The things we need
We
arrived home to deadly silence in our wildlife garden. It was like a ghost
garden. There were no blackbirds foraging on the lawn, no robins in the bird
pool and no blue tits searching for caterpillars. All was quiet and deserted.
What could have happened?
I
quickly found out that the nest under our kitchen window was empty. Two days ago,
it was full of small nestlings and the ‘vicar’ blackbird with a white collar
and its mate were going backwards and forwards with worms. Then I heard the
cackle of the magpie and I knew that it had raided the blackbird nest to feed
its own young up above in our Scots pine tree.
Now,
after a few hours the garden is back to normal and the blackbird is picking up
dried grass to have another go at nesting in a safer place. Then. when I was
putting the washing out a robin sat on the line to keep me company, before going
off to pluck our door matting to build a new nest. It looked as if she had a moustache
as she held the strands horizontally in her beak.
The
birds scout around for the things they need but I go online. I have still not
really gone back to the high street after COVID. It is so easy to sit at home and
shop, but do you ever put things in your ‘basket’ and then not bother to buy? I
know I do, and another thing is that sometimes I cannot be bothered to return
an item if it is no good. Some trousers came the other day and they were too
tight but to return them was quite a performance. I had to go online, find the
returns information, fill in the form, print the label then parcel it up and
stick the address on. Then I had to go to a shop in town that would take it
back. Once, a firm gave me a refund and said that I did not need to return my
goods.
So,
some firms are finding it too much hassle for us to return items and we are
only too pleased not to have to do this. What a waste. I took my non-returnable
top to a charity shop, so I suppose someone benefited from this new practice.
All this buying on-line means that some of us never have cash. I sold my books at a Craft Fair recently and one customer wanted to buy but had to go round her friends to borrow the money. And what about car parking? I just hope the machines will accept card payment, but not all do.
(Taken from my column in the Shropshire Star)
Selling my books at a craft fair, not everyone carries cash these days.
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