Notes from the country with Vicky Turrell

  I knew the answer! Straight away I shouted ‘kestrel’ at the TV. It was University Challenge and Amol was asking about the ‘windhover’. You sometimes see one hovering over the roadside verges, keeping in one place and only moving its wings and tail to balance. Mind you I did not manage to answer many more questions this time. Our kestrel has not been around for a while and I know that their numbers are dwindling so I was pleased to see it his week on the wires above Oak Meadow. It sat there with its hunched orangey back lighting up in the winter sun whilst it was intent on a little creature in the grass below. In the darkness we sometimes have the owls over Oak Meadow, but did you know that at night the light pollution is altering insect and bird behaviour? Robins are singing in the ‘dark’ and creatures are becoming confused with the constant light. There are only six international dark sky reserves in the UK and our nearest is in Wales. In Shropshire I have been to Carding ...

  ‘Press here’ says the letter from the Council. It was to find out more information about road closures. Now that seems sensible except that this was not an email, it was a physical letter on paper. How could I click on a piece of paper?   It was not even a simple web site name, there were more than thirty letters and digits, and of course I could not copy and paste because it was not on my mobile. In this digital world we seem to have muddled real life with computer internet. I have been using my computer to sell things. I am having a clear out and some items are too good to throw away and some are too big for the charity shops. But you must be careful. I ‘sold’ a lovely pine cupboard for the bargain price of £10 to someone online. He was coming to collect around 10am. Then I had a text asking if I would agree to bank transfer. I did not want to do a transaction on mobiles using banking apps with someone I did not know. ‘Cash please’ I tapped. ‘Ah OK. I’ve only got £5 ...

  We are almost there. I always think that the waiting is the worst time of all. This weekend we will have the shortest day when the daylight hours are few and the darkness overtakes. The sun will rise, only to set a few hours later. Here in Shropshire, we will have about six and a half hours of daylight with the sun rising after our breakfast. I sit at the table and see the trees in our woodland turning red with the sun’s rising glow. Then well before tea I see the weak spread of gold glinting across my neighbour’s sheep filled field as the sun sets for the day. We had a strange autumn this year with people saying that the leaves were staying on the trees too long. The autumn was mild. Our hornbeams clung on to their orange leaves at first but then came the storms and the ash leaves dropped overnight with the delicate silver birch doing the same. We have tumbled into winter without warning. Our café here in town was asking for a warning when we ordered out food yesterday. On t...

  I have made a booking at last. The instructions told me to go online and follow the directions so that is what I did. Shropshire.gov.uk then Recycling and rubbish and if you are still coping it is Household recycling centre bookings, from there you choose your vehicle, read the restrictions and simply fill in details for you and your car. We had a slot of fifteen minutes at a named centre and we had to take identification. Packing the car was the easy bit. We were early and expected to have to wait on the side but not a bit of it, we were waved on. “You are on our system,” shouted the smiling attendant not even looking at our eagerly proffered ID. We sailed through as the barrier lifted but not so the person in the car behind. He did not seem to have known about booking and to his dismay he was stopped at the barrier. There was only one other car on site but there were lots of assistants to help us. “We used to fill this skip twice a week,” said one, “but now it takes a...

  It has happened again. I can hardly believe it. Three months ago, to my horror a tooth at the front of my mouth broke off. The dentist took it out and I have had a gap ever since. I have had to wait for three months for everything to heal and then I can have it replaced. Hardly daring to look people in the face I have smiled a gap-toothed smile and waited. By the time you read this the gap will have gone and a new tooth will be in place and my bank balance will have gone down considerably. But now horror upon horrors a tooth on the other side has sheared off in the same way. Pam Ayres poem says that she wished she’d looked after ‘me teeth’. And now I am thinking the same. Though to be fair my teeth have not decayed they have just become weak. I remember from my youth, an old toothbrush that we all shared and the Gibbs toothpaste in a tin had a startlingly pink paste, but there was no worry about teeth. My mother and father both had all their theirs out when they reached a c...

    I have been in the flu queue again. My short-sleeved shirt has come in useful even in the cold weather. I covered it with a woollen jumper and off I went to the chemist for my seasonal Covid jab. But I could see all was not well as soon as I went through the front door. Instead of an orderly queue there was a huddle of worried looking people shuffling about. Then I read the hastily written notice. ‘Covid jabs cancelled’. Our dismay turned to consternation when we learnt that the pharmacist had been taken ill and an ambulance had been called. No one knew what to do. I had booked my appointment on-line and of course the workers at the chemist had no access to the pharmacist website. I rang 119. ‘If you are calling from England, please press 1… For vaccination booking service press 1…’ And so, it went on until I stopped pressing and got a person so I could explain. In the end it was no problem much to my relief. If you do not turn up the service online resets and I ...