The Best Kind of Home-Schooling

I recently found out I had been selected for furlough leave as part of a 70% head count reduction by my employer, this hopefully will keep the business a float whilst we go through the devastating effect of Covid-19. Although this situation is not ideal, I was kind off thankful the government were going to support this extended leave by paying 80% of my wage so I can continue to support the family through this awful crisis. This does mean however that I will be more involved in home-schooling my two boys - as any parent will appreciate this is not as easy as it sounds! I have two typical boys (11 and 13) who mostly enjoy gaming and football and have minimal attention spans when it comes to homework, add my short patience's into the equation and this heady mix of emotions means the next month or two is going to be a really interesting time!

The boys have only ever shown a passing interest in bird-watching and the natural world, so imagine my delight when a female Sparrowhawk perched on the garden fence. In the 15 years of living at our current address this has only ever happened once before - I often see plenty of flyovers but rarely do they venture through our small urban garden. I grabbed the camera and fired-off a few record shots through the kitchen window, the Sparrowhawk appeared to be happily perched so I shouted and gestured to the boys and Mrs B to come and have a look, we all peered through the side kitchen window (this is a small window) and gawped at the Sparrowhawk before it was spooked by a neighbour coming out of their front door - for a minute the boys faces lite-up, eyes wide and mouths open! They both claimed "Wow- that was epic!" and discussed the bright yellow-eye and those sharp talons, before sloping off to hide from the next batch of school work.

I'm hoping in years to come when the boys are all grown up and we're sitting around having dinner, one of them might pipe up and say "Do you remember in 2020 when we were all stuck inside during the Covid-19 period and we saw that Sparrowhawk perched on the fence?". As experiencing a moment like this should stay with a child forever and will last a lot longer in the memory than Trigonometry!

The glare of a Sparrowhawk! 

Anyone recognise the purple hue of a Renault Twingo in the background?