The Grey Squirrel has been at the feeder for ages this morning, really feasting on the peanuts. As I headed to the summerhouse I suddenly realised he or she was wonderfully close to me and had not heard me coming. When awareness of my presence did come, there was no panic or rush to get away, it was all very unhurried. More behaviour to convince me that this is not the squirrel of last year.
These photos are not great, taken through glass on a very rainy morning. But to make my heart beat faster, the first Collared Dove of the year, seeming very pale and with an unusually dark tail. I am not sure what is going on at the top of the head. The Robin’s breast looks especially fiery.
I am still loving Sandy Balfour’s Pretty girl in crimson rose (8) (see previous post). The author has a lovely self-deprecating humour. On the crossword front, new to me, I see that anagrams are ars magna, which is a stroke of genius. When his girlfriend goes through the titular clue with him, she says, “That is what they want you to think it means.” She also points out that knowing who the setter is a great help. At one time The Guardian crosswords were published anonymously. She is sometimes irritated by ‘Paul’ as am I and any number of commentators, brilliant though he can be. I am familiar too with ‘Enigmatist’ and ‘Araucaria’ (monkey puzzle tree). Some setters have themes more often than others, which can be a help or a hindrance. From Balfour I learn that Buckfastleigh is the longest English place name with no repeating letters. There was a great clue yesterday, by the way, to which the answer was “scope creep”, a phrase new to me but which I shall certainly be using henceforward.
Balfour’s travels again provoke memories of my own. He writes of his best meal ever. Mine was without a doubt in Turkey. The best meals are often the simplest. We drove down an unpromising track lined with concrete walls which had a sign pointing to the beach at its entrance. We sat in a tiny café and ordered whitebait (or similar) and chips with salad. As usual in Turkey everything was completely, deliciously fresh. Best of all, there was no need to add salt. The sea spray from the waves breaking on the little beach only feet away added just the right amount for us.
And Balfour’s experience with Aeroflot brought back my journey on that airline. We’d chosen it simply because it was he cheapest available. The plane was old and rattled worryingly. I think but am not sure that it took us, circuitously, to Morocco. On the return flight however, with snow swirling all around, the plane landed at a small airport in the middle of nowhere. I asked the stewardess where we were. She shook her head. Clearly she was not allowed to tell us. We were all held in a bare room and searched by armed soldiers. One of them made a little girl cry by snatching her doll away. I had purchased a large hookah which the soldiers extracted from my bag and scrutinised intensely. They couldn’t work out what it was but eventually, to my relief, decided that it was a samovar. We were never told why the plane had landed.
For reasons I cannot fathom, I also recalled a stay at the country house of customers in Sweden, a married couple. They are probably the wealthiest people I have ever met. He made his money working for a firm which bought telephone masts dirt cheap in African countries and then leased them back (“That’s disgusting!” one friend commented). Worryingly, he had a large Iron Cross tattooed on one arm and was a ferociously enthusiastic carnivore. The food was strange. Nothing but variations of sausages night after night, everything else came out of tins. And so I ate barely anything for the week. We visited a supermarket and there was an extraordinary dearth of fresh produce. One evening our host produced examples from his huge collection of valuable swords. He also revealed that he regularly smuggled diamonds. She was very attractive (as she told me herself, flirting with me one day) but an emotional mess, breaking down at mealtimes on several occasions. We were not allowed much freedom, they were not keen on us going out on our own. We did enjoy a long bike ride along a canal. The rules about staying to one side (left or right, I can’t remember) were to be taken extremely seriously, whether or not anyone else was on the towpath. One morning we went foraging for mushrooms and I will never forget the sensation of stepping onto marshy ground which was actually floating. It felt like standing on a primitive jetty. In their large garden, scientists were growing multiple varieties of raspberries in huge greenhouses. They bought from us an art nouveau collection of book bindings which they had asked us to source for them and that paid for our new bathroom at home. The workmen were Albanian. They were amazing. They started early and promptly every day, took very few short breaks and worked incredibly hard. They were all also extremely strong, one of them carrying a heavy bath up our narrow stairs on his own as though the weight was nothing.
Two wildlife works of art for my birthday at the end of last year. This is made by Luminology and I love the depiction of my favourite animal. The further away from it you are, the more three-dimensional it appears. I am tempted to get more like this but the website currently has everything sold out.
I defy anyone not to shed a tear watching this video from Four Paws. Former Circus Elephant “Charley” Gets Retirement of a Lifetime | FOUR PAWS | [SUBS]. I cried the whole way through. The organisers of Charley, later Duma’s move to a happier place, away from the zoo where he had lived alone for so long, treat him with enormous respect, care and love. Ingeniously they put dung from his wild relatives in his enclosure to let him know that things were going to get better and he seemed to understand. After much, patient practice he is coaxed into a trailer for his journey. There are two cameras inside so that they will know what is happening and whether they need to stop if Duma panics or seems unwell, but he remains calm.
When I first opened this handmade piece from Black Country Metal Works | Lighting, Sculptures, Fireside, Home & Garden | Black Country Metalworks I thought it was set of camping cutlery (it’s made from two forks and four spoons) and tried to take it apart, then I saw it. It is both clever and beautiful and a very welcome addition to my little collection of metal birds. I am occasionally referred to as ‘Metal Bird Man’ in the village.
Proving the truth of George Monbiot’s warnings and predictions from a decade ago (see earlier post), a group of almost four hundred billionaires and millionaires with consciences have asked for an increase in taxes on the super-rich. From The Guardian:
“A handful of global oligarchs with extreme wealth have bought up our democracies; taken over our governments; gagged the freedom of our media; placed a stranglehold on technology and innovation; deepened poverty and social exclusion; and accelerated the breakdown of our planet,” it reads. “What we treasure, rich and poor alike, is being eaten away by those intent on growing the gulf between their vast power and everyone else.
“We all know this. When even millionaires, like us, recognise that extreme wealth has cost everyone else everything else, there can be no doubt that society is dangerously teetering off the edge of a precipice.”
As the executive director of Oxfam International, Amitabh Behar says, “We are on an obscene trajectory.”
I dare to hope that this just might be an opportunity for our leaders, if such they deserve to be called, to look at the world and arrange things differently. It is insane that we are all being terrified by the unhinged ravings and ramblings of a senile, hate-filled lunatic, an utterly corrupt compulsive liar, convicted of multiple financial and sexual crimes, who holds the post of the most powerful man in the world. There must be a way to ensure that someone like this is quickly removed from office once he is clearly not fit to hold it, morally, legally or by dint of incapacity.
I took solace last night in the form of reggae videos, especially this stunning performance from Stick Figure, a powerfully heartfelt ‘Ras to the Bone’ by Midnite and Tenor Saw’s ‘Golden Hen’, the last two also beautifully covered by Kailash.
Stick Figure – “Once in a Lifetime” Live in West Palm Beach, FL 2025
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