In this picture the peregrine chick is thirty-six days old. Nathalie expects her to fledge in about a week.
Already she is adventurous, hopping up onto the ledge surrounding the nest box. Note the orange ring and the white patch on her head; the former a fixture and the latter transient. After a vote she has been named Walnut, with Pixie a close second.
I mentioned giving up drinking spirits but find I need something to drink before having a glass or two of wine. Last month a friend recommended Gordon’s alcohol-free gin. At the time she led me to it but couldn’t make me drink it, reminding me of old joke. Dorothy Parker, asked to use the word “horticulture”, said “you can a lead a whore to culture but you can’t make her think”.
I made two mistakes when Tesco delivered six bottles, well-priced at £14. I put one in the deep freeze, the home of gin. Fortunately I couldn’t resist trying it after a few hours and found it had frozen solid – no alcohol, of course. I thawed it out in the oven – it wouldn’t fit in the microwave – and poured my usually measure. A pub single is enough as it has a strong flavour.
From giving up spirits it’s only a step away from drinking alcohol-free wine but no dice. The gin is zero cals but wine has the alcohol replaced with sugar, so too sweet, too fattening and too cloying.
I never thought I would choose alcohol-free gin, nor did I think I’d sign up to Freddie’s Flowers but I have. We stopped having flowers because Bertie was a bit boisterous. Now he is growing up I want fresh flowers but no longer drive to a supermarket where I used to source them. One of Freddie’s minions will drop off a box of flowers every Tuesday.