Birds, hunky firemen and song

Lord H and I have spent the day wandering around Hampton Court Park and Bushy Park. And what wonderful sections of parkland they are. We managed to see the grey phalarope that we went in search of very easily indeed, hurrah! And what a pretty and surprisingly small wader it is. Astonishingly tame too, but that appears to be the nature of phalaropes. They are the robins of the water world. So another tick for our new bird list, Other new birds and therefore new ticks to the list (gosh indeed!) included several red-crested pochards, and a veritable plethora of goldcrests. Which are delightfully small and a total pleasure to spot. We also caught sight of the usual suspects, including Egyptian geese, long-tailed tits, huge numbers of ring-necked parakeets (that now-typical south London bird) and a higher than usual amount of jays. Ooh, and plus a stonechat or two as well - which gave us great excitement when we thought it might actually be a whinchat, but 'twas not to be, alas. So nearly another new bird, but not quite.

The tiny takeaway cafe we found also does shit-hot cappucinos and freshly-grilled bacon rolls - both much needed by the time we got to them. Oh and we also enjoyed sighting the fallow deer and red deer, although we did at the end get rather too close to a rutting red deer for comfort. Of any variety. It wasn't too happy, I can tell you. But we managed to get away unscathed. Phew. Deer: lovely animals but this is so definitely not the season to stumble over one ...

On the way back, we nipped into Waitrose in Godalming for our usual Chinese, and passed the Godalming firestation which was having a car-wash extravaganza for Children in Need. As you know, I'm not a huge fan of the child, but I am a huge fan of hunky, wet firemen so I made Lord H get his car cleaned. Mmm ... Then I went home and took my car for a wash too. Ah, the soap suds, the big hoses and the straining muscles. Bliss ... Really, what more could a woman want?

Tonight we're eating early as we're out to support Robin, Gavin & Liz at the Guildford Choral Society concert. Not my favourite selection of pieces, I must admit, but it will be a pleasant end to a rather good day. I'll be sorry to miss Strictly Come Dancing, however, plus the return of the wonderful Outnumbered (good even in spite of the plethora of children in it - possibly because they're not played as icky or cute, thank the Lord) - but I've set the video so I'll just have to wait till tomorrow.

Today's nice things:

1. Birds
2. Randy deer
3. Bacon butties
4. Hunky firemen
5. Song.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website - squeaky clean, almost ...