It's a three swallow summer

In Medieval times the Martlet was used as a heraldic design on shields, roughly represenative of the Swift / Martin / Swallow. Today I think we should measure nice summers on the Swallow scale, if one does not make a summer, then 2 is an adequate one, three a really nice one, four a real scorcher and perhaps throw in a swan to measure the 'best in living memory'.

The armorial bearings of William de Valence, 1st Earl of Pembroke, the summer of year 1296 must have been off the scale !

So what has brought this on ? I've setup my computer workstation on the upper landing, as a result I have a view over pantiles on the 'L' of the house. This has opened up a world hitherto unknown to me, the birds time share on the roof, each breed seeming to take a slice of time to avoid conflict with each other. 9:30 am this morning was the turn of the swallows, off the telephone wires where they had been dangling and intercepting phone calls without permission (I wonder if digital services feel different to analogue ?) and onto the pantiles to sun themselves.

3 of them having a chat seemed particularly photogenic, so I thought they would be worthy of a quick snap, so here are Larry, Curley and Moe the Three Stooges of the Swallow world dressed in their Georgian finery.