Someone playing toy xylophone rubbishly at 4.45am

I woke up this morning at 4.45am, and the birds were singing loudly (even though I had my windows closed, I could still hear them very easily) and also someone was playing a toy xylophone rubbishly. I assumed it was either Mark (Sarah's boyfriend who is staying here at the mo') playing it or watching a film with it in.

I couldn't get back to sleep so I got up about 5.15am. I went out for a walk while easting breakfast to see where the sun was, I guess probably about 6.15am. The sun looked quite high in the sky already, maybe 20° off the horizon, but the light was still really nice and warm (in colour, not heat). I just walked around the field behind the houses, and it was nice hearing all the birds singing, including a cockrel, pheasant and cuckoo.

Although the sun couldn't have been up long, there were still some insects flying around, though there were also a few flies perching on leaves that looked like they were "asleep". I didn't see anyone walking their dogs or anything, if I did they might have thought I was a bit weird walking around a field with a plate in my hand I had my breakfast on.

When I got home I went in the back garden and looked for insects. I didn't find many, just a couple of flies. One of them was very co-operative though and let me get a lot of shots of him, even though it was after 7am. I think it was because it had come over cloudy before the sun could get on the back garden, so it hadn't warmed up much. So it seems there's not much point getting up early to find insects to shoot, better to just wait for a cloudy day (which we get plenty of).

I copied all the pics to my comp and sorted them, and posted my question about IPTC Photo Metadata 2008 Standards on the IPTC XMP Yahoo Group. It started raining about 9.45am.

I started processing some pics from a walk I went on with Rad, Clare and Shaz earlier in the week, had lunch, then finished processing the pics. I checked Red Bubble and also had to fork out £50 for the latest version of PTGUI as my current license had expired (you get free upgrades for 1 year from when you purchase your license).

After dinner me, Clare, Ben and Moc went to a resevoir. We went straight after dinner, I hadn't had time to have my pudding, so I had to eat it in the car. Must have been skill for anyone if they saw me eating jelly from a pudding bowl in the car as we were driving along. Moc drove. The landscape on the way there and back looked very nice in the warm evening light. There were a few clouds around as well.

At the actual resevoir there were quite a few ducks and geese in the car park, and couple of mallards have ducklings. You could probably stroke them if you wanted to as all the birds let you get quite close to them. We went on a walk around part of the resevoir, then came back as the car park closed at 7pm. It was very windy and cold, and me, Moc and Ben didn't have coats, so we just had to walk really fast to keep warm.

We got home about 7.30pm, and then I did a backup. After that Clare cut my hair, then I went to bed as I was sleepy from waking up so early (it took me quite a while to get to sleep last night as well).

The weather today was sunny first, then cloudy, then rainy, then a mixture of sun and cloud for most of the day.

Food
Breakfast: Strawberry jam toast sandwich; cup o' tea.
Lunch: ½ mature cheddar cheese with iceberg lettuce sandwich made with fresh bread-maker-made bread; slice of fresh bread-maker-made bread with honey; banana; slice of Genoa cake; ½ fake twix; cup o' tea.
Dinner: Leek & herb sausage; Lincolnshire sausage; mashed potato; baked beans; cheese. Pudding was jelly.