spring and summer

Jesus, what a beautiful day! (I picked a good one to take off.)

The sun has been out all day, the sky has been blue, there's blossom and new growth everywhere, and the birds are still singing and fledging.

Just now, I had to turn off my music and listen, through the open skylight, to the sound of the first swifts of the year: they're circling and swooping in the cooling evening air, making their exhilarating tsweee tsweee calls as they hoover insects up out of the air. Swifts are wonderful birds: wings like a curved black knife blade, fantastic agility in the air...and they sleep on the wing, only ever landing to brood their eggs.

I did some gardening earlier, and was joined by a cat...



...which mostly ignored me:



Later, I walked to the shops, and came back through the churchyard at the back of the church...



...and took my inevitable 'blossom' picture:



A lovely day for me.