A moment of tranquillity

It's 5.30 am. Raging earache woke me - the Otosporin antibiotic ear drops have been making my eczema inside my ear worse, not better - so I decided to get up. I have fed Flad, Mr G is still in bed (he's a very early riser normally) and, just for a moment, if I ignore the pain, I can see dawn painting the sky in apricot flame and hear the birds - blackbirds, sparrows, blue tits, wood pigeons - and feel the breeze on my ankles from the open door. It's lovely, restful, and the green vista of lawn and trees in front of me is balm to my eyes. Green is one thing I will miss in the new house, as the garden is gravelled and paved. But I could always plant a little lawn. Though there is nowhere you can sit and look out onto the garden as the only window at the back of the house looks down the passageway between the side of the house and the fence. I will have to build a summerhouse, I think, where I can sit and have my breakfast.

Anyone know any cures for earache? I have used hypoallergenic shampoo and conditioner but still, every time I wash my hair, the eczema on and in my ears flares up again. Is there anything I can do? I've gone half deaf, with the sticky Otosporin clogging up my ear.

I'm watching a blackbird and a sparrow eating the bread I just threw out. It's lovely to hear sparrows cheeping. A merry sound I remember from my childhood, when flocks of sparrows abounded, before people ripped out their privet hedges because privet was unfashionable, and swopped iron gutters for plastic ones, thus robbing the sparrows of two favourite nesting sites. The new house has a sparrows' nest and lots of nesting boxes, though the blackbird has built her nest on the roof of one, rather than inside it. I think the older you get, the more you appreciate birds because you have witnessed the rapid decline in their numbers and their beauty is now all the more poignant. Ooh! A woodpecker on the peanuts! Must dash for the camera.