Well I am soaked to the skin, I have spent the last hour sweeping water from the weighing room and I dread to think what the paths are going to look like tomorrow, we have had serious rain, what I think we used to call a cloud burst. Heavy heavy rain, hail and water rushing everywhere. It is at this time when you realise that the gutters probably need a clean. Luckily I know where all the drains are that will need a clear, so I dive in and remove whatever is blocking them and watch the water swirl away. My top pond is full and I suspect that the bottom pond will look a little more like a pond by the morning. The birds are OK, Mollie is ignoring thunder and lightening and not bothering to come in although there is food and hay for her in the stable when she feels like it. Tomorrow will be a clear up day I suspect, which is a shame with a Bank holiday already upon us and our falconry event only a week away! Ah well, these little things are sent to try us……………………

To give a good demonstration, a good lecture, write a good weblog, make a slide presentation to go on the computer, any of these things, to do it well, to give of your best, is to do just that, to give of yourself. At the end of a day, or a lecture, or as I just have, watched one of the old slide presentations on my weblog, you give away a part of yourself, I sometimes wonder if you ever get it back, but I think you do in the comments and thanks from the visitors that we get on a daily basis. When someone says – as two people did today – that it was the best £10 they ever spent, that makes giving so much of yourself away not only worthwhile, but also renewable, it gives you the energy to do the same thing the following day and the many after that.

I watched the slide show and realised that I give away a huge part of my personal life with photos of the birds, dogs, house, all the things that I love, but I am happy and proud to be able to share them with anyone who is interested. Although I have to say that it is draining nevertheless, but the right sort of tiredness I hope.

We were busy again Wednesday , the weather has been very very kind to us this year, and although very dry, that does bring out the visitors. I did manage at the end of the day to have enough energy to take Mollie out for a ride and a very pleasant one we had, I then gave her a bath afterwards, not sure she enjoyed it that much, but after I had left her with a rug on and some supper for her, and some scrambled eggs for me, I went back out and checked she was dry and warm, and then groomed her, she is positively gleaming now and looks wonderful.

I have apparently recovered from Sorrel’s attempt at felling me, and although still a little stiff I could move properly today again, thank goodness. All the birds flew well and Tewa who is out to work after a break is keen already. Holly’s Barbary went AWOL for a few hours but was back before the end of the evening and Mark and my merlin's are coming on nicely.