DAWN UNTIL DUSK

DAWN TO DARK
I fell asleep at once last night, slept well and was awake in time to keep my appointment with the rising sun. The early morning is a special time for me, I love the quietness, no cars, no people and few planes,it is easy to imagine that I am back in the real countryside where I grew up.

Even as a child I always woke early in the summer time. In farming communities almost everyone rises early but small children are not expected to climb down drainpipes at three thirty as I was wont to do. In the winter months I can happily sleep until daylight if allowed but in high summer I seem to catch the restlessness and the bustle of nature so that I can not resist joining in the fun.

There is a down side to this as I do get very tired in the early evening now that I am older and yet I still wake early and if the morning is fine my day begins with the birds. I was rewarded this morning by the appearance of a pair of Greater Spotted Woodpeckers at the feeders, They were most interested in the suet pellets which leads me to suppose that they have a nest of young almost ready to fledge. It has, for a number of years been the practice of these lovely birds to begin feeding their young on suet about a week before they fledge. Once the young birds leave the nest they are brought to the bird table by their parents and are usually self sufficient within a day or two. We then have the pleasure of watching these youngsters all through the summer.

In order to ensure a steady supply for the woodpeckers I went out before breakfast to buy some of their favourite fat blocks, the ones which contain insects and meal worms are in favoured use at the moment. On my return I made Pa and I a breakfast of poached eggs on toast and in preparing this meal we were lucky enough to have two double yoked eggs, quite a rare occurrence in these times. Once the clearing up was completed I hastened to the vegetable garden for an afternoon in the sunshine.

The strawberry plants are covered with flowers which tells me that it is time to begin the pestiferous business of putting on the nets. This will prevent the birds from taking the strawberries but as last year mice were main the problem I intend to scatter garlic about which mice dislike, if that fails I shall have to resort to a couple of mouse traps baited with chocolate. It will have to be something special to compete with the flavour of strawberries, I shall then take the captive mice to for a buggy ride and let them go as far away from my strawberries as possible. Poor little Twiggy finds herself overwhelmed by the number of well stuffed mice and gets annoyed when she cannot get inside the nets to catch them so I shall have to assist this year.

I spent a part of the afternoon preparing the leek bed and moving a few small plants in pots to their new location. Out neighbours garden needed watering and our vegetable plot too was rather dry. By the time all this was done it was time to prepare our evening meal of crab and prawn fettuccine with parsley ,chives and dried mushrooms in a crème fraiche sauce. This was followed by some chilled rhubarb with vanilla iced cream. It was a lovely meal and all the better for having taken less than half an hour to prepare.

My son is enjoying his stay in Portsmouth, however he tells me that he will be buying a pillow today as the one in his guest room feels as if it is full of builders rubble. He is better of than a friend in another room who is off to buy a mattress topper as the one on his bed is diabolically hard.
Yesterday they clubbed together and bought a toaster, a blender and some pots and pans as the chap they are staying with, having just moved in has just a single sauce pan and a kettle, he tends to eat out a lot it seems. My son is in charge of the cooking and has amazed his friends with his wide knowledge of culinary matters, I too am a little startled to hear off these hitherto well hidden abilities.....hum!

Once again I find myself very tired this evening and shall soon be off to bed, it is the tax I pay for rising so early but I do not mind at all. If I sleep as well as I did last night I shall not complain. Tomorrow morning will, I hope see me at my post in the window with an early cup of coffee and with my little cat beside me, life is sweet.