I could retitle this as “The Return of the Birds”, but I am not Alfred Hitchcock and these are quite friendly as long as you feed them. The bird season has now returned to my garden, although if you put out the right food they do not need an invitation and gather for all they can get.

I mix a couple of walnuts and peanuts with the food to encourage the bigger birds, and this crow is really big. I think he must be the leader of the pack.

The magpie decided to sit in the tree and wait patiently. When they notice I am hovering behind the window with my camera, they prefer to wait for a moment when they are not being observed and then they swoop for the rewards.

It seems that my mornings are now occupied with filling bird feeders and keeping an eye on them.

I did go into town yesterday afternoon for a few articles to shop, I still had the weekend meals to deal with, but had everything under control. As I am cooking a chicken for lunch I got it yesterday as that is not something I cannot buy so much in advance. It would not keep so fresh and I am not keen on frozen chicken, it seems to lose its taste. Eventually the sun appeared yesterday afternoon and it seem to draw the people out of their isolation refuge, naturally most wearing masks. Masks are still a voluntary thing here on the streets, unless it is market when you have to wear them, and people are sticking well to the rules. I see more police in town now that are keeping an eye on things to ensure that the human race do no get too close to each other. Unfortunately I have not noticed a great drop in our covid cases, but I suppose it will need time.

The sun highlighted our buildings in town quite well. I have noticed something in the last few months. I see a lot more dogs with their owners on the streets. It seems in the times of online shopping people have more time to take the dogs for a walk, which is the positive side to the problem.

One of the advantages of no longer having a car is that I spend now more time in the old town as I have to wheel through it and see more, although it is not a large town and full of narrow alleys which I do not often visit with my scooter, as you sometime meet a car and then it gets very narrow.

Autumn has really now taken over and the colours are wonderful. This was seen on a road around the town. Otherwise nothing special happening, just the same old routine. Sometimes I wish I could again travel to Bern or other nearby towns such a Neuchatel, just for some different scenes, but they are now out of my reach. The train connections are OK, but it is complicated with a walker to take with you and my energy reserves are not longer good enough for long walks.

At the moment they are showing a season of Arnold Schwarzenegger films on the TV. Although he became governor of California, he never did lose his Austrian accent. I do not mind him, although some of those films are a little over exaggerated with the fights. He is always the hero that wins and often the scenes are quite brutal. However, he is good for a laugh and not to be taken seriously. Yesterday in a film he played a Russia policeman that had to go to America to arrest his criminal. A lot of the dialogue was in Russian which I found quite good, although obviously Arnold was not speaking himself but was probably dubbed.

And now I must move on. I have spent far too much time with my birds and not enough with my writing, but I have no great stress today, just taking it easy. I leave you with another one of our wonderful Autumn scenes.

Keep safe and well and enjoy the week-end. Who knows, perhaps the States will have a new president at some time – keeping my fingers crossed that it will be the right one.