Notes from the country with Vicky Turrell

  ‘I don’t know what my daughter will think,’ she says. I am shivering in the fish queue again. For just one hour, one day a week, you can buy fresh fish. Such a treat for us being so far from the coast. I am second from the back. The queue stays about the same size. Too long and I would not want to wait that time, too short and it would not catch your eye. The fishmonger is an expert at regulating the line of people, chatting for a long time or a short time to create an interest. ‘Where is your daughter?’ I ask. “She is in Australia, but is coming home tomorrow, what on earth will think of our weather?” The only thing that takes up as much time as weather in our conversation is potholes. But I am at the front now paying my money and I have run out of time. We seem to have also run out of time and money for our food recycling bins. My sister in Yorkshire has a little food bin that she puts out for regular Council collection. I am trying to remember what we did with waste food...

  ‘Beep, beep.’ I was hurrying along to visit a friend in hospital when I heard this noise from a car behind me. Then ‘Honk, honk,’ it went even louder this time. I had only just left my car in the car park when heard the noise. It sounded impatient but I cannot walk any faster. ‘Honk, honk, honk,’ it blared.’ How dare they? The park is for walkers as well as cars. I was getting annoyed as the engine revved and the impertinent car edged along. She slid her window down. Here it comes, I thought, she will be shouting at me and telling me to get out of the way. “You have dropped your scarf,” she yelled against the noise of the driving rain and interminable traffic. I turned around and saw my beautiful scarf flapping along in the puddles powered by high winds. I did not have time to thank her before she sped off away from the crowded park. This was my warm, woollen scarf which I bought on impulse when I ordered my last jumper (the colour was appropriately called ‘Wreckage’!) in the...

  They came in their thousands. It was hard to believe how many there were. The sky was suddenly taken over by huge black shapes. We were in a bird hide at sunset when it happened and I could hardly believe my eyes. The hut was crowded with bird watchers holding binoculars. But you did not really need any help to see this spectacle. ‘Swoop, swoop’, cloud after cloud swished over us.   A small group was joined by another and another until there was a monster swirling mass changing shape in a split second in the sky above us. When we went to the bird hide earlier in the month, we were alone, but someone wanted to join us. You have scan the QR code and fill in an application form before you get a number to unlock the door to the hide. But when we were punching the number in someone shouted. “Wait, hold the door.” A couple were running towards us. “We do not have the number.” What do you do? Do you let someone into a locked hide? They quickly stepped inside telling us that the...

  “We are delighted to confirm your … initial appointment with us.” The letter addressed to me was in a big white envelope and it was a hospital appointment. I did not know anything about a new hospital visit. I scanned down the paragraphs. The appointment date was for Wednesday 8th October. I thought that they were informing me in good time, too much time. I read more carefully and saw that it said 8th October 2025. Had I missed an appointment? Well, no I had not, a quick check on my computer calendar showed that I had been to the hospital on that date. What had gone wrong? It is a mystery. I rang the hospital and they did not know what had happened. In any case I had attended the appointment because they had sent me a message via text to remind me. So, all is well and who knows what journeys and adventures my late letter had for four months before it arrived with me? It was an adventure for me too to go shopping in town the other day. I wanted some jeans as all my others are ...

  We are here at last! We made it through last month which seemed to have a thousand days. Now we are in shorter feathery February. The birds are here too. In February they have their wedding day – so the old saying goes, you will hear their song and see their new bright feathers ready for the event. I had a new bird feeder recently and I have filled it with my home-made bird pudding. The little birds love it because it is easy for them, but the big birds are puzzled. They find it hard to use the feeder, but that does not stop them from trying. The black corvids line up on the fence like warning notes and plan their strategy. ‘Ah’ thinks one ‘I will simply land on that dangling ball and steal that delicious pudding,’ but it is not that easy. He lands on it and before he has a chance to dig his beak into that tempting mixture, he falls off. Undeterred another one has a go. ‘I will hold on to the fence and reach across,’ he thinks. He tries this, but the dangling ball of food m...

  Something has gone wrong. Last year in September I planted two bowls of bulbs and left them in the garage, visiting occasionally to water them. Well, I have been telling everyone that one set of bulbs is growing really fast. They are already six inches high and big buds with crumpled petals are swelling at an alarming rate. But they are not what I expected. The packet I kept with the bowl shows purple tulips, perfect as a contrast for our pale walls of the new house. How good they would look, a real artistic touch, I thought. But they are not showing one drop of colour. They are cream and will be hidden against the light background. The hole was hidden as well. Perfectly camouflaged. It was full of water and you would not know it was there. We went in with a bang and luckily, we were not moving fast but it was still a shock as we dropped and we did not expect it. We thought that the roads would be fine after extensive work last year. The following week the hole was worse an...