Still lolling about in lockdown

-

 



Balloons sailed over our 'paradise'.


They are back! They must have crept in when we were away on holiday. Yesterday morning a baby rabbit was on the lawn, boldly eating the grass. There are three fields to choose from but somehow our lawn is better.

I know it will not stay at that. If there is one young one, then there will be more, experience tells us. Mr T (acting as Mr McGregor) searched the perimeter and found a hole in the wire fencing. The rabbits had dug a tunnel about three feet under the wire (which was buried in the soil) and then they came up on our garden side. We have blocked the hole. But are the rabbits now stuck in our garden? Yes, they are still here, I saw two on the rockery this morning. This is disastrous they will eat our vegetables.

It is a worry, as they indiscriminately nip off tops of nearly anything, even if they do not want to eat it. I remember rabbits in great numbers on our farm in the 1950s and then came myxomatosis which was deadly to them. For a while you never saw a rabbit, then they recovered and seemed to have some immunity. More recently they have been subject (like us) to a virus which has kept their numbers down in our fields, but they are crowding the hedgerows now. Have they got herd immunity?

People have talked a lot about ‘herd immunity’ with our pandemic, but humans cannot rely on survival of the fittest, for obvious reasons. But we can hope for immunity by vaccinations, to stop the spread to the vulnerable who have not been vaccinated or cannot be vaccinated.

I have had both vaccinations and many of my friends have too and now I am getting invitations to go and see them in their gardens. I think I should accept and get ready to move on. But I am not sure. I have lived here safely for over a year, enjoying the wildlife and our own company. Why would I want to disturb my cosy existence?

And what would I say? I have talked online about TV programmes, lack of haircuts, supermarket deliveries and even dustbin collections. I would need to broaden my horizons and change my perspectives if I am to develop my friendships.

Another thing is, I have worn my best clothes whenever I wanted. I am not sure I have enough good clothes left to be seen in. Like everyone else I have got used to the top half being presentable for calls, but not paid much attention to the rest of me.

The wildlife here has never complained though.

(Takend from my column in the Shropshire Star)




The thrush I photographed here is too busy feeding its young to bother about what I am wearing.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Home from hospital (again)

-
Image
Bang, crash flash. It was not a thunderstorm but noises in my head as I gradually came back to consciousness. My operation was over and I slowly checked my senses I could hear the theatre nurse on my right, I could smell the disinfectant air, I could feel my fingers and I could see. But could I read? I remember when my mother had a brain operation (mine was not this) they asked her as she came round from anaesthetic, ‘Who is the Prime minister?’.  She knew it was Harold Wilson – not too difficult as he had quite a long stint in the job. But if they asked me the same question, I think that I could have been forgiven for not knowing because we have had so many different ones recently. In any case, my brain seemed to be working as I squinted to read a notice on the wall it said, ‘Quiet Please’, and of course all I wanted to do was to shout out in joy that it was all over. When I was waiting the long weeks before my operation, I read a poster telling me how to prepare. Lose weight (I a
Read more

The dangers of living in the country

-
I know that you might think that living in the country we do not get to see people very much. And it is true that I cannot walk out of my door and have a natter with a next door neighbour and I can’t just pop in to a cafe and catch up with friends who happen to be there. But you would be surprised how often I do meet up with friends – it’s just that you have to make more of an effort and it all has to be arranged and planned and when we do meet – we never stop taking – you see there is so much to say after only having our pets for company. Well, anyway, I am trying to tell you about what happened last night. Now the nights are drawing in we all agreed to meet up for an evening meal in our nearest town to cheer ourselves up. I offered to pick up a friend in a nearby village and drive to the nearest town miles away. What a good time we had catching up on news and ... well, just talking to a person and not a cat or bees or the like. But at the end of the evening I was dismayed to find tha
Read more

Baby sparrows fall

-
Image
We have ‘July drop’. This is not a disease, thank goodness, but something perfectly harmless that happens to apples each year. Little apples, which have not developed fully, fall to the ground. It is nature’s way of thinning the fruit naturally. Ours have been dropping for some weeks now, but this year we had frosts late in the spring and so the fruit is not too plentiful. I am hoping the drop stops soon. We are relying on our apples especially at this time when we are trying to be self-sufficient in vegetables and fruit. Two baby sparrows had July drop here too. They fell from their nest, somehow, I don’t know why. Perhaps it was a bird of prey that they were trying to escape from or the wind that broke up their flimsy nest structure. In any case, I heard their parents chirping from the trees and the nestlings soon toddled off into the nearby long grass. The ‘common’ house sparrow is not now so common, in fact it is on the RSPB red list which means that there is cause for concer
Read more