We had a perfectly glorious weekend start to the school holidays, we have had some lovely customers this week, it is always so much fun when you know they are enjoying themselves. Although I have discovered something today, I often wondered how the decision was made as to who flew the Steller’s to the fist at the end of the demonstration, and answered all the questions, and who was at the bottom of the field calling her. Well I found out!! It depends on how many pretty girls there are in the audience!! So they have a look and then choose who is going to do what!! Can you believe it!!

The new aviaries are nearly finished, the feather edge just has to be stained and the owls are loving their new homes already, Sidewinder is digging away on the floor and playing with worms!- update - they are finished! Now we start on the doors for the outdoor Hawk Walk to make that suitable for use during cold weather, which also means we can turn a part of the indoor Hawk Walk into a photographic studio.

I have had two friends over from South Carolina Mary Catherine and James, they were here for a week and the weather has been very kind, warm during the day and cooler at night, they loved it particularly as it is hot as hell in the US at the moment. They completed a new path over the lawn by the weighing room, it is made of very heavy pavers, which they had to move and I suspect were very glad to see the back of, but it was worth it and it looks great and will save the lawn, so James feels now that he has left a permanent mark on the place. I on the other hand appear to have left only blood around the place, I managed to try and take the top of my finger with a step ladder, I then discovered that both Simon and Mike had done the same thing, but with less blood, so the ladder is now residing on the scrap metal pile! I caught my thumb in the Ferruginous’s beak while I was coping him and then damn me Rhadamanthus landed on my arm, and while takin g off to go to Adam managed to leave a couple of gouges in my arm, which bled copiously! So my typing is a little haphazard and I will not be playing the piano for a few days!! Which is probably a relief to the dogs whom I believe are not impressed by my playing!

My pond is very low, but if it is a choice between enough rain to fill it, and nice weather for the next three months, I know which I am likely to take! Henry is apparently doing well with the girl who now has him, he is not behaving that well, but she does not seem to mind. I am trying out a new horse who is called Mollie, I know there is a horse out there for me, I just have to find it.

James and Mary Catherine went to Gigrin Farm with Linda to see the kites, one of these days I will go, but I think the autumn would be when I would like to see them. Our baby Kite (yellow Billed) is going to fly loose today, he is nearly there with the catches and the training line is getting in the way now, so today is the day! We have been watching the celebrations on the news, a year to go for the Olympics, I guess I should be more interested, but I have to say that celebrating a year ahead seems a little odd. That would be like celebrating our 45 anniversary here the year before!!

I have to say I do wonder about HM Customs and how bright they actually are. I asked one of my part time staff to do an extra day each week and after a couple of weeks she came to me and told me that the amount of tax she is having to pay means that she gets less than if she worked two days a week so she needs to go back to two days not three! That is nothing short of crazy, what is wrong with the people in government, can they not see just how stupid this is. I once spoke to a woman who worked for one of the government departments and asked her why people were moved around from one department to another without actually having the expertise needed to do the new job, she said it was a remnant of how the civil service worked during the war years. Well all I can say is if I ran my business like the civil service runs the various departments I would fail.