with his brother, he just was not interested in flying, and his brother is fairly annoyed at coming out, but will be fine, I don’t remember flying him at all so it will be an experience. Both Theft and Deception (the Yellow-billed Kites names after the bird of prey center in South Carolina) are out as is Milan the Black Kite. The two tawny eagles are out and one of the Red Kites, so the Hawk Walk is full bar two compartments.

We had a party of French children here yesterday and the idiot bus driver, who should be sacked and would be if he were British I suspect, refused to take the bus round the corners at the end of our road, he must have seen the local school bus manage to drive round it later, the prat, and he made the children walk which is disgraceful. And then last night we had a special Owl Evening for a group who had asked specifically for one for them, I hope they enjoyed it, it was difficult to tell.

Today I had one of those days where I am not sure what I did, but I was running around a lot. We have started on the weighing room extension, which is very exciting, but rain set in by mid afternoon and so we went into the house to sort feathers, my least favourite job. However it was made much easier because Angela brought up a bottle of what she thought was bubble bath, from Joan and Iloana, and I have to say, if you did not understand Dutch and we don’t, it looked like the label was saying bubble bath. However I was convinced that you would not put bubble bath in a champagne type bottle, so I opened it, and I was right, it was a non alcoholic strawberry drink, which I have to say was a little sweet for my taste, however a large slug of gin improved it no end and made the feather sorting much more fun!

The trees are slowly beginning to leaf, its lovely to see the faint green halo with some of the earlier ones, such as the willows, and the pussy willow is out. A good friend of mine has heard a cuckoo, and one of the staff here saw a swallow today. I bumped into a newt in the kitchen last night as well, it did not say why it was there, so I gently put it out in the flower bed. The dogs frightened me to death on Monday morning, I came into the kitchen where five of them sleep and there was a dreadful smell, which at first I thought was either one of them, or the rubbish bin, but no, it was the gas cooker, Acer had turned on one of the burners on the top and forgotten to light it, silly dog, what a mistake!! And what a good job it was daylight and I did not turn on a light or you might not be reading this. I have had a word with her about it, and shown her where the matches are kept if she has to do it.

We have had two injured birds in this week, a Sparrowhawk from just up the road, which I spend sometime ploughing around in a bramble bed and failing to catch, so John and Adam went up and caught her easily, of course I had already done all the hard work! My legs are a testament to it, with scratches all over. Sadly she died two days later, even though she had started to feed, we suspect a head injury as she was much quieter than an adult female Sparrowhawk should be. The other was a Tawny Owl who has a fractured Ulna but the radius is holding it in place and so he should be fine and go back to the wild in a couple of weeks.

OK enough of this, I have to get back to work on my computer.