Amazed...

…at how clever guinea pigs are! I know Oodles, my male guinea pig is clever, because he dunks his food in water, waits a while for it to soften, and then fishes it out and eats it. He’s been doing since he was old enough to eat the guinea pig food, and I assumed he learnt that trick from his mum, Smitty – as I saw her do that at Christmas when the dining room was a guinea pig nursery. (I thought they would be a great double act for “dunkers corner” in the staff room!!)

Tonight I’ve seen Noodles and Peanut – the girlies – working together! Each night I always put them some hay on top of their 'igloo' – and each morning it has all gone, and I assumed they just climbed up to get the hay! How wrong I was! One piggy goes inside, holds up their head and stands tall, lifting the front of the igloo up so that the hay slides off and the other waits at the bottom to grab a bit. The first time I saw this happen I just thought it was accidental lifting, from rearranging the igloo to their preferred position. But then they swapped and Peanut went in the igloo opening and stood up tall, again some hay slipped off – and Noodles retrieved it. OK – maybe this was a fluke – but I will be watching again tomorrow night to see if they do it again!

There were seagulls in Perton today. Not the usual bog-standard black-headed gulls – your actual SEA gulls – making authentic seaside noises! That’s not a good sign is it? We are quite a long way from the sea – does this mean that storms are likely – or are they just on their holidays? Whatever the reason – they are bloody big birds!

Still on a bird theme – this morning I saw what I think was a juvenile robin. It had the right sort of legs for a robin, it was really cute and quite bold as I got quite close to it.

And, birds again I’m afraid (this blog is very Alfred Hitchcock isn’t it?), what is it with pigeons at the moment? Are they always frisky at this time of year, or are they thinking it’s another spring? I’ve got pigeons in the garden building a nest – maybe they always nest in July – I’ve just never noticed before. And when I was out at the weekend scouring the lanes for dandelion leaves, if I’d picked up all the pigeon feathers I saw I could have come home and knitted a new one!

Last night I stayed up to watch the shooting stars – I sat in the garden wrapped in a blanket, till about 1.30 am and I saw loads – mainly single ones, but at least one a minute – sometimes more – I saw three which came in quick succession and then 2 more quite big ones. Best display of shooting stars I’ve seen in a long time.

Other exciting news – the new fence has started to appear at school, so I took a photo of it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet!

PS -Today's font colour matches my hair.

(Photo was taken with my phone)