Wandering Chicks.

Bright and sunny today. Perfect for getting the sheets on the line.

We were woken at 6.30 this morning by a phone call from the delivery men bringing the new freezer who said they would be with us in 35 minutes. We'd had a text yesterday saying delivery would be between 7.00 and 11.00 but we weren't expecting it to be that early. It was a bit of a shock to the system. It's one thing waking early and deciding to get up at 5.00 or 6.00 but having to leap out of bed is quite another. I was just taking out the few bits of food left in the fridge section when the men turned up. I'd moved the car so that they could easily come in through the back gate into the utility room which is where the freezer would be going. They had no problem taking out the old fridge freezer but the new freezer wouldn't fit through the door which is about an inch narrower than standard. The poor men had to carry the freezer along the pavement, in through the front door and all the way back down the hall to the utility room. We haven't switched it on yet as we need to change the door so that it opens from the other side. There just hasn't been time today.

After breakfast and all the usual stuff which seems to take up a lot of time I cycled down to the zoo. There I spent four hours removing all the weeds from two gravel patches. As I got on with my weeding amongst all the happy chatter of the visitors I heard a family speaking Lithuanian. Although I don't speak the language myself, hearing the familiar cadence and recognising some words took me back to my younger days. Many, many days of being surrounded by the language when we visited friends or went to social occasions mean that the language is part of me even if I don't understand most of what is being said. A shame that Duo Lingo dropped Lithuanian. Peter speaks Lithuanian though apparently in a very formal manner which is how his father's family would have spoken.

In between getting home and going out again to choir I baked a Bara Brith and did the ironing. At choir we had a little celebration of all Susie's hard work, wine/ non alcoholic drinks, cakes and nibbles. By the time I'd given a friend a lift home (I had brought her the astilbes which were getting burnt by the salty winds in our front garden) it was almost 10.00 when I got home. 

 The story of the wandering chicks.

This (above) was the scene yesterday. The seagull chicks have been walking around the sloping roof above their nest that was tucked into a corner of the flat roof. One chick must have taken the wrong route home and ended up on a different flat roof. I watched it repeatedly jumping up onto the next sloping roof, walking up to the top and back then returning to the flat area. It kept looking up towards the sloping roof on the left where the other two chicks were waiting but the jump was too high. 

This morning all three chicks were on the 'wrong' roof. The adult bird came and fed them and then retreated for a bit of peace and quiet back to the nest area. By this afternoon only one chick remained in this spot. There was no sign of the other two but I'm sure I heard them calling maybe from the garden that is to the left of the 'wrong' sloping roof. I'm sure their parents will protect them against any cats and it won't be long before they fledge and can fly down to the sea.