12C - DHL Exhibition - Y off to London

Not quite as exotic as Attenborough but it is our very own Erewash Canal, or is it the Nottingham? - they join a few hundred yards from here and it's easy to get confused. It is a little overgrown but still lovely to walk down the towpath.

I had another blood-test this morning; they are fairly regular again and the clinic have just rung to say that my INR level is climbing again and I need another test a week today. My Warfarin dose has been cut, half a tablet here half a tablet there. It is so precise. Too high and I bleed internally like a dying rat and too low and I have a stroke. Ho Hum! as Ray says.

Still having a great time though. After my blood, we went to Durban House to check the exhibits and an excellent job has been made of the permanent Lawrence exhibition. People grumble about Councils usually, but Broxtowe are quite excellent. The streets are litter free, they deal with rubbish and garden waste excellently and they always seem to be doing something useful and exciting for we residents. Also at the moment in the Rainbow Room is enamelled pottery and plaques. Extremely bright and obviously classy but neither of us were 'stopped in our tracks' (nice cliché again 'eh?). Then as there was plenty of time before Y's train we decided to have lunch there and save cooking. Very good it was too. The restaurant is run by a pal of Bob and Sandra's who is also a marvellous wood carver. His rocking-horses are beautiful works of art.

Picture 2 is a Great Crested Grebe from yesterday, in its 'breeding plumage' google reliably informs me.

I didn't even notice the water at the time; I was concentrating on the bird. But now I've seen it on my laptop screen for a while it really appeals to me. It has a Hockney feel to it. BTW Hockney is now resident in his home county Yorkshire again. He has had his fussy out of California and has become obsessed with the woodlands near his home and the light. He is painting very large tree-scapes and is to exhibit in the National Gallery starting in late June together with 140 Turner watercolours. We once had the pleasure of seeing Turner's watercolour notebooks where he had 'dashed-off' sketches of the soldiers and sailors returning from the Napoleonic Wars. Magic ! And perhaps we may have the chance again in this Exhibition. There's no way I could do the return trip in one day but maybe we could book into a nearby hotel. Cost a lot, but it would be worth it.

If people are becoming bored with the QM2 webcam, I found this one this morning peak district and at least one a usually see something, even if it's only the effect of the changing light. The Picture was this morning light. But I have just looked (19.40hrs) and it is almost dark. I bet it will be great tomorrow morning though, at dawn.

The dawn chorus is approaching full throttle but the beginning of May will be even better. And this morning around 6-ish I heard a cuckoo. At first I thought it was a wood-pigeon pretending but no. I'm absolutely certain it was a cuckoo. I've not actually heard one for years.

I've not run out of animated icons and I promise they will return.

But I thought I would leave you with these daisies. And we all know what DHL's Mellors did with the daisy chain don't we?







I hope everybody sleeps well.