Home and some none bookish Puffins

Well I'm back from my travels, pleased to be reunited with my books, perhaps a little less pleased with the prospect of returning to work first thing on Monday morning. It hasn't been a very bookish holiday, there was so much to do, and so many people to see that I didn't get much time for reading - although the small quantity was more than made up for by quality.

Meanwhile here are some holiday photo's  - humour me on this, there are Puffins which were almost unbelievably cute. This would be Puffins coming and going...

Stealthy Puffins creeping up on us, and Puffins ready for their close up. They really are delightful birds, smaller than I remember, comical to watch (though what the last one thought of me and my commando style crawl across a cliff top to get it's picture perhaps wouldn't bear much inspection) and understandably popular. Love Puffins.

We also had the chance to do a hopefully good deed after finding an Oyster-catcher caught up on wool, it was to weak to make much of an attempt at running away so I decided to catch it and ask at the nearest house if we could borrow some scissors to try and cut it free. It was lucky for the bird that the lady we found  was a retired vet, she had stitch cutters and managed to cut away all the crap so that it seemed likely the bird would not only survive but keep it's foot as well. I hope so anyway, the Oyster-catchers (dialect name Shalder) call is deeply evocative and although there's no particular shortage of them I do feel the more the generally merrier.

Easter

After making a lot of fuss this week about the absolute necessity of a chocolate bunny for Easter (and turning up at his house with 3 bags of supplies for a 2 night stay) the Scottish one asked me if Easter had been a big thing in our house as children. It wasn't as big a deal as Christmas but we always celebrated it and looking back my memories of Easter lack the baggage and disappointment attached to Christmas. I like the chocolate and the hot cross buns, I like that it can be a reason to have a big family celebration but that it's also acceptable to spend the day watching old films and risking diabetic coma.

This year I drew the short straw working right up until close of play Saturday evening so there's been no time to bake (or as I had hoped make chocolates)  but today will still be filled with more than enough good things to eat, several hours of Lawrence of Arabia (not my choice), a good book, perhaps some pottering in the garden - all the things I enjoy really. - Possibly though the nicest news of the day is that the Puffins have returned to Sumburgh head in Shetland (the southern most tip) reports that they came bearing Easter eggs are doubtless inaccurate but the return of migratory species is always something to celebrate and what sort of person doesn't love a Puffin? (Picture lifted from Promote Shetland, I don't know if it's this vintages Puffins or who took it but hope they won't mind me using it to do my own bit of Shetland promoting.)