Harry

At first, I hated the squirrel thieving from the birdfeeder, but now I love him  - he could be a she, but I call him Harry - and worry if I haven't seen him for a couple of days. Last week, he jumped into the magpies' nest and they chased him. Bizarrely, the magpies' nest has now shrunk to a few twigs, so I guess they have moved housed (I asked RSPB if magpies dismantle their nests and take them with them, but they said more likely other birds have been using bits of abandoned nest). The day before yesterday, Harry appeared with a geometric bald patch on his right shoulder, looked like he'd been shaved before surgery, I was horrified, but it didn't look like he'd been attacked or bitten. It seems squirrels molt in spring (and autumn),  and localised bald patches can appear. I hope this is the reason he looks like his fur has been ironed (also read fur loss can happen when mating). Saw a coal tit, looked like a tiny gorgeous badger from the back. And a wee jumpy brown bird with high legs (maybe a lady blackbird, I have no idea). And woodpigeons are just so greedy and bulky. They circle/amble/peck round the garden like buses in  a depot. I would like to ban them but that would be a kind of apartheid.

High

There are magpies nesting in the next garden, so skrekky and gallus - and so high up! I know magpies nest high, it's in my book. The sky is blue today - no sleet - and I can see their tails dipping between the branches, flashes of blue and black and white.

Woken

I sometimes marvel that I used to actually understand calculus, I even got the Maths prize, my final year at school - and French  and Chemistry, I was such a swot - but now simple ratios and percentages hurt my head. The brain fog from ME is no joke. Your head really does feel full of holes. I do miss my academic self. I am in a very bad mood cos I was woken by the magpie that sounds like a manic toy train, though today it sounds wheezy like it has a cold. The other day, I bought a bag of seeds for the birds, a bargain for a pound,   but so far they have ignored what I scatter. If you haven't fed them before, how do  they know the seeds are there, how can you tell them?