Swift Half update -19th March 2011

• As described below, Anna and I spent the morning viewing houses that we are considering purchasing as we rent "Swift Half" presently - and though we love living in this wonderful house with the newts, bees, foxes and of course, swifts - we really would like to own our house.
• The day was a stunner - and all the critters came out and enjoyed it - a day of numbers it became, with number four being the order of the day...

• Four jays in Mr.T's silver birch tree
• Four red kites over the garden.
• Four buzzards ditto (never seen four over the garden before).
• Four magpies shouting at a fox in the neighbours' garden.
• Three (omnipresent) woodpeckers.
• Two zebra spiders on the wall (the first I've seen without really trying, all year).
• Loads of feather-footed flower bees which the spostles love to pounce on.
• Talking of bees and cats - Yala has done a "Malu" this spring. Last year Malu in his efforts to jump on all the bees in the garden, got a front paw stung - which blew up like a tennis ball (but got better within a day or three). This spring Yala has done the same thing - and now has a big "hot" front paw. Our spostles don't seem to learn....!

• Click a photo twice to enlarge - the top photo is of Yala in mid air, with a feather-footed flower bee in the shot. The photo above this text is of Malu, enjoying a ssttttrettttch in the spring sunshine.