Time and tide

 

We have squatters. Last week the little house was empty and now there are occupants making a great deal of noise and fuss. I had hoped that the great-tits would come back for a second brood. We could see them all the way through the building of the nest to the feeding of their young. Only two weeks ago they were so busy, there was hardly any time between one parent leaving and the next one arriving with a caterpillar or fly.

We did not see them fledge. One minute they were there and then they were not. The box was silent. All was deafeningly quiet until the male house sparrow arrived.

‘Look what I’ve found,’ he seemed to be shouting. And in no time at all a female had arrived and they were busily ‘decorating’ and doing all the things you do to make the house you have moved into comfortable.

In our new house we have been busy getting our dining room sorted. I had worked hard to find chairs that were comfortable for me. At last, I found the perfect chairs and they are all I had hoped for, except they do not match the table. In our cottage I bought odd, old chairs when I came across them in ‘Antique’ shops. Mr T painted them red to brighten our day. Then when we came to a new house, he painted them fashionable grey. Now we have replaced them but there is still this nagging question, should the chairs match the table? Well, they do not and that will have to be the end of that.

When we were up in Yorkshire last week, we were reminded of David Hockney’s recent death. When he lived in Bridlington, I sometimes saw him walking by in his unmistakable flat cap. Then one day I was in a furniture shop and there was a tall man in front of me in the queue. He stood out in his dark, woollen long coat and his easy confident manner. When he had gone the shop owner Nick told me that the man was David Hockney’s friend and he had delivered a signed catalogue of his recent exhibition in London.

“Will he sign one for me?” I asked.

“You must get a catalogue first,” said the shopkeeper. So that is what I did. And when we were next in Bridlington, I took it to the shop and Nick said that he would ask. After a few days he rang me and said that the book had been collected. Then I had the call saying that the book had arrived back. I picked it up and inside it said -

‘Love Life

David’.