A Damp Day

The day started grey, with a stiff southeaster and a miserable forecast. By ten, these lumpy clouds were heaving up over the Sound and the rain had started, no more than spit in the wind at first, then increasingly heavy. We've had a damp May, which is usually one of our finest months, and there's no sign of much improvement, according to XCWeather, until the start of June.

Everyone is out-of-sorts, including this pine marten who came foraging around our front yard shortly after 2pm. We don't normally see them during the day, the most common time for them being early evening.

To add to our misery, the power went off again at midday, the worst sort of break for electrical equipment as it flicked on and off a couple of times before finally dying. It was restored before five, so well done again to our overworked Hydro Electric engineers.

Here's a harassed man. Mr Blackbird, introduced in this post on 4th May, when he was obviously feeding young in the nest, came round to show off the two adolescents he is now coping with. Those of us who have children of a similar age know how demanding they can be, and these two simply wouldn't leave the poor chap alone for a moment. They couldn't be bothered to feed directly off the seed that was laid out on top of the wall, insisting that Dad picked it up and popped it in their mouths.

Children, who'd have children?