items approved without debate: baby animals, outdoor picnics, and time changes

we awoke to an overcast sky.  then rain.  

as i got ready to head out to the grocery store, the rain stopped.  my phone kept saying it was 8 degrees celsius (or 46 fahrenheit), which i just couldn't believe until i got out there and felt it for myself.  at 9:45 in the morning it was hard to believe it was already that warm.  though it didn't get any warmer during the day, and 46 is where we'll stay all week (and where we've been for who knows how many of the previous weeks... at least approximately.  the 40s seem to suit denmark, to the exclusion of most other temperatures, night or day), but to not have to wait for it to inch its way up was a nice change.  or maybe it's that we first leave the house at 7:30 on weekdays.  adding a couple hours must make a noticeable difference.  except that today it really wasn't a couple hours because in the middle of the night, the time changed. 

on my way to the store-- lambs!  can you see them?  

bear with my middle-of-the-road phone quality zoom for a closer look...

and on my way home... can you see just the smallest speck of white in just about the dead center of the picture?

 well now you really have to suffer my choice in phone cameras.  it's a swan, sitting on her eggs in the nest she, and presumably monsieur swan, have made (though i haven't seen him around on my trips from the store)...

busily eating... too busy to look up for a picture...

speaking of eating, william had a friend over today.  henry insisted on having an outdoor picnic.  it lasted a few minutes after this photo was taken and then a glass bowl broke into many pieces on top of the sandwiches after one of the boys put it onto his head and it slid off.  the price we pay for letting three little boys picnic without proper supervision...

no one was harmed in the breaking of the bowl.

and now that one of our hours has been legally taken from us, i must finish this post so we do not set a precedent of omitting poirot from our post-daylight savings time activities.

2324th Council meeting TRANSPORT Brussels, 20 and 21 December 2000

ITEMS APPROVED WITHOUT DEBATE

TRANSPORT

Directive on summer-time arrangements

The Council, having approved the amendments to the proposal for a Directive on summer-time arrangements which were voted by the European Parliament at first reading, adopted the Directive as amended by the Parliament.

It should be noted that, in view of the expiry of the 8th Directive on summer-time arrangements on 31 December 2001, the Commission submitted in June 2000 a proposal for the adoption by the end of the year of new arrangements from 2002. Summer-time arrangements, which have been maintained over the last twenty years or so, are renewed for an unspecified period and the last Sundays in March and October are the dates definitively adopted. The Commission will oversee the repercussions of the new Directive and will submit a report to the Council after five years.