Life is a comedy of errors .................

.....  according to Shakespeare. Although only the middle of the week it has so far proved to be rather a trying one.
Bronwen after much scrimping and saving has bought another car, something she really needs for the daily journey to work. Unfortunately she had to return it to the garage as there is a mechanical problem which needs to be sorted out immediately, rather a disappointment.
Austin was due to arrive in the UK on Friday and as mentioned in my earlier blog, plans had been made to collect him from Oxford. He was then informed that he was leaving a day earlier. The change meant that he had to rush to pack, hand over to his replacement and catch a flight with little time to spare. His blog recounts a somewhat hilarious saga of the flight being late and sharing helicopter space with a completely mental working dog which after landing at Bastion, decided to launch an attack on Austin. Fortunately as he was in full body armour and wearing gloves, the dog was not able to do any damage. He eventually arrived for his flight, late, hot and dirty and should arrive back home on Thursday afternoon. The latest news is that he has managed to arrange a lift back to London, a great relief as he apparently has a lot of baggage.

Whilst living in France I so enjoyed the birds nesting in the old boxes in the garden. After some internet research I found diagrams and instructions to make nesting boxes and asked my husband if he could make a couple up for me. Several months later and after constant reminders that it will soon be spring/summer, he finally produced one. It is now attached to the brick wall in the corner, our resident robin watched all the happenings with great interest and immediately decided to investigate. The little house is designed to be opened at the front for cleaning and later in the afternoon I spotted the house with the door hanging down, presumably some bird had looked inside and on the way out managed to loosen the fastening which is a little flimsy! I have to add that my husband is known in the family as the 'un' handyman and when I said something along the lines of RDP housing (only my SA friends will appreciate this, it is basically houses built by the government in a somewhat haphazard and sloppy fashion) he was not very amused. However, it is a nice little house and hopefully will attract an occupant.

This kind of nesting box is apparently not suitable for robins as they like something a little more open at the front. A house  for Mr Robin is in progress and hopefully will soon be ready (this summer).
The weather is warming up very slightly but we still have a good layer of frost some mornings. I picked a bunch of wild daffodils which look so nice and bright, also discovered that they have a quite pleasant fragrance, not sure if the commercially grown flowers smell so good.

Under one of the trees in the garden I discovered a clump of hellebores a flower which I love and never managed to grow successfully in Africa.

A final picture of a puddle of cats sleeping in the warm sunshine on my bed. Merlin seems to be recovering from his skin problems and the fur is actually growing but he does still have a few bare patches.

All our creations are now complete and ready for the on line show, just have to update the webpage and all is done. Really did not think it would all happen in time. Will post pictures of the bears on Saturday, the day of the show.
Megan and I are eagerly anticipating our trip to London on Sunday for the Vintage Fashion and Accessories Fair,will share feedback early next week.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.~Ralph Waldo Emerson