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Friday February 10, 2006

You really do get used to it

Another one of those lovely, softly sunny days that come along now and again to cheer February a little. We've been blessed with several of them in a run, dismissing thoughts that it might all turn pear shaped and develop into something very nasty any day soon.

Dolly the Mega-cat and I decided it was a day to stay home, put our feet up—yes, Dolly does enjoy sleeping on her back with her legs firmly in the air—and get over the doldrums that came with the disposal of the last wad of paper. I did rouse myself now and again to run a duster over the surfaces, to turn a load of laundry round, and to empty the dishwasher but, truth to tell, it wasn't a day for much in the way of activity.

Towards the end of the morning I heard Dolly chitter-chattering at the study window so I poked my head round the door to see what was annoying her. To my considerable delight, there was one of those pheasants that come a'visiting when you least expect them, a cock pheasant this time, searching back and forth along the fence, seeking tasty morsels. I grabbed my camera, praying that the battery hadn't run down, and did the click-click-click thing at maximum zoom through the window pane. One of them worked.

I can't count the number of times since I wrote the pheasant story last summer that I've tried and failed to get a photograph of these busy birds and I'm delighted to get a picture as an aide mémoire for the future.

My conscience was of course pricked mightily by this event. Somewhere near the bottom of my work-in-progress box is a half-finished manuscript of the 'visitors to my garden' stories waiting to be polished, illustrated and made up into an MS Word document ready to be turned into a book for on-demand publication at www.lulu.com.

"No hope of getting down to this before we move, Dolly," I said. She tore herself away from the now pheasantless window and yawned her way through to the kitchen where she sat down while making the weighty choice between a second breakfast and a drink of water.

"Yeah. I know, Dolly. Just about everything is on hold now until we move."

You get used to it.

After lunch we settled down for another extended afternoon nap.

You really do get used to it.

A cock pheasant, visiting my garden