Danskcolin: Monday June 13th 2022

09:30 Another zoom call - it's the second day running - with our daughter Sarah in Perth, Australia, plus Sarah's husband Francis and their 8-year-old twins Lily and Jessica.

Lois and I had a call yesterday but then we could only speak to Sarah, because the twins were round at their "bestie", Samara's house, and Sarah thought they'd be disappointed at missing us - how heart-warming is that? My god! Two little 8-year-olds not wanting to miss a chat with their aged grandparents back in England - how wonderful is that!!!!!

As it turns out, the twins are actually too tired to talk to us very much after their day's schooling including a cross-country run, but who cares - we can see their sweet little faces, which is the main thing!!!!

little Jessica - awwwww !!!!

Sarah with poor tired little Lily (left), almost invisible,

and wrapped up in a towel - awwwwww !!!!!

Yesterday the whole family were helping to do odd jobs at their sailing club, Nedlands, mostly bits of painting and weeding. And afterwards they all went to the beach. Later Lily texts me with a cute picture of herself in the midst of building some sort of sand-castle.

I reply with some sand-castle pictures that Lois and I still have of the family's last seaside holiday before moving to Australia, at St Ives in Cornwall. The twins were only 2 years old then - ah the memories!!!!

Jessica splashing around, as Lily brings Lois a helpful bucket of water

Jessica helping Lois to make a crocodile-shaped sand-castle

Lois, bidding for a prize in the St Ives Sandcastle Competition

Happy days !!!!!!

11:30 Lois and I go for a walk on the local football field, where we stop for a coffee and a cake at the Whisker's Coffee Stand. Later we cheer on the local Old Codgers Seven-a-Side soccer team, which is always encouraging for them, we feel. And we understand that the County Air Ambulance is always on stand-by during the team's matches, which is reassuring, to put it mildly!

we take a break from our walk to enjoy a coffee

and a slice of cake at the Whiskers Coffee Stand...

... and on the way home, we stop to give encouragement

to the local Old Codgers Seven-a-Side soccer team,

seen here enjoying their well-earned half-time rest, the poor old souls !!!!

13:00 Another amusing Venn diagram comes in, in an email from Steve, our American brother-in-law, who monitors these diagrams on the web:

Steve's advice (Diagram 1) is "Never leave socks on the floor", which I can't improve on!

14:00 A momentous afternoon begins. While I'm enjoying a well-earned nap, Lois takes a call from one of the estate agents who've been helping us to find a house to buy in nearby Malvern. Last Thursday we viewed a house with a lovely big shower-room and a very large garage and a lovely view of the hills, and we called the estate agents later on in the day to put in an offer.

the front of the house - how about those 15 solar panels? My god!

the back garden (left) and the view opposite (right)

Today we hear that the family living in the house have accepted our offer, so - for now at least - the horrible uncertainty seems to be over, and we won't have to keep travelling the 25 miles or so over to Malvern to view any more houses. Enough, already! So fingers crossed, we can now move forward into broad sunlit uplands [phrase copyright: Winston Churchill] .

Is this really happening, or am I in a dream? [You tell me! - Ed] Perhaps I'm still having my nap, and I'm going to wake up any minute.... [Why not try slapping yourself around the face for a few minutes? - Ed]. All right - well, so, it isn't a dream. Good grief, it's really happening!

YIKES !!!!!!!

21:00 We go to bed on tonight's edition of Springwatch, the series which monitors the state of wildlife in the British Isles with the help of a team of presenters and a network of hidden cameras. This week's four programmes will be the last in the current series.

Tonight we see one viewer's photograph of a white blobby substance often seen in our gardens, and generally known as "cuckoo spit", but which apparently has absolutely nothing to do with cuckoos.

Who knew that this so-called "cuckoo spit" is created by a little fellow called a spittlebug, which is the nymph-stage of the froghopper.

Presenter Michaela Strachan explains that the little spittlebug feeds off a stem and then forces air into a fluid from its anus, making bubbles. It keeps on making those bubbles until it's got enough to cocoon itself entirely. This protects the bug from predators and also stops it drying out. And it helps to give the bug its own little microclimate - how cute is that !!!!!

a little spittlebug creating bubbles from its anus - awwwwww !!!!

the spittlebug gradually cocooning itself in bubbles - awwwww (again) !!!

Finally the spittlebug creates one big bubble within all those little bubbles in order to achieve its final transformation into its adult stage, which is the froghopper.

the bug finally emerges in its adult stage as a froghopper

Presenter Michaela says how she's often wished she could do the same to protect herself from the outside world. Unfortunately, however, this admission prompts fellow-presenter Chris Packham into using a prop from the programme's props department to attempt to simulate the bubble-making process onto Michaela - unwise, we think, Chris haha!