Sunny.

Lots of sun and blue skies today with almost no wind.

I looked through the window and thought that the bird walking around on the rocks was the heron that I see once in a while. Then I realised that it was a snowy egret. By the time I picked up the camera and went outside it was off but I quite like the photo I ended up with. I've seen snowy egrets on the bog and the wetlands next to the estuary but this is the first time I've seen one right here.

 

It was very cold when the builders first arrived but it warmed up later on. And the front of the house is done. I think they have a bit more to do on the back after which it's just the tidying up and putting things back. Once that's done it will be another job ticked off the building works list.

However I had to have a word, hopefully a tactful one, about what they have done to the hedge. Yes it was right up to the wall but instead of chopping bits off they could have used the board that is right under the hedge, to hold back the offending branches. Instead we have now got a big gap where everyone walking along the street, there's no pavement on the other side, can see through to the terrace where I like to sit quietly. I'm going to have to prop the board up on the other side to maintain my privacy until the branches grow back.

In the morning Peter went out a cox for a row while I went down to the zoo and spent four hours weeding. I'm struggling to weed out all the grass growing in the large play area. A result of me focussing on other parts of the zoo in the summer and missing quite a few weeks either due to the weather or being busy/unfit. Also it needed to have more woodchip put on it this year. It's almost at the point of being too grassy to rescue but two more sessions should clear the worst of it and then another couple of sessions to go back and pull up the new weeds. It's a case of the gardener's equivalent of 'A stitch in time .......  '.