When I was small, and Christmas trees were tall… (the first of May always reminds me of the Bee Gees, don’t ask me why, but time has passed us by.)
Wildlife diary: Three pheasant (the cock bird with two hens in tow), the roe deer, and a surprise! I happened to glance out of the kitchen window beyond the pond, and saw what I thought was a dog lying in the long grass. The swift application of the 10×50 binoculars which are now kept handily on the kitchen table revealed that it was in fact a young fox. A few minutes later it was joined by another youngster, and then Mum arrived. They obviously have television in their den tuned to the BBC’s Wildlife channel, because David Attenborough recently did a documentary on the polar bear.
Bear (hah!) with me a moment, I’ll explain. One of the articles described and showed the polar bear hunting seals, and bouncing heavily on the ice to break into the seal’s lair. Well, this is what one of the fox-cubs was doing. I didn’t see any seals, but I’m sure he thought they were there. The two cubs then chased each other up and down for a while until their mother was ready to take them off hunting. Strangely enough this entire episode was also watched by the pheasants, who were standing still in amazement. The cuckoos are still calling to each other.
This morning we paid yet another visit to the aged aunt of LSS to collect our redirected mail and have a much-needed shower. This time we came prepared, with a bottle of vinegar and some caustic soda. The shower head went into a small bowl filled with vinegar, where it stayed whilst we all had some coffee. Some of the caustic soda was sprinkled down the shower drain where it did a sterling job at increasing the rate of drainage. Now one can have a shower without having to jump around to get wet, and without the shower basin filling up with water. Well, the aged aunt is over 80, so at least there was something we could do for her!