Yesterday, we went to the Bedhampton Show at Bidbury Mead. Chucking it down, but still, "show spirit", it was on. I was looking for a nice bowl to use as a suspended bird-bath for the garden. I managed to find a nice flan-dish, just the right depth (so the birdies won't drown), and just the right diameter (so more than one bird can bathe/drink at the same time). I also got a lazy Susan-type partitioned dish (which we call the "Nibble dish" ) to use as a bird-feeding unit. I got an ornament of a Spotted Fly-Catcher for my collection, which I am very happy about. Oh, yeah. Dad was at a craft fair (an Epic Fail he said) at the time, and bought a huge toffee cake!!!! Lovely, but sickly.
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| Flan-Dish and Board |
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| Epic Toffee Cake |
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| Last Pickings |
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| "Nibble Dish"
Today we visited the Secret Location Plum Tree to see if the fruits were ripe. One of the boughs was full of red-ripe juicy Delicious plums, but the rest of the row's plums were all still green. Weird. We picked the last of the elderflowers form a nearby bush to make a last lot of champagne.
 NOW FOR THE EPIC NEWS!! As we walked along the row of plum trees, we noticed a path that we had not been down before. so, guess what? We investigated! And, we found a big waterfowl reserve lake which I had not known about before!!! I will take some photos, but I forgot the camera. There were Tufted Ducks and Shovellers, Mandarin Ducks and Teals, Green-Winged and Blue-Winged Teals (The Teal, the Blue-Winged Teal and the Green-Winged Teal are all slightly different species), Goosanders and Red-Breasted Mergansers, coots and Moorhens, only one drake and one duck Mallard (Extreme surprise!), and one cob and one pen Mute Swan with two cygnets, all swimming around happy as ever. A true reserve in the sense of the word!! As we walked back to the car, Dad noticed a slight rustling in a gorse bush (Common Gorse, Furze, or Whin [depending on what you like to call it], to be exact. I am into wild plants too.) A patch of agouti (to use the proper rabbit term) appeared from the covering of spines. I pulled back a clump of cleavers to reveal a tiny baby bunny (or rabbit kitten. I like to use the proper word). AWW. How cute! It wouldn't run off, as it was too inexperienced, and had a spine stuck in it's skin. Dad unpicked the spine, being careful not to touch the rabbit and pass on the human scent, therefore discouraging the mother rabbit to care for her offspring. You might think "why didn't you take the injured rabbit home and look after it?" but 1, it was not injured, just scared. 2, it might upset the doe to find her baby gone. 3, we have house-rabbits of our own (a very badly marked entire Blue Dutch doe named Frances and a castrated Blue Dwarf Lop buck who is in a permanent stage of moult called Malcolm) and the wild "bun" would freak out totally. (I love phrases like that!!!) I will tell you, fellow birders the location of the waterfowl reserve when plums are out of season! 
After that, we went to the pound shop to get some essentials. I also bought a wooden chopping-board to use as a hanging platform for the flan-dish bird-bath, and a hanging basket for the chains to hang it by.
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