In Sickness and in Kingfisher

I have felt ghastly most of the day. I awoke at 8am shivering despite a duvet of a volcanic tog rating,  my legs were aching like I'd just run a marathon, and my head ached. I lay there awake until two, sun streaming in from outside, listening to Radio 4 Extra, and unable to muster the energy to turn off the horrors of Ken Dodd and his Diddymen from 1965.

A run was out of the question, but after finally dragging myself out of bed, I did manage to get down to the library and then go for a walk. Subtract the wind, and it was a pleasant spring day, and certainly there was a lot of spring like activity out and about. Blue tits were collecting spider's webs from the walls, and the coots were involved in some pretty brutal courtship. The males are sailing around with their heads held just above the water, before fanning their wings and tails out and sinking their heads even lower.

Further out, a couple were splashing about in low level flight, culminating in what was either fighting, or mating, as the dominant bird drove the other below the surface. Love or hate, it was pretty vicious stuff.

I was entranced by a small mixed flock of goldfinch  and chaffinch in the forgotten nature reserve, but was utterly delighted to see the cycle track kingfisher perched by the Barnby Road bridge. I'd had a premonition I would see it despite not having done so for several weeks, and lo and behold there it was. I can't get a good enough look to see if it is a male or female, but for one, it was facing me, and its deep red breast stood out against the green background plain as day.

I wonder if it will find a mate, in sickness and in health, amidst the algal waters filled with empty bottles, and fly tipped washing machines?

Si

First daisy of the year, by my front door!

Library crocus

Library squill

Waffle tree

Had to lean over someone's wall to get the first flowering daff of 2015

Down  onto the cycle path

Ducks in the drain

Lesser celandine by London Road Pond, slightly past its best already

Coot courtship display, pity it's so far away

Friary Road garden, where the aconite is nearly over

But the squill is out

No idea about these micro flowers

Moon over the library

A wave from your writer