18 May 2009 10:46 PM

Today, Monday, while waiting for the heating engineer to give our heating system its one year service, I thought I would spend a little time in the garden; it's all 'pottering' now the hard work is out of the way.

Everytime I put on my boots, to go in the garden, the weather changed-almost at a blink of and eye-one minute being warm and dry and the next cold and wet.

After about an hour of waiting, I ventured out and when it was not raining, it was a beautiful morning but, not for long.  The next twenty minutes saw me in and out of the house, as it poured down with rain, several times and, in the end, I gave in and decided to do some work on the computer.

Three years ago, when we first came to live in the house we are now in, the bad weather was blamed on 'elninyo, sorry about the spelling but I think the Spanish translation means 'little child.'

The second year was blamed on 'global warming' and it looks as though this year's excuse, for unseasonable weather is going to be the 'jet stream. '

The Jet Stream, for people that are not familier with the term,  is a stream of air that is in the north and south 'spheares.' of the world.

The Jet Stream, called that because hen jets were able to get into the stream of air, they were carried along and fuel could be saved.

I think, if I am not mistaken, that the 'jet stream' is about 12 miles high. 

The current of air was not know about until as late as the ending of the second world war.  I will go into that a little deeper if you so ask me to.

Anyway, it is now thought, because of the global warming, that the jet stream is moving further north and that this is the cause of us getting so much bad weather in England. 

Not enough is know about the 'jet stream,' to say for sure what the stream will do next but I wonder, if we carry on gettin bad weather, as we seem to be doing again this summer, what the answere the 'weather men' will come up with this time.

I remember, when I was a boy in school, we were told that the weather was so unsettled, in England, because of the mountain reagion running up the middle of the country.  The mountains are know as the back bone of the country.  How things have changed since my youth.

By for now,

John. 

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16 May 2009 11:31 PM

Yesterday, Friday, almost from dawn to dusk, the rain-as they say-came down in 'buckets' and, in the evening, after a short 'rest bite' from the rain, we witnessed a thunder and lightening storm that was so close to where we lived it rocked the house we live in. 

Having said that, and I am unsure why yet, we were only visited by the woodpecker at 6 a.m.

Throughout the day, on and off, I sat at my dining room window, looking out into the back garden, hoping for another sighting of the beautiful bird that we hoped to see more of but I was to be unlucky.

Collard Doves, Song Thrushes, Wrens, Robins, Chaffinch, Greenfinch and common House Sparrows were to be seen so I was not disappointed by the types of birds that were coming to the garden.

Having said that, with only a fleeting sighting of the Woodpecker at about 6 a.m., I quietly waited for my wife to rise, from her bed, before presenting her with my usual ceremonial cup of tea. 

Once we were up and running, we planned our day and while we were speaking, for it began to rain heavy again, we decided to lightened our day with merry quips.

My wife asked me if I had seen anything of the woodpecker and when I told her of the one and only early morning wsighting, I asked her if she had any ideas as to why the bird had deserted us.  There was no reply so I gave my own.

'Hello dear.'

The male bird said to its sitting partner.  I said.

'Look, I have brought your breakfast.'  The mail said thrusting a full beak at her.

'What's this?'  She said with a pitiful look on her face.

'It's what you like isn't it?'  He said as he tried to stimulate her 'gape.'

'I know I said I liked nuts but that does not mean I want them everyday.' 

Just my joke but it does remind me of the time, when I was a young man, and I told my wife that I loved jam sandwiches.  I received jam sandwiches, every day for a week, on the food I took to work.

Of course, this bares no resembles as to why the woodpecker is no longer coming to see us.  My guess is that someone or something has disturbed the bird.

On a more sensible note, while I was looking out of the dining room window and also doing a painting, my wife had gone to an official opening of a new community building that we have been trying to get for many years. 

At the meeting, the Mayor and his consort were in attendance. 

I should add that my wife is one of those people that can make instant friends with anybody she finds to be genuine.

Has it turned out, the Mayor, when opening the new facility, was making his last engagement, after one year's service.

The consort, with her own Chain and regalia, summoned my wife and some other ladies, into a side room where they were all treated, for their volunteer community work, to a wonderful ladies laughter session.

My wife, with an infectious laugh, takes no time to get warmed up and was soon almost rolling round with laughter that eventually made her ribs ache.

Later, my wife said that the consort was a wonderful lady with no 'airs or graces' yet well trained in the ways of court. 

Has it happens, and it is quite by chance, the Mayer was to hand over his chain and robes, on the same evening, to an old acquaintance of mine. 

The new mayor and I go back a long way and although we are different in our approach and character, the two of us-over the years-have had our moments when things have come together as we tried to help our fellow man.

Another coincidence is that my son and I were invited to a private art exhibition, earlier in the week, and the now new Mayor was also a visitor to the exhibition.

I think it is a case that 'like-minded' people seem to all go round together in some way or another.

John.     
     

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15 May 2009 11:47 PM

I have mentioned, in my past blogs, that my son and I have turned our wilderness, of a garden, into a beautiful oasis for wildlife.

Well, the other day, our hard work was rewarded by a visiting male Great Spotted Woodpecker and, after putting out nuts to attract the woodpecker, we are now seeing this beautiful bird several times a day. 

Over the past couple of years, we have planted flowers and shrubs that should attract all kinds of nature's bounty but the question I ask myself is whether or not our contribution has made the Woodpecker visit our garden or are there outside influences involved here.  I was determined to try and find out.

The first question, I asked myself, was why are we seeing the Woodpecker this year and not last year?  What has changed in the garden?  Well, my first thought was that the plants and shrubs, we planted a couple of seasons ago now, must be mature enough for this particular bird to feel safe in our garden.  Surely not!

The difference between this year's growth season, in the garden, and last year's seasons, I believe is valid. 

This year, there is a maturity about the garden that I could not have envisaged when we were planting up; in other words, things seem to grow very quickly, in the garden, and I partly put this down to only using organic ways and cultures to keep the garden looking lovely. 

Perhaps, more importantly, our next-door neighbour, and her cat, have moved away from the area.  'That's it then, problem solved, no more cat!'

I decided to look further. 

Our garden overlooks the park and, earlier in the year, our park keeper, and his wife, became ill and they were no longer able to look after the park.  The park house was vacated and within days the vandals came in and ripped the inside of the house out.  Anything that could have been taken out of the house was duly removed. It is a sad state of affairs!

In an attempt to try and stop the total destruction of the park house, it was decided to fence the house, and the land around it, off and the vandalism stopped.  While the fencing was being erected, 'tree surgeons' cut down some of the old trees and also 'made safe' trees with long ganglion branches.  The back of the park house was 'bulldozed' and a wall of builders' rubble now surrounds the back of the house.  The result is that no one can enter through the back garden and it has made the place totally private.

When the Woodpecker has visited our nuts, it flies off in the direction of the park house.  Problem solved, the bird is nesting in the grounds of the 'park house'!

I wonder! 

The woodpecker, now in complete safety, has nested in the old trees that surround the Park House.  However, was that the real cause of the Woodpecker nesting in the park area?  I decided to delve even deeper. 

About three quarters of an hour's walk away from where I live; there is a nature reserve I helped, as a young man, to plant up with tree saplings.  The saplings, some of which are now mature trees, could easily accommodate a woodpecker's nest site so why aren't the trees being used?

My wife, now wishing to find answers to the questions I was asking, walked with me to the far side of the nature reserve. 

The far end of the reserve is now skirted with bulldozers, 'heavy plant' machines, and there is evidence of mass earth moving disturbance to cater for a much needed road 'by pass.' 

My guess is birds, that wanted to use the reserve to nest on, have been disturbed by the human activity but I would have to have a closer look at the nesting birds to find out if I was right or wrong. 

What started out as a 'clear cut' answer, as to why we were getting the woodpecker, has now suddenly altered! 

The desire to make a nest and breed, at this time of year, must surely be very strong and like you and I, if we were trying to do a domestic chore, in a house that was suddenly over flowing with people, we would try to move somewhere where the task would be easier for us. 

My hypothesis is the woodpecker, that is usually on the nature reserve site, was troubled by all the noise and disturbance and decided to chance its luck in pastures new.

If I am right, in thinking the way I do, then, in this case, the disturbance factor, about three miles from where I live, has given me the best and longest sightings, over a walking nature ramble of almost 40 years, I will ever receive.

I will never know, for sure, if all the pieces of information have lead me in the right direction, to be able to say that my findings are correct, but one lives in hope that I am using the criteria, in the right way, and hope that I am not leading you all down the wrong path. 

If you try to do some of the kinds of detective work I have been doing, please feel free to ask me and I will do my best to try and find easy routes for you to follow.

John.             

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15 May 2009 2:16 AM

Today, Thursday, I awoke early with the sound of the birds coming in through the open window vent.  I did not wish to awaken the rest of my family so I tiptoed round the house, preparing what I would need, and waited until my wife broke her night's slumber.

Has it turned out, a domestic problem held us up and we did not get out of the house until the usual time and my early start became in vein.

The journey, into town, was not as bad as I thought it would be although the commuter traffic was slow for the time of day.  To our surprise, the shopping did not take as long as we thought it would and, before long, we were on our way round our favourite food supermarket.

While we were going round, we noted a man and a women were taking  an over zealot view of what we were doing.

We 'dodeged' them but, to our surprise, when we were in the 'cashout' queue, the couple were behind us.

The couple, still keen to see what we were doing, did not say anything and everything went well until my wife produced her food credit card, the card went into the machine and she was about to enter the 'pin numbers' when the man moved so that he could see what she was doing.

Quickly, I moved so that I was between the man and my wife and, at that moment, the man said.  "Can I watch what your wife is doing?"

Of course, my reply was to be no but the man tried again and when I said no again the man went into raptures of abuse.  The F word came out and a few other choice words too.

The lady, on the cashout, looked at me and her jaw dropped in amazement as to what was going on.

I ignored the man's insults and carried on doing what I was trying to do with the swiped items.

Due to still having problems with the shoulder I dislocated, earlier in the year when the frost was thick, I decided it would be best for me to put the goods back in the trolly and bag them when we were away from the counter.

The man, now moving about in an ajitated fashion, began his insults again and I chose to ignore him a second time. 

My wife was flustered and I asked her if she was all right, which seemed to stop the abuse coming, and when we had paid for the goods we moved away from the scene and packed the bags.

I do not know what transpired from there for we did not see the couple again but it was in the back of my mind, had the abuse continued, to ask the 'cashout lady' to call security.

I know I have mentioned, in the past, that rudeness seems to be on the increase but verbal abuse also seems to becoming commonplace and, to my amazement, from people older than myself.

Up until now, I thought it was the younger generation that was to be blamed for all the rudeness that was coming our way but I now feel I have to take that back and apologise for my mistake.

John. 

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4 May 2009 9:12 PM

Firstly, may I extend my thanks to all of the wonderful people that have written  kind comments to my latest blog; I will reply soon.

Having said that, I am a little diflated today.  I will explain, for I do not know what is going on and, some of you may have the answers for me.

Earlier in the year, when there was a keen and prolonged frost, I fell on my art box breaking ribs and hurting a shoulder that is still not back to its full use.  I am still a little timid of over using the shoulder.

As some of you will know, my son and I, who have not gardened until we moved into the house we are now renting and because we have inherited a garden that was a jungle (by English standards,)  we are trying to make the plot an Eden for ourselves and wildlife and, at the same time, we are planing the land so that the eventual outcome is low maintenance.

My son, on half term this week, said he would go to the DIY garden centre with me, I wanted three Lavenders, on special offer, and we were also able to purchace three stone flags.  The three flags will hopefully be enough for my son to finish, when he has the time, a project that will make it easy to go onto a small patch of land to hoe and also to prevent us from making the soil 'hard packed' and difficult to weed and manage.

We had purchased the things we wanted, and my son had put the flags into the boot of the car, when he asked me if I would drive him to a supermarket across the road from where we were.

My son went into the 'mal,' to purchase a food treat he wanted, and I parked the car up.

On my way to the huge shopping complex, I noticed two people changing their direction so that they were going to be on a collision path with me.  I took evasive action, so that I was out of their way, but this did not seem to be good enough for the young woman of the dueted party.  The wind sprang up, as was the case all day, and I lifted my good arm, to hold down my baseball cap. 

The next thing I knew I was being 'shoulder charged' by the woman I had tried to move out of the way of.  I staggered, and it was not until the woman, when she turned towards me, had seen the severity of what she had acomplished, said, in a matter of fact way, that she was sorry and then marched off as though my plight was a normal occurance.

This is the second time I have been almost mown down, by the charge of a women, since I had my accident.

At first, I thought this particular young women, although I shouldn't really use a collective noun here, had decided that all mature men had to get out of her way but I have, after some thought, dismissed this idea for it bounds into the realms of becoming obsessive and that is something I believe all mature people should avoid at all costs.

No, it is probable that young women, today, have so much on their mind that they do not see what is going on around them.

Either that (I am joking) or they are atracted by my magetic charm and are simply trying to get my undivided attention. 

Just joking.

By for now,

John.

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