Hello Sunshine, So Glad to See You

I got my blanket dry! Today was a beautiful crisp sunny morning. C was going out for a bike ride (I didn't realise there were going to be owls!!) and was up early, so I got up around the same time and headed out to the Botanic Gardens for my first visit of the year. It was still pretty cold when I got there just after nine, but I had a lovely time watching the squirrels, ducks, moorhens and other birds. And enjoying the flowers, of course. Something else I discovered was that without C I used the tripod a lot more, because I didn't feel I had to rush to take a picture quickly and move on. I know he's pretty patient, but I don't like to spend forever if I think he's waiting.

The Alpine House, and a miniature cherry or prunus of some sort that was in it. I should have looked at the tag in the pot - it was only about two and a half foot tall at the most.

These three are all down near the ponds. The sun was streaming through the trees and the dew on the bushes was evaporating in the heat - there were certainly some marvellous lighting effects this morning.

More to follow later on...
I went from there to the library and to pick up a few bits and pieces in Marks & Spencers, and by the time I got back here it was getting cloudier, so I was glad to have benefitted from the best of the day.

Before I left here in the morning, I saw not one nor even two ( I was fairly sure we have a pair of robins again, I've seen two a couple of times) but three robins out in the back. One of them saw the third one off pretty sharpish, so he obviously feels this is his territory. He was displaying, with his chest all puffed out like  in this photo from last year. I don't know whether it's entirely aggression towards the intruder, or partially to impress his mate. When I saw the two, I was hoping to see them feeding each other - maybe that will happen soon. I loved watching that last year!

I spent some profitable time in the afternoon cleaning my old 201K Singer sewing machine, after finding a manual online which showed how to remove the shuttle race. I'd been appalled to discover I couldn't get it working last week when I was trying to sew some badges onto C's leather jacket. In the end it turned out to be as basic as the fact I had the needle rotated through 90 degrees, but while I was re-educating myself I thought it was time it had a bit of a clean and oil too.