Holding Pattern 2

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. You will perhaps have gathered that there is nothing happening. Wanstead may be drowning in Wood Warblers, but as I have been stuck indoors, I wouldn't know. I am hoping that my fellow patch-workers have taken up the mantle. Actually to be honest, they probably had it already. The mantle that is. Having said that, I have heard no gripping reports of Wood Warbler, so I'm assuming it's all quiet on the Western Front.

My toe is much better, though as you may have gathered, not better enough to go out on the patch. Not that it matters, as Mrs L is still away, and even with three working feet I would still be confined to the house. This is momentous, for reasons I will now explain. The image above is my typical Brownie Point counter. You will note that it is negative. It is always negative. No matter how much I slave, how much I cook, dust, and vacuum, I always go birding more. In my language, half an hour of dusting equals a full day birding, perhaps two. Mrs L does not, as they say, speaka my language. What's more, I can't do DIY, which I understand is a useful BP accumulation strategy. Lay a parquet floor? Yeah right. If I were to try something, I would botch it, and lose another thousand or so. Even mentioning it would probably lose me a hundred. This is known as "with intent" I believe. So it came as a huge surprise when I tentatively raised the perennial question of the BP counter with Mrs L on the phone the other night, and received a positive number! This is unheard of! Happily ensconced on her choir trip or whatever it is (extra BPs for knowing!), without any prompting she said I was in the black, in positive territory. Well blow me down!

I should break my foot more often. Even though it was my own stupid fault, doing it at the very start of the school holidays and only a day before she left on a week-long musical extravaganza has proved to be a killer strategy. Sympathy in bucket-loads, she even went shopping for me before she left, and now the ultimate accolade, a positive BP counter. I didn't think it would ever happen. Here it is, in all it's glory.

The astute among you will note that it is still negative. I am hedging my bets. Half of me still doesn't really believe it, and the half that does assumes some kind of domestic screw-up before she gets back.