Rare Bird Alert News
Curlew Sandpiper at south end of Loch of Spiggie.
Sunny for most of the day with very strong, fresh south easterly winds and 13 degrees. Meanwhile my sisters are sweltering down south in the heatwave! I had the biggest House Sparrow count ever in my garden today! I counted at least 83, some feeding at the feeders, on the ground, drinking from the bird baths and some perched up in my big fuchsia bush trying to shelter from the wind – probably at least half of them were juveniles. Also the usual Starlings, a couple of Collared Doves and two Blackbirds.
Taken through failed double glazing, so fuzzy!
Went into Lerwick to buy two more lots of wood filler and some "Aluminium Tape" for joining the back of the bookcases. Went to "A One Flooring" and organised my carpet purchase and date for fitting – slightly worrying as Adam could not find the "Sea Grass" wool carpet on the Millennium Weavers Ltd website, I hope its not been discontinued as I spent ages choosing this, fingers crossed. Arrived back home just in time for Alex, my builder who arrived to put my bookcases together.
It took longer than we thought to put these together and the trickiest bit was cutting out a hole in the back of the right hand bookcase for a double socket. Because the bookcases do not fit flush to the wall, the wiring for the sockets does not now reach and presumably it will be the same on the other side of the wall for the dining room bookcases. Alex suggested I ring Lewis my electrician and on loud speaker they both discussed what needs doing. Next week at some point, Lewis will come back again to sort out the wiring for both these double sockets. Alex left around 1.30pm. I sat for a while, phoned Lucy and Vivien for a catch up and then started to hoover and clear up all the mess.
Hung washing out and then spent over two hours in the garden, hand mowing the driveway grass and then used my new strimmer (with safety googles on) on the grass in the front garden. Did some weeding, sweeping, mended the latch on the gate, got the washing in and then made egg fried rice for my evening meal.
I'm having such a fabulous time unpacking books! Quite a lot are my parent's books and there are many sort after rare bird books, general natural history and all kinds of odd books of my mother's including poetry and classic novels such as a leather bound version of "Mill On The Floss" (given to me as a birthday present). My parent's books have been packed up since we sold the house in 2019, the majority of my books have boxed up since before I moved to King's Lynn in 2001!!! It's so exciting getting them all out of the boxes! A book which was my father's called "Brazilian Adventure By Peter Fleming" was found on the beach at Bacton – the front cover has been made by my father to protect the inner pages and on the inside of the front is a label that my father typed up:
Its raining tomorrow, so this will give me the chance to unpack every book I have! Can't wait. Then I need to finish filling all the gaps in the skirting board in the living room. I really need to crack on and start the other four bookcases for the dining room, but not doing this tomorrow, need a break from flat-packing!

Penny, did you know Peter Fleming, Ian Fleming's brother, was in charge of a large part of the British Resistance movement, preparing for a potential German invasion in 1940 and 42?
ReplyDeleteHi Ed, no I don't know Peter Fleming, sorry!
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