I had to have the front near-side tyre on my car replaced today. This was a relatively painless process, except for the small matter of paying for it (I snickered in amusement when I was first quoted a price, but then discovered how much more it would cost for some of the other available brands, and quickly stopped laughing), but because the garage wasn’t able to give me a waiting appointment, it took up most of the day. On the plus side though, it was cold and mizzling for much of that time, but shortly after I arrived home from Stratford the sky unexpectedly cleared and the sun came out, bringing the insects with it.
It was still cold, mind you, because of the ferocious east wind we have at the moment (proper birders love this, because it’s bringing in all sorts of unusual stuff from the Continent, but I’m not a proper birder and I hate it). But in a way the cold wind made things slightly easier for me this afternoon, as I whisked around the garden pointing the macro at anything I could see, because my victims subjects were all having to spend stretches of time either clinging desperately to their perches in the teeth of the gale, or resting in patches of sunshine to raise their body temperature enough to allow them to fly again. This elderly Plumpie was so cold and tired that he sat passively while I approached closer and closer, and then went around him in an arc, trying different angles, and he didn’t twitch so much as a hairy foot throughout the entire performance. When I thanked him and left he was still sitting in exactly the same place, soaking up as many rays as he could.
Old and tired: I confess to some fellow-feeling.
R: L2, C8, D19.
