Things are changing

 

Things are changing. You can feel it in the atmosphere. Every morning when I am eating breakfast, I see a little warbler flitting and feeding on the tiny insects under our fennel flowers. The bird is probably a chiffchaff, and it is feeding up because it will soon be gone to warmer southern countries for the winter. Insects as well as birds are getting ready as they have finished their jobs for the summer.

The hedges are being cut now that nesting is over. You can hear the tractors in the fields and the sawing of overgrown branches gnaws the air. There is a general clearing up process and we seem to be in a hurry to get it done whist we can. Our orchard fruit is ripening rapidly. What is more fun than picking pudding straight off the plum tree or an apple before it drops? It is a rare treat before the colder weather sets in.

I am thinking about the cold and eyeing our electricity meter with renewed interest. I am also eyeing all our appliances. Which is the cheapest programme to run on our dishwasher and our clothes washer? It says that the Eco programme is adjusted to achieve ‘the best possible energy’. But these programmes take well over three hours. I am not sure that I can wait that long to get the pots out of the dishwasher or for the laundry on the line. And surely three hours washing uses more electricity than my usual choice of thirty minutes? I think I am missing something here. There is a new word coming into my vocabulary – ‘Greenwash’. It is a bit like whitewash, claiming to be green because that sells.

The outdoor theatre we went to in castle grounds recently would be green in many ways. We put our own chairs on the grass and sat with a flask of coffee and sweets. We saw Much Ado About Nothing, where after a great deal of subterfuge and fuss everything turned out as it should.

When the sky darkened, I saw birds flying to their roost and bats came out to flit amongst the trees. There was a helicopter buzzing overhead, dogs were barking, young people shouting and a roaring motor bike. But nothing could diminish the excitement and thrill of going to see theatre which we have not done for the COVID years.

We stumbled back to our car with only our mobile phones for light. Mr T drove in the dark and how strange that was, we had not been in the car at night for years. An unfamiliar and strange territory but everything turned out well in the end.

(Sent to Shropshire Star before the announcement of the Queen's death)