Strange Birds.

The weather today has changed to grey and chilly so we decided to make a couple of trips to the dump to get rid of the bags of broken up shed roofing that were lurking about in the yard. As we drove up to the crossroads by the On-a Hill Garage we glanced over to a field which houses a motley collection of birds and goats. There to our amazement we saw these 2 large, very large, white birds. It was only a passing glimpse and having decided that they probably weren't genetically modified turkeys we decided to stop on the next trip and have a closer look.

And this is what we found ....... white emus, not albino but white with dark eyes, very unusual.






There were some other birds around the place including this Australian black swan.

It started to rain just as we were unloading stuff at the dump and has continued to rain gently all day so the rest of the day has been spent writing up the children's reading records from my notes and collating information. I also rang the Dental hospital in Bristol because at last, 7 months after my first appointment there, I got an appointment card asking me to come for an appointment in May. The only thing was that the card said it was for a student appointment whereas I'd been told that I would be treated by a consultant. I rang to query this and was told, 'Oh, but you have an appointment with the consultant on the 24th of April.' That was the first I'd heard of it so if I hadn't rung them I'd have been marked as a Did not attend, and lost my treatment. It's been a year since my dentist first told me I needed a root canal filling though if either I'd been willing to pay £800 or I'd been registered with one of the few NHS dentists that are willing to do those fillings, it would all have been done in a few weeks. Aaaargh ! Oh well, I've already told my headteacher and if I do a bit more research I might enjoy my trip to Bristol. Last time I so hated the city so much that I took an earlier train home after trudging round the same but scruffier shops that are here in Barnstaple.

I took these pictures in yesterday's sunshine.

I don't actually remember planting these daffodils in the bank on the other side of the stream. Behind can be seen our 'ski slope', it's hard to picture it now.


On our way home we stopped at a vantage point at the head of our valley. You can't drive down to our place from here but you can see our neighbours' house and some of their barns and our house is tucked down in the trees.

WARNING - turn the sound off or right down when watching the video. The wind as usual was blowing quite strongly and is making the most awful racket and drowning out my commentary.