Flying to Australia tonight

I've been packing all day ready for a flight to the other side of the world - more or less directly SE from Birmingham to Melbourne on my map - arriving 0840 Saturday morning with short stops at Dubai and Singapore. It's not that I'm fearful of flying, rather enjoying watching films and reading and snoozing in a long dark rumbling tube 30000 feet in the sky. It's that had I the time I'd far rather make the journey by sea or even airship.

* * * Yesterday morning I rapped on the kitchen window to see off a heron fishing in our pond, ignoring the plastic deterrent a few feet away . Later on Wednesday, my last day with my Japanese students we visited Walsall Road Allotments, guests of the secretary who gave us tea, cakes and a tour of the plots. Seeing a well run allotment site, going for at least 40 years, made me even more aware of the work that will needed on the new Victoria Jubilee Allotments starting an 80 plot site from scratch, with a tiny staff from Birmingham City allotments section to guide us.

Mami from Japan and Betty, allotments secretary