Odds and sods

For instance the dustmen are here, my back aches, late last night I seemed to have lost 1/4 of a stone but this morning I’ve gained a bit of that (I thought it was supposed to work the other way round), the piano tuner came yesterday and made poor old Joanna sound a bit happier (and as usual, he offered me a replacement piano which I can’t afford), I have to go and collect a dishwasher this afternoon and I didn’t get up early to catch the dawn.

See.  Nothing much to say for myself at the moment, though I do manage to use up half a post saying it 🙂

Still the sun is shining.

A strange but pleasing thing.  Three herons have taken to standing in the field out back, early in the morning and late in the afternoon.   I don’t know what draws them there?  Mice?  Frogs? Other small dinners, struggling through the tangled clover stems?  I’m guessing it must be to do with the clover – it was a new crop this year and we’ve never had clover or herons out back before.  No hares so far this winter either.  Maybe I just can’t see them as the clover is long and lumpy or maybe they don’t enjoy grazing on it.

Anyway, the other day, the herons were sitting in the biggest oak tree along the side of the field.  This seems most unusual to me!  And they look quite exotic up there!  Too far away of course but I dug out the old panansonic which has a tremendous zoom.

Perching herons

Then I indulged in sparkles in the corkscrew hazel in the front garden.  The panasonic was always very obliging about sparkles and the Nikon does a completely different (and less accessible) kind of sparkle.

sparkles in a corkscrew

So much to learn.

And here are the stars from the other night.  The camera argued about what it could and wouldn’t do and I think there was a tiny bit of a wobble involved – in spite of the tripod.  The stars appear to be moving very slightly.  Well they probably are of course and so are we but not enough to register on a motionless camera at such enormous distances.  At least I don’t think so?

Time to read the manual again.  No camera should be clever enough to refuse to take pictures so I must be telling it something it doesn’t understand (what exactly doesn’t it understand about ‘click’ ?)

No, here are not the stars.  The computer won’t upload them.  At least it says it has but then it stops in the middle of ‘crunching’.  For a long time.  Then it says error number 10 in red.  All very clear and incomprehensible.

Well and I’ve bought us two hot water bottles.  I discovered a while ago that an HWB placed against the large of my back (ie, my backside) actually keeps me warm.  I’ve never understood why the large of my back should suffer so much from the cold at night but it does and no amount of tucking in will keep it warm.  Can I have poor circulation to my backside?  It’s quite large but surely not so enormous that the blood supply can’t reach it.  (And no, I haven’t googled bad circulation and big  bums.  I don’t want to know).

So we both get into a bed with a nice little warm spot and then Barney throws his out, I replenish mine and snatch his to use the last of its heat for my feet and lean the refilled one against said largeness.  Works a treat 🙂

I shall try stars one more time and then I shall go and do many useful and important things.

stars - oak tree

Not the same photo.  A smaller file.  I suppose if I’d waited for ever and a day the machine would eventually have succeeded in crunching but I’m not known for my patience.  Also, youngest wants me to collect the dishwasher earlier as her big strong assistance is leaving early.

Oops!  I’d better get a move on!

Bye 🙂

Update – now I’ve re-uploaded the pictures you can actually see the sparkles in the corkscrew hazel.  At least six 🙂  I am a happy bunny.