The Kestrel (?) and the Kingfisher

I don't claim to have the cleanest of windows; not by a long chalk. We do, however, have many trees which throw their reflections on my grimy panes and confuse the local bird population no end. Usually, it's just pigeons that hit with a loud thump and fly off again, leaving me with a pounding heart and yet another birdie print on the glass. Some of the prints are quite beautiful but the eyeball imprints turn my stomach somewhat! A couple of weeks ago, we experienced another thump. This time, on going to investigate, I discovered a rather dazed looking kestrel on the patio. At least, I think it's a kestrel. I'm more used to recognising them hovering in the air, not sitting looking bedraggled on my flagstones. Can any ornithology enthusiasts out there identify it? It was quite small, hence why I thought it was a kestrel, but it may have been a young something else.

It sat there for ages, with R and I peering worriedly through the glass. Our neighbours have a couple of cats that we're always having to chase away from the bird feeders. Whilst this bird looked maybe a little too big/aggressive for the local moggies to have a go at, you never know and it was extremely visible and vulnerable sitting there in the rain.

After a while, I rang the local bird of prey rescue centre. The chap answered and said that he was currently in the New Forest, but would be back in the evening. Apparently, kestrels (if that's what it was) will sit there for hours when stunned. If we were worried, we could throw a towel over it, put it in a box and he would call in on his way home and collect it. Otherwise, we were to keep a distant eye on it and, hopefully, it would fly off when it had recovered sufficiently. 

So, that's what we did. I went about my business nonchalantly, like Winnie the Pooh not looking at the bees. Thankfully, after a couple of hours, off it flew.

A few days later, there was another thump on the glass. Glancing up, I saw a pigeon flying away and thought that that was the cause. On getting up, however, I saw a very sad sight indeed. There was a kingfisher lying on the patio. We have the River Lambourn at the bottom of the garden and, if you are very quiet and lucky, you will occasionally see a kingfisher darting along the water. They are the most beautiful sight and I was heartbroken that our patio doors had been the cause of its death. It's neck was broken; possibly because of the length of its beak. At least it would have been quick. I couldn't bear to just throw it in the bin, so we buried it by the edge of the river. 

R commented that many taxidermists would have loved to get their hands on it. He looked it up and, apparently, flying into glass is how they get most of their specimens. For £250, we could have had it stuffed, but I don't really know how I feel about stuffed animals. I've admired stuffed dodos etc in museums along with the next person, but there is always something tragic about them, with their sad, glassy eyes. So, I'm glad we let it rest in peace. We have since seen another kingfisher whilst having the last BBQ of the year, so at least we weren't responsible for the death of the only one in the area. I just hope it wasn't its mate!

Other events this month:

An antique and brocante fair at Shaw House. It was nice to potter round, but very expensive and a lot of it was modern:

The Southern Wool Show at the racecourse. This was my first yarn show since the whole Covid fiasco and it was lovely to smell those yarn fumes again. I went with 2 things in mind - a skein of sock wool and a sweater's quantity of yarn for Joji Locatelli's 'The Easy One'. I found both!

The sock yarn is the 2021 Christmas yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners. I'm not a huge fan of stellina yarn, but it's become a bit of a tradition that my Christmas Eve cast on is with WYS. I was torn between the green sweater yarn and a burnt autumnal orange/brown. The stall owner actually took my photo holding both up to my face to help me decide. Between us, we thought that the green suited me better, so that's the one I bought. I haven't cast it on yet.

Other yarny endeavours this month include a pair of spiral wrist warmers. I initially intended them to be socks. The pattern has no heel and, after knitting so far, I tried it on and decided that I wasn't keen. Luckily, the wrist warmer pattern was the same number of stitches, just shorter, so that's what they became instead.

There was enough yarn left over to make a proper heel flap and gusset pair of socks, providing that I do a contrasting toe and cuff:

This photo is for the lovely CJ. She kindly sent me some pilea peperomioides babies in the spring and they are now much bigger and producing babies of their own. I'll leave them in situ until next spring and then try separating them:

Various walks have taken place. The one below was a circular walk starting in St. Mary Bourne. We went there specifically to pick blackberries as the ones we picked last year were fantastic - huge and with an amazing floral flavour. Sadly, conditions this year were obviously not as ideal. They still had the same flavour, but were much smaller and quite hard. In addition, I managed to get my walking boot caught in a bramble and ended up flat on my back in a patch of nettles. Adding insult to injury, as I fell my arm shot up and my collected blackberries flew far and wide! I'm not sure that the resultant pie was worth the bother:

Cow on Greenham Common walk:

Circular walk at Pewsey. Unfortunately, it poured down when we were about halfway round and we were soaked. We had a slightly damp picnic under a tree and waited for it to ease off:

A heron, spotted whilst walking back along the towpath. We also popped into an amazing charity shop. You know, one of the actually cheap ones! I bought a lovely terracotta plant pot and a copy of 'The Complete Father Brown Stories' for 50p each. :O)

An elephant hawk moth caterpillar. Looking at our local neighbourhood website, these are very common at the moment:

A couple of marrows found hiding in the veggie patch. One is now soup and I have my eye on the other for a curry:

A trip to the Watermill Theatre to see a play about Amy Johnson:

It was brilliant and the actress kept up a beautiful Hull accent throughout. Having listened to a recording of Johnson speaking, however, despite being born there she sounded nothing like that!

Another trip to the theatre. This time to see 'The Comedy of Errors' at Stratford. It was an outdoor performance (Covid again!) but, luckily, the rain kept off and a fine time was had by all. 

Shakespeare's grave:

Lunch at an amazing vegan cafe. We returned later in the afternoon to sample their cakes too! :O)

Well, that's all for this month. I'm just off for a swim and then to tackle the supermarket run. Anything exciting going on at your end?

Toodle pip for now. x

Olympics

I was never one for sport in school. There were those who were rarely seen outside lessons when they weren't wearing some sort of track suit/ sports gear. Not me, oh no, I was the one having the 5 year period! Our 'O' and 'A' levels (yes, I am that old!) were held in the gymnasium and I remember my PE teacher, who happened to be invigilating, commenting that it was the longest amount of time that I had spent there in 7 years! I quite liked hockey, despite the compulsory wearing of PE shorts and thin airtex blouse in sub-zero temperatures. I wouldn't have minded so much if the PE teacher hadn't been wearing enough layers to make an eskimo envious.

I do feel that I would have been very good at synchronised swimming - I've never tried it mind, but I'm very synchronised when I practise by myself in the bath. None of that putting my head under the water nonsense, but I have the straight leg and pointy toe bit down to a fine art! 

These days, after a brief flirtation with running, I stick to yoga every morning, walking, and swimming 40 lengths 3 times a week. I hope that's enough exercise as I have no desire to do more. Classes at the gym seem to involve some kind of social interaction whilst waiting for them to start and I've never been very good at that sort of thing. It's too reminiscent of all the mums at pick up time! I'm perfectly happy to exchange a watery hello and a comment on the water temperature or 'Tsunami Man' with the pool regulars, but that's about as far as it goes.

So, it's rather strange that I quite enjoy watching sport. Wimbledon has me glued to the set for 2 weeks every year and I quite like watching rugby and snooker too. My Dad was a big fan, so I think he got me interested. Cricket goes over my head, although I quite like the idea of sitting in a chair on a summer's day with a picnic and something vaguely alcoholic to hand, and football leaves me furious; the players seeming to fall over clutching something, with Oscar-worthy drama, every time someone comes near them.

Every 4 years (or 5 in this case) when the Olympics comes round I show an initial marked lack of interest - even when it was held in London. Other people were rushing to order tickets and making an effort to see the Olympic torch pass by and I really couldn't have cared less. Then there's that moment when I sit down with a cup of tea and happen across it on the TV by accident and that's it ...... I'm hooked! Suddenly, I'm an expert and sports that I've shown a complete lack of interest in before - BMX, who knew?! - have me gripped. I'm pointing out my favourite Olympians to R, cheering loudly for anyone wearing a GB vest, getting over-emotional about show-jumping (me, who's usually terrified on a horse!) and joining in with diver Tom Daley as he sobs during the National Anthem. I'm an emotional wreck. The only downsides are R complaining constantly about the presenter - naming no names - who is a stranger to the letter 'g'  (we have swimmin, runnin, cyclin, divin - you get the idea), the misogynistic rules regarding the women's beach volleyball outfits and the NZ weightlifter Laurel Hubbard - don't get me started! 

So, that's my entertainment sorted for the foreseeable future. A cup of tea, my knitting and something sporty to cheer on and I'm a very happy bunny.

We have managed to squeeze in a few other activities lately:

A trip to Slimbridge Wetland Centre. It was brilliant, although, rather sadly, one of our favourite bits was hand feeding the pigeons!

The moorhens were very tame too. We have them in the garden and they come to the back door to be fed but they're not tame enough for this:

Avocet:

My personal favourite - the flamingos. I could have sat and watched these all day. By happy chance, Michael Morpurgo was on Radio 4's 'Tweet of the Day' talking about flamingos soon after our visit. He too is enchanted by them. Apparently, there is something about the noise they make that speaks to his soul. I know just what he means.

I was also impressed by the hides dotted around the place. I could see myself spending a cold or rainy winter's day, hunkered down in one with some binoculars, a packed lunch and a thermos of hot tea. So cosy!

Last week we watched the 2005 version of 'Pride and Prejudice' on the TV. The one with Keira Knightly as Elizabeth and Matthew Macfadyen  as Mr. Darcy. I've seen it before but I still loved it. It's an all star cast, the cinematography and music are excellent and (say it in hushed tones...) I think I prefer it to the Colin Firth version! R looked up the various locations where it was set and discovered that a lot of it was filmed at Stourhead, the NT estate in Wiltshire. Looking for a destination for a day trip at the weekend, we decided to pay it a visit. I packed up a picnic and we set off. Not far into our journey, the heavens opened. We stopped in a lay-by to put up Bridget's hood and continued grimly on. It was still Biblical when we arrived and we ate our sandwiches in the car whilst peering glumly out, looking for a patch of blue sky. This wasn't the weather that Metcheck had promised! 2 Sandwiches, a couple of oranges and a flask of tea later, it miraculously cleared up. On went the walking boots and, armed with the golfing umbrella (Nope, we've never played that either!), we set off. The grounds were beautiful - 1072 hectares of glorious scenery, studded with a Pantheon, 2 temples and a Gothic  Hansel and Gretel style cottage.

The Pantheon:

 

The roof and oculus are similar in style to the Pantheon in Rome:

View from the Pantheon:

The Temple of Apollo - Mr. Darcy makes his first proposal in the film here!

The house itself was rather glorious as well. My favourite room was the library. Sadly, the kitchens (usually my favourite bit of any NT property) were out of bounds.

The 'Pope's Cabinet':

The walled garden and greenhouses were a treat too.

It was a lovely day out and I'm really glad we persevered. The rain made a forceful comeback when we were halfway round the lake, so we were very grateful for that umbrella!

Newbury's combined Garden Show and 'All about Dogs'.

For a mere £2, you could 'Hug a Pug' to raise money for the rescue centre. It was the best £2 I've spent in a while. They were absolutely adorable! On entering the pen, they all beetled over for a cuddle - all that is except Harry (see photo below on right), who was born with myelitis and had paralysed rear legs. For out and about he has a little carriage on wheels for his rear end! Some had been rescued from as far away as China, where they were being sold in a market. :O(

I had to change as soon as I got home as they were quite moulty and Hamish didn't appreciate the smell of dog!

An outdoor performance of 'Romeo and Juliet' at Shaw House. It was a lovely evening out - we took a picnic and Gs&T in tins! The only bad bit was after the interval when, as dusk descended, the midges came out. Great clouds of them had the audience swatting surreptitiously. I was wearing a jacket but the following day I counted 25 bites on my forehead and umpteen on my hands and wrists. Next time - insect repellent!

Bath time for Hamish!

Last but not least, another photo of Bert and Ernie. This one is a little out of date - they have now grown and it turns out that they are actually Bertha and Ernestine!

Well, that's all for now. Anyone been up to anything exciting recently? Anyone else similarly obsessed with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics?  Yes, that date keeps messing with my head as well!

Toodle pip for now. x

Dorchester

Late Friday afternoon saw us popping off to Dorset for a micro-break. Micro, because we were only there for 1 night, returning late on Saturday. Short though it was, we had a lovely time and I only wish that it could have been longer.

We stayed at the 'Little Court Hotel' in Charminster on the outskirts of Dorchester. It was a lot posher than our usual holiday accommodation and I was worried about lowering the tone. We tend towards the sartorially casual and travelling in Bridget adds a certain windswept air into the mix! I needn't have been anxious, however, the welcome couldn't have been warmer and the house and gardens were beautiful. We weren't there long enough to take advantage of the pool and tennis court, but the stunning views and quiet location made me want to sell our house in a little market town and head for the countryside.

We had visited Dorchester once before when the girls were small. Its fictional equivalent is Thomas Hardy's Casterbridge:

 It's a fantastic place for a short break with museums galore and some lovely places to eat. Friday night saw us tucking into Thai food at one of the local restaurants. We didn't feel the need to do the museums again, so contented ourselves with a little wander round the centre before heading back to the hotel to enjoy the gardens some more.

Breakfast on Saturday morning was the vegan equivalent of the 'full English'. They even managed to cook the mushrooms properly - on many an occasion in the past, we have been faced with a portion of unseasoned, pallid, poached in their own juices shrooms. As Julia Child was wont to say: 'Don't crowd the mushrooms'!

We checked out and headed to Maiden Castle, an Iron Age fort first laid out in 600BC.

Bridget at Maiden Castle in the early morning mist.

I was very glad of my walking boots as it was all a little damp first thing in the morning.

Next on the list was Abbotsbury Swannery. This is the world's only managed colony of nesting mute swans, set on the site of an 11th century monastery. Again, we had visited here before, but it was well worth a second visit. There was a one way system in place to comply with Covid regulations but the cygnets and chick pea bhaji pasty at the cafe made the visit memorable!

Nearby is Chesil Beach where Barnes Wallis' prototype bouncing bomb was tested.

After lunch, we headed to the nearby subtropical gardens - buying tickets to both this and the swannery allows you a 25% discount. We hadn't been here before and were delighted by the variety of plants and the statues dotted around the place. 

We popped back into Dorchester briefly to visit an antiques market there. I bought a small oak stool as a souvenir. We have a lot of house plants and I'm always on the lookout for things to lift them above Hamish's reach!

Last on the list before heading home was a trip to Cerne Abbas, a quaint village best known for its .........

Hill Filth!

At this point Bridget let us down badly. Her clutch started playing up, making changing gears a bit of an event. R was very stressed and wanted to get home as quickly as possible via the route with the fewest roundabouts/traffic lights. The A303 (nice view of Stonehenge)  and the A34 were the best, if not the most scenic roads. The football match between England and the Ukraine ensured little traffic, so we eventually arrived home intact and very relieved. Bridget is now in the garage with her engine removed (only way to access the relevant bit), having a little think!

Other happies this month:

Finishing my Granny Chic dress. Actually, I finished it a while ago, but it is now warm enough to wear it. I'm not the best seamstress, but it will do for in the garden.

Winding up yarn for a pair of Kate Selene's 'Spiral Socks' . They have no heel, so I'm curious as to how they will turn out:

Finishing my Lockdown Scrappy Boxy Sweater:

An outdoor production of Noel Coward's 'Blithe Spirit'. Made more amusing when a male cyclist came into the park and stopped behind the stage to see what was going on, just as we were expecting Madam Arcati to cycle up. We weren't sure if it was going to be a gender fluid performance! He then got a taste for the attention and made various appearances throughout the play, despite furious looks from the organisers!

 

Finally, a trip with my friend, S, to Bristol Zoo. We hadn't seen each other for ages owing to the pandemic, so it was lovely to catch up. I nipped in to see E on my way home.

Well, that's it for this month. If you haven't been, I can thoroughly recommend a trip to Dorchester. A word of advice though: try and make the journey in a car with a fully functioning clutch!

Toodle pip for now. x