"Never destroy someone's character." That's what my Mum used to say and she said her Mum used to say it to her. She would never talk badly about someone to other people and that is how my sister and I were brought up. If ever there was a character destroyed by the press it was Prince Philip. We have all had a constant stream of stories over the years of his gaffs, his blunders, his rudeness. The same press who are now sharing the constant stories of his kindness, his compassion and his life time of good work. What a shame they didn't share it when he was alive. The funeral was simple and moving and the sight of the Queen all alone was heartbreaking. The military were all faultless. the sun shone and I found it very sad.
My day yesterday went really well. I spent the morning spring cleaning the aviary. I started off just giving it a sweep round then I thought I may as well do it all completely. I swept and cleaned every corner. It took me hours. We had put a pile of large stones in the corner that I had dug up in the garden. Several years ago we used to breed Chinese Painted Quail and they used to love sitting on these rocks in the sun. Sadly they have now all died so I have taken all the rocks out as they just are a corner for collecting mess now. I'm going to clean them up and extend my new rockery. When the aviary was all cleaned we put out Dotty and our new dove called Del. I make it sound easy, it wasn't! It took youngest daughter and I ages. Transferring birds around from cage to cage and then to the aviary is really difficult when you are trying not to stress them, but in the end it was all done and they were out enjoying the sunshine. There is a nice warm inside part with a heat lamp so it shouldn't be too much of a shock but I hardly slept last night worrying about them.
