Such stupidity

Of all the stupid things. My silence has once more been caused by problems with our internet connection.

This is the week of transfer to the new ISP. According to the schedule they sent, telephone services would transfer on Monday, internet on Tuesday. The new had router arrived earlier. It said the router was not to be installed & activated until we heard from the ISP that the transfer had happened.

We lost internet services on Monday. We put it down to the transfer. On Tuesday no word from them. We kept our mobile phone switched on & our landline was working fine. Well, they did say it could be any time before midnight, we told ourselves. Wednesday we waited. No word.

Finally, yesterday, we went into the library to use their internet services. First we looked at our emails. There we found a message from the new ISP to tell us to install the router. The e-mail had been sent on Tuesday as scheduled. How on earth were we supposed to read the e-mail without working internet services at home? You would have thought they would have rung or texted us. We hastily came home & set up the new system.

The other act of stupidity occurred on Wednesday. Our gardener was here. She was just about finished when her mobile phone rang - her son to tell her he was going to collect her rather than her husband but he needed to know where she was. Why wasn't her husband coming as planned? The next thing she burst into tears. Her husband had been chopping up wood & had managed to chop off his thumb. He had been rushed off to A&E. I would have thought one of the first lessons you learnt if you are using an axe or saw is to keep your fingers & thumbs out of the way. Needless to say my gardener rushed off to be whisked off to the hospital & her husband’s bedside.

A rather sad accident happened yesterday. I went out to find the body of one of our juvenile blackbirds lying on the ground. I gently picked it up. It was still warm. From the way its neck dangled it was clearly broken. There was no sign of a heartbeat. I lovingly put her in a bag, said my goodbyes before consigning her to the bin. I suspect she must have flown into the door window, thinking she either saw another bird reflected in the glass, or saw the window on the other side of the room & thought there was a way straight through, never even seeing the glass until she hit it flying at full speed. Either way there was nothing I could do but mourn her.

Everywhere

The garden is full of wildlife at the moment. This morning there must be at least half a dozen female blackbirds & the odd male. Some look like they’re juveniles but nonetheless I don’t think I’ve seen so many scurrying across the lawns at one time. They stop from time to dig out the odd worm or other insect. Occasionally they’ve flown over to the bird feeder to get a bit of pork fat I’ve cut off today’s joint.

Yesterday I was talking to our gardener’s husband – he’d come to collect her & take her home. He loves wildlife so I was telling him about the frogs. I pointed at the thyme & out popped a frog, straight off to the phlox. Carol, our gardener, commented she had been startled further up the garden when a frog had jumped out of the hostas onto her.

In the evening, after the Fox had mowed the lawns & before dinner, the Fox & I had a bit of a stroll in the garden. We were bombarded by butterflies. They seemed to be everywhere. All sorts – some large, like the whites, some small like brown heaths. The lavender was abuzz with the white hairy bottoms of bumble bees sticking out.

As for Thursday, when I returned to the house having taken out the peelings to the compost heap, I almost walked into the most beautiful peacock butterfly with its enormous white circled blue eyes. Unmistakeable. Magnificent.

Thyme to phlox

There’s something rustling in the thyme. Out pops a tiny frog about the size of my thumbnail. He quickly hops into the phlox, disappearing once more into the undergrowth. Only last week I saw a full size frog do the same in the same spot, from thyme to phlox. It’s clearly a favoured spot with plenty of cover & presumably enough darkness to maintain some dampness & welcome coolness.

The regular rain we’ve had this week has saved us watering the pots as well has causing the lawns to visibly grow before our eyes whilst being too wet to mow. The flowers & wildlife all seem to be enjoying it after the very hot few days we had only a week or so ago.