early birthday ...

Pato surprised me yesterday, she spent all afternoon on the ramp to the call ducks' hut, where I also put down the afternoon grains for her, and at bedtime she went into that hut before the minis came off the pond, so her little hutch stayed empty last night.  Maybe she doesn't like to be on her own overnight after all.

I still have not managed to get a photo of the little ones swimming in the baby pond, only these two of them resting after a swim:



My darling brother cannot rest until he's made sure I get some "early birthday presents", he and Maria have made it a tradition in the family.  So look what arrived a couple of days ago,5 whole litres!!  It'll be just brilliant to have cider on tap!

Two weeks ago today arrived a beautiful bunch of flowers from Annie.  No, not an 'early birthday' gift, but her note said that "everyone should have some unexpected flowers" now and again. After a few days I split the flowers into three vases, and the photos I took this morning show how good they still look.

I've had some more non-birthday flowers from friends Pat and Graham on Tuesday when they came to have a shower - they are busy putting in a new bathroom.  So now I have a front room full of flowers:

The Gerbera bottom left and the white roses in the photo below are from Annie's bunch, still looking great. Of Pat and Grahams wonderful selection of chrysanthemums and dahlias the cactus dahlias top right are my favourites!