Fledged then dead

I found these two dead Blue Tit chicks on the driveway this morning whilst getting ready for my 08:00 appointment with the local Council Waste Recycling Centre (it's empty before 08:30 on a Sunday!).

I have lots of bird boxes around the grounds with lot's of activity this year, let's hope the parents can raise a second or third brood.

2nd crop of the day.....

And todays second crop from the garden is Rhubarb.... the pink stalks are now being prepped into julienne strips and poached in a vanilla & marsala syrup for a dinner party dessert tomorrow night served with a Panna Cotta. The rest will be served as a crumble.

The garden produce season has started.....

The sun is out, the strawberry plants have been thinned & the first crop from the garden this year is Asparagus. It will be lightly steamed later, then wrapped in parma ham topped with parmesan shavings & grilled, served with a small salad and a cheeky Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc..... happy days!

Bargain of the week.......

I know I don't need another camera, but this offer was too good to turn down....  Currys have this full HD, 12 megapixel, 20x optical zoom, GPS enabled digital camera for just £129.00 - more gadgets & features than you can shake a stick at, but more importantly, it takes really good, crisp clear photo's very easily.

The downside, I now have 7 different Canon battery chargers on my study desk.....

A stormy night....

I went for dinner at a friends house in Amport on Friday night - a non-Valentines Day evening, works for me.

After a couple of glasses of recently discovered Bourgogne Aligote I had helped my host purchase from BBR in Basingstoke, dinner was about to be served when the power went off, luckily it was only off momentarily, so the euphoric cheer of the dinner party guests probably masked what was going on outside, this tree had fallen across the road & rested on the power & phone cables. Needless to say the exit at 1:00AM to meet the taxi was a bit of assault course test, but we managed.

When I went back earlier today to pick up the car, I saw this sight, the water level has risen so far that water is spouting through the manhole covers along the road. Water was also spurting water through the vent holes the retaining wall if the garden creating a wonderful lake on the patio & a river coursing through the gravel driveway, nothing like the floods in Surrey, but worrying enough.

A little further down the road, the sound of chainsaws continued & this huge tree was next on the list for firewood..... makes my broken fence panels & posts seem an insignificant inconvenience.

A coveted item finally purchased......

I have for years wanted a KitchenAid Artisan mixer, but the hefty price tag & the fact that I had a perfectly good Kenwood mixer in the cupboard prevented me from logically purchasing another mixer.

But now, after a good number of years service & recent few weeks of bread making, the Kenwood has finally given up the ghost & blown up. So now I have an all white satin painted & frosted glass KitchenAid mixer, the spectrum of colours available was mind boggling, but I'll stick with the clean sharp white. The catalogue of attachments seems quite good & comparable to the old Kenwood Chef range that my Mum used to have, so I'm sure I will invest in a couple of those in due course... but in the meantime it comes with a dough hook, so more bread making is on the cards.