Blackbird

I've got a broken window in the potting shed in the garden and we've noticed a pair of blackbirds flying in and out of it. Today the wind's dropped and it's stopped raining, so I went into the shed to get the lawn mower out and found the most beautiful nest built on top of my FIL's old oak lectern - he was a church Minister. It some how seems appropriate that the bird with the most beautiful voice in the dawn chorus should nest on top of a lectern! I'd take a picture, but I don't want to frighten them away. The nest is lovely, they've woven in pieces of green arabis foliage into the sticks, and there's lots of moss in there too. It contains three sky blue eggs about the size of sugared almonds.

I'm sorting out some pix to submit to a guy. A friend from my old place of work is running in a marathon team to raise money for a cancer charity, and she asked me to donate a photographic package, a portrait/baby shots type of thing for a pre-race auction she was organising. I was nervous about doing it, but I put together a grid showing examples of things I've done and she put it into the auction brochure. Well my package turned out to be one of the most hotly contested things of the night, and the guy who won it thinks I'll be taking pix of his FIL's 70th bithday. But he also asked me to send him some urban shots, as he manages a town centre events programme and may be able to put some work my way. So I'm looking at shots to make up a slideshow to e-mail to him.

I need to be careful as sometimes my enthusiasm runs at a higher level than my energy, but I like trying new things and having new goals to aim for.

I took this wave picture last weekend, the village harbour is right out on the North Sea and this was a breaker at the harbour entrance. Imagine trying to get a small wooden fishing boat round this??!