Windchaser

The other day, I was working on my computer when I heard bluetits calling, outside my window. I looked out, and found a whole flock of them - parents and their babies - in the trees outside (I think they're limes, but I'm not sure). One parent brought two up to my balcony, so I HAD to get out my camera.

( Photos under cut to save peoples f-lists )

I need to do some gardening this weekend, otherwise Thundercracker will get a chance to consolidate his bid for kitchen dominion. ¬_¬

Last saturday, Mum gave me a "Mina lobata" (Mexican firecracker, aka "ipomoea lobata") vine seedling. Since seeing one in their garden, it has become one of my favourite plants, and it crops up in my art all over the place, examples:
...in Mirii's hair
...being carried by the little green bird.

It was only a couple of inches tall when she gave me it - short enough to fit inside a sandwich bag with its pot, with room to spare...

...the little seedling has subsequently grown about two feet in the last week. ¬_¬ It has also latched onto the pinks in the kitchen windowsill and is using them as a frame to climb up.

I have called it "Thundercracker" (come on, how could I *not*) and am hoping he survives when he gets out on the balcony.

	Thundercracker, pt1 This was such a weedy little thing when Mum gave it to me - probably only about a third as tall as this? In two days, it's grown a good few inches. It's surprising me how fast it's growing, actually.
	Thundercracker, pt2 Two days later, and he's moved to the kitchen (sitting in the French window was frazzling him a bit, in that little pot). Mr Pink evidently makes a good climbing frame.
	Thundercracker, pt3 ....and we have another inch or two of growth! He's obviously beginning his bid for dominion of the kitchen by strangling the "Reservoir Pinks".

...I dream to think what I'm going to find when I get home. I can't be continually unwinding him off stuff XD.

Well, I WAS going to upload some photographs to my Flickr, this lunch time - they've started to demolish the old Crane foundry near where I live - but the hospital internet connection is misbehaving and I imagine I'll have to just wait until I go home tonight. :(

At least I can post some other photographs on here. :)

A different kind of flying doom. Not content with troughing all the food itself, my pigeon has now started bringing a little friend along.

	Pigeons, part deux Oh, there's two of you? Great. I'll just make plans to spend even MORE money on food for you to throw all over the place.
	Posessive pigeon I'm not sure if he's making a point to me, by standing IN the food tray. THIS IS MY FOOD, GO AWAY. Is that really necessary? :P
	Pigeons, part deux, 3
	Pigeons, part deux, 4 That bird has REALLY BIG, creepy pupils. ¬_¬

And a little more of the garden!

	More daffodils in bloom! I was so pleased to see more were coming out and NOT DYING that I took another photo, haha. And see in the top corner? I interrupted someone's supper, s/he didn't realise I was there - and I didn't realise HE was there until after he'd already flown away.
	Robin! "Hmm, I'm sure there was a brown blob in that last photo, but it's gone." *flick through photos on camera* "OH, it was a bird!" I'm sure he was somewhat disgruntled by the fact I was in his way.
	Clematis The resurrected clematis. It spent all winter as a dry brown mostly-snapped-off stick and I was just preparing to dig it out and put a new one in... and it must have heard me, because it's gone crazy over the last couple of weeks. I need to secure it to the fence with some wire, because it blows a gale across here and it'll only get snapped off again.

And finally... at last, after years of not having a camera with me at the right time, I caught her on camera.

	Dauntless! Seeing my little space-ship in bus form always amuses me, in an "I went home on Dauntless today! XD" kind of way. The same way it's not JUST a blue Subaru Impreza, when I see one, it's Slipstream.
	Dauntless, closeup "Oh, you're not a bus geek are you?" one of my colleagues I catch the bus with says, when I get on after her. Authors are such misunderstood creatures. *melodramatic swoon*

I wonder where the birdies is?

Oh yeah, wait, no, I know where the birdies is - the pigeons, at least. ON MY BALCONY, TROUGHING THROUGH THE FOOD DISH. Hurr.

( Remember This? )

( Well... :3 (photos under cut) )

...this is all before the snow returns, of course. The weather is clearly gearing up to be rubbish just in time for the school Easter holidays.

EPIC PHOTOPOST OF DOOM or something. (OK I admit I suck at taking photos.)

( First of all! The NaNoBoard (which is the whole reason I started to format these in the first place) )

( Secondly! The Desk! (I owe Jill this one. ;) ) )

( And lastly, the garden )

Okay guys, I've come to a decision. I was sat there staring as the screen this lunchtime trying (and failing) to get ANY words done at all anywhere on my current story that I'm just going to ditch it and start the next one. I know, I know, it's such a lame cop-out, but seriously? Storyline sucks and is starting to look like swiss cheese, it's so full of plotholes, and I'm bored with it anyway. "Future Tense" sounds like so much more fun to write, and anyway, I can actually PLAN that one out! Work out where I'm going to take it before I start working on it, that sort of thing. So, is awesome, y?

Ki, anyway.

Today we had an EPIC CAKEOFF in work; I forget what exactly triggered it, but it was something like one of my colleagues returning to work from a shortish break had learned to make baked cheesecake, and another friend essentially said "I bet mine's better than yours" and Lo! Today we get to work and there's two cheesecakes in the fridge, one from each "contestant" and a voting card to say which you liked best (By drawing a little tally line on it). The raspberry cheesecake (raspberries on top, not in it) won by a comfortable margin. ;)

I love some of the patients we get at work. One little old lady on one of the surgical wards wanted to do her own insuling, and basically told the nurse "oh yes dear, I inject 150units Novorapid in the morning to last me the whole day!" *headdesk*

I seem to have spent all my time on the wards destroying CDs since Monday, though. I filled a 2.5l sharps bin with them on Monday when I was covering Capel - it took me almost an hour, and 20 minutes of that was just popping the tablets out of their blisters! - and another one today on Washbrook.

I did get a little praise from a rather cratchity old lady, though. I wanted to speak to her friend about her tablets, and basically just confirmed the medicines she took to make sure we'd got her doses right, and the first lady was very miffed that I was the first person who'd treated them like they were still intelligent people and not senile. :\ She was going on about how "all those other girls - and I'm olg enough to be their grandmother - have acted like they were teaching me how to do my tablets and I've done them myself for the last 20 years! I do the cryptic crossword in the Telegraph, you know!"

We're been joking in MI about how little we remember of French lessons at school. We were trying to read the German "Ritter sport" packet without Kirsten's help (she's German so it'd have been cheating ;) ) and it went on to how "usefull" the French we actually remember IS. ¬_¬ I mean, we're talking really vital stuff, here, like: "Je voidrais un pain au chocolat/une glace" and "ou est la piscine?" (or "Ich mochte eine tasse tee mit milch" for German). Because if you go to Europe, the most vital thing to know what to ask is "I would like a cake/cup of tea".

You've probably already noticed I can never think of anything good to do for April Fools' Day. ¬_¬ (Although I wasn't lying about the writer's block). It's been a bit of a boring day in comparison with some - the day started off weird, when one of the girls I get the bus with in the mornings told me Ipswich Buses were changing their timetable AGAIN... At first I was all "ha ha yeah April fool amirite?" but then got to work and found the new timetables on their website. Seriously, Ipswich Buses are so useless - they've not actually ANNOUNCED the timetable changes for that route EITHER time it's changed in the last 6 months. (First time, the bus just didn't turn up, and when it DID arrive it didn't stop because it was full from all the earlier passengers. ¬_¬) Then of course there's the increase in prescription charges - £7.10 to £7.20. And no-one ever believes us - ha ha yeah right April Fool! No, honestly, the price has gone up - I know it's the start of the new financial year and everything, but seriously, you think they'd wait until the 2nd to put prices up. :P

Some April Fool jokes have been pretty good, though. I particularly liked Moo's (and the annoying thing it, I would TOTALLY have bought it, too, if it hadn't been a joke. ;) ) :D They had a great one last year, too, with a GIANT SIZED business card (I think it was A2 or A3 size XD ) "to give you that added impact!" Pizza Hut's was silly and pretty obvious (although it's fun to click through the pages to the end), and CafePress's was too, but at least they made an effort. :D I was a bit disappointed that they didn't also do jokey fake "content" pages for their CafePress-o-pedia. ;)

Then of course we also had the UNFUNNY "pranks" during the day, too. I mean, I KNOW people will use April Fools' to be hurtful and unfunny, but this is just stupid. :P (We got an MHRA drug alert with "not an April Fool!" written on it as well. I was kinda amused by it. ;) )

The weather outside is awesome, for a change, and bawww, we're missing it. :( It's sunny and cloudless and although there's a bit of a breeze it's lovely and cloudless. BUT I can finish my gardening when I get home, so that's good!

OK this is the end of your infodump. Whee. :)