Glasses Retrieved.

Did 2 things of note today.

First I went to school to retrieve my glasses and did a couple of hours of work for next year's class. I actually love being in school when it's so quiet. I can just focus on the task in hand and I didn't even mind when I was caught in heavy rain going to and from the staffroom. It's been very warm today so getting wet didn't really matter.

The other thing was to go on a lovely walk down at Braunton Marshes. Now that it is the holiday season there are lots more cars as well as the cyclists and runners. The only thing I didn't like was that the road verges have been mown so many of the flowers have gone and I didn't hear any crickets though that could have been the overcast weather. Also cutting back the plants reveals the litter. There is not a lot but it spoils the feel of the place.

The sky was looking good this evening over the marshes. I only caught a glimpse of the mother swan and her cygnet at the end of my walk but I did come across some of the other waterfowl.

I finally found my friends the 2 greedy swans. They were at a point where the road is on a hump-backed bridge so I was able to get more overhead views.

Then on my way back I spotted the duck who still has her 5 ducklings.

As I walked back to the car I noticed a moorhen on the water. I stopped to throw her some bread and realised I could hear a chick cheeping. When I looked closely I saw the chick in a nest on the other side of the waterway. It was quite ugly and might only have been a few days old.

The mother moorhen collected the bread I threw her and took it back to the nest to feed the chick. I was lucky enough to have a clear view of the nest so I stayed and watched for a while.

It's going to be a lot of rushing around for the next few days. When I got back from school Romas had just found out that (Lithuanian) Scout Camp is from this weekend not next. To be fair it was Vytas who had told him the dates as they had been planning how to get from camp to a Sealed Knot muster on the 8/9th August. The route to camp is along the A303, a major holiday route down to the south-west. Originally I said I would drive Romas down on the Thursday to avoid the holiday traffic but he needs to organise his stuff and pack so instead we'll be leaving by 5.00 on Friday morning. It's nearly 4 hrs drive but hopefully even with a short break at Sodyba I'll be on the return journey before the bulk of holiday traffic clogs up the road. This does mean that I'll have to pick him up at the end of camp and then there'll be a separate trip up to Weston for the muster.

Only 3 days till my eyes get done !!!