What to watch
I cannot watch the news these days. I switch on for the
headlines but the extended news programmes full of disaster are too much for
me. I do not watch because I cannot do anything about it. Can anyone look I
wonder? It may be a coward’s way out, but my spirits drop as I stare in
bewilderment.
One thing I am watching though, which lifts the spirits, is
the robin nesting in my box outside my kitchen window, I could peer for hours
as a flash of red shows the female bringing leaves and fine grass (and
yesterday a white feather) to her nest. The male robin is on guard in the hedge
or on the fence post and occasionally feeds her a tasty grub.
She is not making a good job of nest building, there are
leaves left dangling and strands of grass coming out of the hole. I am tempted
to think that I could assist. Maybe if I walked past and tucked and tidied it
would help. This is nonsense of course the robins know what they are doing. The
magpie is cackling nearby, and I do not want to make the mistake I once made
and inadvertently showed the predators where the robin nest was by visiting to look
inside. All the young were lost.
Another flash of red we saw this week was from a neighbour’s
chimney. Huge plumes of smoke rolled across our west window and almost blacked
out the setting sun. Then there were the sparks shooting up before it all died
down. I rang our neighbours who were in another room and blissfully unaware of
what we could see. They soon had everything under control, but it got me
thinking about our phones.
I rang on their landline. We hardly ever use our landline.
It is so much easier to use the mobile and it is just as well because the
landlines will be obsolete in three years’ time, and we will have to use the
internet instead. The trouble is some of my dearest friends who are older than
me can only use the landline.
And of course, the other frequent users are the scammers,
always taking me by surprise and seeming so genuine. Recently, one was about my
electricity supply, and one was about a gift voucher I had just bought on-line.
I believed both, but they were trying to get my personal details and make money
out of me.
Today life is changing so fast it is often terrifying and our
world is hardly recognisable from one week to the next. But the robin is
tidying her nest ready for her eggs.
(Taken from my column in the Shropshire Star)
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