We had some bad news today. We noticed that Hopalong's family weren't there to screech at us this morning, and we hadn't seen him either. I went down to the bottom of the garden and there he was, lying dead at the bottom on the sycamore tree.
We had a good look at him as we don't think he was attacked as there was no trauma like that. His tail feathers were barely out, and one of his wings looked different from the other one. Either he fell out of the tree and hit it on the way down, or maybe he broke it when he fledged from the nest. The Jackdaws always nest in the old owl holes at the top of the barn, so it would have been a long way down if he wasn't ready to fly.
The good thing is that at least we know what happened to him. So often wildlife comes and goes and you have no idea why. We put the body into the nettle patch at the bottom of the garden, where we put the thrush which killed itself by flying into one of the windows. There are just a few feathers left there from the thrush, so a fox has probably taken it, and hopefully someone will take Hopalong too, so that the cycle of life can carry on.
On a happier note, we had a love swim today. Two in fact! All morning Ram was itching to get into the pool. We read a lot of the Dr Who book we are reading, but finally at 12 I said that we could swim after lunch. So straight away he said he was hungry!
We have a solar cover for the pool and it is surprisingly good. The top four inches get really warm with it on. As you dip your leg in, you think the water is really warm, then your foot hits the cold water at the bottom and it is a bit of a shock!
Our usual technique is to walk around the outside edge of the pool to mix up all the water, then when the water is rushing around really fast, we count to three and drop down into the pool and let the current of the water take us around.
It is always a bit of a shock at first, but we soon get used to it. We spent half an hour in the pool, then I had my nap. Oh, for those of you that are new to the blog, I have a power nap every afternoon if I can. It has helped combat the exhaustion hugely.
Anyway, we spent the afternoon in the sun and shade, on the garden chairs and in the hammock, reading Dr Who. Then before supper we decided to swim again. The water was even warmer so it felt really lovely, but the air was starting to get cooler, so we didn't stay in as long.
We got to watch Saturday's Dr Who episode again so that we could record it. I actually think it was scarier the second time round. Now I have to go and lock up outside again. Half of me doesn't want to go out in case the stone statue of Arrow has moved. And the other half of me wants to go out and move it to scare Ram!
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