Removing the stone from an avocado

When a friend cut her thumb quite badly while trying to remove a stone from an avocado recently (who hasn't been there and done that!) another friend said to use a fork instead of a knife to get the stone out. I've been trying this and so far (4 avocados) I have to say not only is it safer but it's also easier to get the stone out. The hardest part is to remember to put the knife down after cutting the fruit in half and to pick up a fork to remove the stone.

Driving over to Bath yesterday afternoon we beheld a wonderful sight - seagulls and rooks following a tractor that was ploughing a field and more birds on the freshly turned soil. This is quite a rare sight now (I can't remember when I last saw it) as many fields have been ploughed so much and had so much artificial fertiliser added that they are dead and there are no worms or invertebrates for the birds to eat.

Foxes

We've seen the Whitecliff foxes out enjoying the afternoon sun a couple of times this week. On Thursday we saw three together, a record for us, although I could only get two in the frame.

This afternoon we saw two. This one in the usual spot...

...and this very cute looking fox a little lower down the bank. Mark took this photo with his camera which has a better zoom than mine.

Last night's partial eclipse

Well, the cloud thinned enough last night so that we could make out the moon and partial eclipse. And very partial it was too! There was just a sliver sliced off the bottom right. Disappointing, but hey, it makes a change to actually have had weather conditions that allowed us to see anything at all.

This morning I've had my first cuppa in my Bird and Bee Moon Mug 2010. It has all the moon times, lunar phases, solstices and equinoxes for 2010 in silver on a dark blue background. So even if I can't see the sky at least I will know what the moon is upto each day.

Blue Moon and Lunar Eclipse

Just to remind you that there is a blue moon tomorrow evening (second full moon in a calendar month) and a partial lunar eclipse at 19:23. Lets hope we have clear skies!

Sunrise at Stonehenge Shortest Day 2009

Stonehenge at Sunset Winter Solstice 2009