Just parish pump news today. The equine ‘flu scare is over so I’m off to the races on Friday.
Yesterday I was gazing out the study window and saw a rat, a large rat, in the car wash shed at the back of the garden. It surprises me how seldom I have seen rats especially since I was brought up on a farm where there were legions of them. But let’s move on to other shy creatures: birds. When it was cold only a robin earned a loyalty card for repeated visits to the feeders. Now the weather is milder but a goldfinch and a chaffinch have turned up. I am jolly pleased but aware that I may be morphing into a JP Huddle.
You will recall that JPH and his sister, who reside at The Warren, Tilfield, near Slowborough, were put out when a thrush that had built its nest year after year in the catkin-tree on the lawn, for no obvious reason, nested in the ivy on the garden wall. As JPH said ‘we both feel that the change is unnecessary, and just a little bit irritating’. Clovis obliged the Huddles with an unrest cure in Saki’s short story of the same name. I have an unrest cure planned next week.
At Barons Court station, the premises that were a beauty parlour and Paperchase are being fitted out as an up-market coffee shop. But as soon as one door opens another closes – Oddbins has just gone into administration. I have submitted an objection to the planning application for a 26 storey hotel outside the bathroom window and await events.