Memories

Moonshine, the hamster with the enormous testicles went missing briefly this morning. After a few minutes frantic searching amongst the rubbish and debris that litters the smallest birdwatchers bedroom floor, Moonshine was found hiding in the darkest recesses of the room, having helped himself to a decent portion of carpet. Presumably his diet isn't varied enough. Much relief and smiling all round.

It reminded me of the time I got to look after the class pet, which happened to be a hamster. We brought it home for the weekend and I seem to remember it did little but sleep. But on the Sunday afternoon it escaped. Not the most popular boy in the class my flimsy ratings would have plunged to sub zero if I had gone to school on the Monday with an empty cage. I was not looking forward to going to school and hours of frantic searching revealed nothing but numerous hamster sized holes for it to have disappeared down.

Late on Sunday evening my mum and dad were sitting down watching television when my mum suddenly leaped up and screamed. " A rat. There's a rat in the room. I 've just seen it run across the floor." Dad leaps up and grabing a handy poker was about to beat the "rat" to a pulp when he realised that the rat was in fact the hamster. The hamster was captured and restored to its cage and there was a very happy little boy who took it back to school the next day. Mind you rather an empty cage than a battered body.

Post Number 100

9.30pm on a Saturday evening. I am sitting outside on the bench in the back garden listening to the sounds of swallows high above as they catch their last insects of the day. It is still warm and overcast and,if I had not listened to the reliable weather forecast on Radio 4 a few hours ago,I would be expecting a thunder storm.

Inside, daughter aged "foureen", and even more grumpy than usual because she stayed up till five in the morning at a "sleep over", is watching something inappropriate on the tele. Its one of those programmes that humiliates its contestants by making them do all manner of awful and unpleasant things to themselves and to others for the chance to win a prize. Rugby clubs have been doing this for years, though usually they omit the prize. The bit that I see involves someone hoovering up insects and grubs from a tray with his mouth, and transferring them into a mincing machine. Beneath the outlet pipe of the machine lies his companion, who has to take the minced insects in his mouth and spit them into a device that will then weigh the contents. The winners are the ones that can get the most minced insects by weight in a given period of time. She is transfixed by it, totally fascinated. She hates anything creepy crawly, flinching at flies, bees, any flying insect and running away at the merest rumour that there may be a spider in the house.

"Why are you watching this?" I ask

"Its good"

"Why don't you watch something a little bit more interesting" I suggest, wincing as the bloke doing the hoovering is encouraged to take bigger mouthfuls.

"What you mean like Springwatch? You always try and get us to watch that crap. Just because you've got a thing about badgers and that presenter!"

This is unfair.

"What Bill Oddy?" I say in a mortified sort of voice.

"NO that woman presenter."

"Oh her." There is a silence.

"Look mum will be home soon, and you know she won't approve." I say and feel a bit of a coward as I say it.

"GO AWAY DAD"

So I am in the back garden. Bats flit past, weaving and diving as they hunt insects for food not prizes. There is a breeze rustling the leaves of the trees and the wind chimes tinkle soothingly. I feel peaceful and content. I stretch out my legs. A car drives into the close and I hear Mrs BW pull up on the drive. I sigh and lean back against the warm wall to wait.

London 201.2

So this is the offending logo!

Today is the first time that I have actually seen it, having been in a news black out zone for the past few days, well actually just Buxton, but I've managed to avoid newspapers, and the TV news. Of course I heard about it on Radio 4, but I hadn't got any clear idea as to what it looked like.

Is it a joke?

Perhaps Lord Coe and the other members of the Olympic organising committee are at this very moment laughing heartily at their wind up and will reveal the real logo, with "we really had you all there for a moment didn't we."

But I fear it isn't a joke.

I fear that they may have paid someone money to do this.

It looks like something that you would see on an episode of Dr Who and the Daleks, or in "1984". It has a jagged almost fascist feel to it.

Its a shame because design is one of the things we are good at.

On a Sunny Saturday morning in the Goyt

We saw;

A buzzard, a kestrel, numerous curlews, skylarks, wheatears, swifts, swallows, a lizard see photo below.

The youngest BW spotted a foxes den on the far hillside and we saw an adult fox returning to it.

All this after I had said to him that this year was disappointing for birds and wild life in the Goyt so don't expect to see very much. As he said "Its a good job I came along dad or else you would not have seen anything!"

Mind you he went an spoilt it by telling me I was weird because I was always writing things down in notebooks.

Then there were six

Not a great photo! I only had my phone with me. Looks as if six of the ducklings have survived,which given the hazards of the Wild isn't bad really.