Raggedy & Friends BOM 2, Bird news

The Summer is coming to an end, evenings are getting darker and the nights cooler, and so the TV is also getting back to routine and sending less re-runs. There is time to sit in front of our favourite programs and spend the time usefully, with a knitting or stitching. Raggedy Andy tried posing for Block 2 of Kaaren's BOM Raggedy & Friends.

This is my block finished:

Red summer apples fall from the tree. They don't make good apple pie but taste nice just so to eat. I have two big buckets by the mailbox, with a sign OTA OMENOITA, Take apples! I'm pleased to see the buckets getting empty in a day or two. I take the last, bad ones to the compost and pick new buckets.

Our tomatoes are ripening in the sun. The tiny ones taste better than the normal bigger ones. We had 5 last night, sweet and delicious. Let's hope for more sunny days, there are SO many green ones still. Maybe I should bind the leaves so the sun can reach the tomatoes?

Coot Club news: In addition to the Whooper Swan family nesting in the village for the second year, I saw a new bird in one of the ponds. This is the best picture I could take; the bird was diving before I could focus on it.

 

It was big and almost totally black when I saw it in flight, and the next moment it was diving in the pond. It was swimming very deep in the water so I couldn't estimate the size too well. Mr. K asked a bird spotter friend what my bird might be, and he told us that a Great Cormorant has been spotted here. I had thought that impossible, as we are 50 km inland, and there aren't even any big lakes but only small ponds around here. Yesterday we saw the bird better - without camera, naturally - and it really was true. The Cormorant is not a welcome visitor (you can read the reasons in the Wikipedia link), but I don't think they will ever start nesting here. I prefer the swans!