A Boring Day

It's a dull, drizzly sort of day, and I'm in a dull, drizzly sort of mood. The sycamores in the coombe have now got dry, crinkly, dying leaves like the ones in Seaton Valley - it affects the young saplings first, then the more mature trees. It surely can't be drought, not this year, but I can't find any clue on the internet as to what it can be. It's not tar spot, because the leaves would look normal round the spots. These start with brown spots, then the whole leaf goes brownish, dry and dead.

The species count for my bird feeders is now in double figures. Apart from the sparrows, there are also now regular visits from goldfinch, greenfinch and chaffinch, blue tit and great tit, blackbird, magpie, jackdaw, collared dove and wood pigeon. I filled up late this morning, after I took Ty down the coombe to the creek and back, and from there being no birds in sight there were thirteen sparrows and a young blackbird by the time I had got back to the kitchen and looked out of the window.

Earlier today I had just neatly folded (one handed) 92 notices for the meeting next Tuesday, at which a director of the bus company was due to explain how they had improved our local services by taking most of them away and was about to go and put them through 92 local letterboxes when I had a phone call from the neighbour who had arranged the meeting. Apparently the nice bus company director can't come and play after all. He's given us another date, at the end of August, but somehow I am not convinced. At least I hadn't actually delivered all the flyers, so I only needed to put a 'postponed' notice in the noticeboard by the bus stop.

Will he or won't he actually turn up? Watch this space...