A pond of one's own

It's been a quiet few days here.  Friday evening was the school fete, complete with a falconry display which was wonderful, and which the oldest boy, an avid birder, adored.  This magnificent eagle owl was the star of the show, and the oldest boy was lucky enough to have him flown to his arm.  He was absolutely thrilled.

A little birthday celebrating took place on Saturday afternoon with the littlest boy and some little chums.  But then on Saturday night the middle boy came down with a tummy bug, so we've been quietly at home ever since.  It's been lovely not to be rushing around everywhere, except for the school run for the others.  There's been loads of reading and Lego-ing and this afternoon the two of us spent some time working out how to play a particularly complex board game that we've had for a while.  I do love having him at home with me.  I wonder how long I can keep him...

Today I had a leisurely wander round the garden.  Everything is really growing fast now.  There are pears this year (last year there were none), and different types of strawberries at different stages - Honeoye have green fruit while Cambridge Favourite have flowers.  The tayberry is looking good and there are bees all over both that and the raspberries.  Broad beans are appearing and the peas are taking off.  I put strings up for them at the weekend, and I find it magical that the next time I looked their little tendrils had found the strings and were clinging on.  Amazing.  I am panicking a bit that I haven't planted much at the allotment yet, and it is already mid-June.  But that will all have to wait until another day.  Right now I am tired (there was a severe lack of sleep on Saturday night and I haven't caught up yet) and I need to sit and sew for a while.  It's my form of meditation I think.  I'll share a picture or two of that soon.  Meanwhile I shall leave you with a another frog. 

They are quite shy little things, but I swear this one was sunbathing at the edge of the pond.  As you can see, it is not the most attractive pond in the world, but the froggies don't seem to mind - it does the job.  There are far fewer ponds around than there used to be, I guess they are just happy to have found one of their very own.