No shortages for wildlife here!
‘This item is currently unavailable.’ I am getting used to
this message on-line and my supermarket delivery looked sparse this week. Items
that I had I ordered were swiped off at checkout. And, looking down my list of
favourites, I can now see about a third of my usual items are not available.
They suggest an alternative, but even when it is sensible like tinned peaches
instead of fresh ones, it is not what I want. What is going on? Is it Brexit or
COVID or something else?
The squirrels here have no such shortages and are helping
themselves to the abundance of nuts. We have become accustomed to them eating
our hazel nuts but this week they have started on my walnuts. I would not mind
as much if they were eating them, but they are not. They are burying them in
the short lawn grass. All day long they are going backwards and forwards up my
tree, pinching a walnut then, carrying it carefully, they cross the flower
border to a chosen spot on the lawn and then bury it. So again, I will go short
this year. Perhaps, though, I will have the consolation of a walnut tree forest
if the squirrels forget where they buried them.
Another consolation is that I have found second plum tree
that I had forgotten about. How can you forget about a tree? Not that the
orchard is very big, but this tree is tucked away in the corner and is not very
big itself. So, after thinking that I had used all the plums, by preserving
them in port, the only way forward was to make plum jam or throw precious plums
away. We made six pots of jam. I even got the setting point correct this time. It
hardly seems believable that we are getting ready for autumn, but according to
the weather forecasters the mellow season began on the first day of September.
Thinking of the next few months I have ordered some logs. They
cost half as much again as last time (Brexit or COVID or something else?). The
man who delivered did not have to do any lifting or carrying, instead he had a
large remote control strapped on his chest. He only had to press the buttons
for the grab to obey his commands and the whole bag was lifted off the truck
and over our hedge onto the lawn. It was left to Mr T to use an old-fashioned
wheelbarrow and cart them all away, trailing backwards and forwards. The robin
followed him to pick woodlice off the logs, there is plenty of food for the
birds here.
(Taken from my column in the Shropshire Star)
There is plenty of free food for the wild creatures here.
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