Birds.

The weather has been variable today. Sometimes hot and sunny and at other times very windy with grey clouds in the sky. Peter went rowing at 8.00 this morning and unluckily for them a squall blew up as soon as they got out to sea and dropped when they returned after a hard row. Peter didn't have it so bad as he was coxing.

Sitting outside this morning my attention was caught by an unfamiliar bird call. I can't call it a song as it was more of a raspy grating noise. With the sound bouncing off the house walls on either side it took me a while to spot 3 or 4 black headed gulls far out to sea.

This goldfinch observed the garden for a while from atop the street light before heading off to another garden that provided more suitable fare than the handful of seeds I scatter on the paving. Another passing sighting was of house martins swooping over the cliff as they chased small flying insects.

I think the oystercatchers are nesting out of sight below the cliffs but I certainly heard them this morning. They were making lots of noise, probably alarm calls when bigger birds were too close.

My regular garden visitors, Mr Sparrow and his two fledglings.

The woodpigeon turned up of course and hoovered up all the seeds as usual and this morning he was accompanied by a rather nervous blackbird.

At the stables there were only four of us in the lesson. I had Betsi again which was fine. There were some rather soggy patches in the indoor school as they have been turning the sprinklers on during the hot weather to cool down the horses. But Betsi would rather not go through the soggy bits. Nothing dramatic but when we were supposed to be doing shallow curves off the long side and back again instead of going through a wet area and maintaining a nice curve she simply did a half-pass back to the track thus avoiding getting her feet wet.

Swallows nest in the rafters of the indoor school and towards the end of the lesson one family of fledglings were practising their flying going from the side walls down to the ground and back up again through the horses. Luckily the horses are well used to the small birds fluttering around and take no notice of them at all.

Pacman, whom I sometimes ride, went to the Royal Welsh Show again this week and achieved Champion of the trekking class.

After riding I dropped some stuff off at the dump and did the usual shopping. In one charity shop I found another exercise top (I'm just taking it in at the armholes as it's a bit big) and this little geode in Craft. I did wonder about the green colour and thought maybe somebody had tried to dye the stone but my researches tell me it's a fluorite or fluorite and amethyst geode. Some of the crystals inside do shine green when I shine a UV torch on them. I like pretty sparkly stones.

I kept my eyes open for the missing hub cap but it was nowhere to be seen. I asked at the dump and a couple of the charity shops that do that sort of thing but no one had any hub caps. You have to buy a full set and prices range from £25 -£70.