There are times
when trying to be a nature photographer is very trying. This last
week has been such a time. We have had two stoats playing about ten
feet away from the kitchen doors (through which I have taken many
pictures of birds and some mammals) but they move so fast that all I
have ever managed to shoot is a nice focussed picture with nothing
animal in it (but, obviously, some mineral and vegetable) or terribly
fuzzy shots that may or may not have included a whole family of
stoats. All very . . . trying.
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| Is this what the stoats are after? A rabbit pops in from the field next door. |
One big question:
how much are we going to miss the ever changing panorama outside our
door? A glance over my shoulder and there is a jay feeding alongside
a pigeon with a gaggle of sparrows (or whatever the right collective
noun should be – please tell me) in the foreground.
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| It is fairly unusual to see a jay in the garden but this one is now quite tame. |
A little while ago and Marcia was chasing a hen pheasant out of the utility room – our fault, I suppose, because the door to the garden was open and these birds aren't stupid, they know where the food is kept.
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| Oh, goody. Someone's left the utility room door open again! |
We shall have a
balcony off the sitting room which is on the first floor (this being
an upside-down house) and there is a cherry tree that grows through
the balustrade beside which someone has hung a bird feeder. So,
things will be different but that doesn't mean they will be less
interesting – they could even be more so. Bit like when Marcia
finishes one book and we move onto the next: great sorrow that we are
saying goodbye to a group of people with whom we have spent the last
nine months or so and excitement as we look forward to meeting the
next lot. Yes, we have started to talk about them but the usual
mantle of secrecy will surround them until Marcia feels the time has
come to take them out into the big wide world.
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| Something tells me that I shan't see too many herons on the balcony. |
Some years ago she
was asked to talk at the big Transworld sales conference that they
hold each year. All the marketing people and sales representative
attend this together with most of the editorial staff. She was, as
you would expect, terrified. Odd that someone who is so scared of
talking in public should be so incredibly good at it – so good, in
fact, that many people refuse to believe that her terrors are real.
They are, believe me.
Anyway, she was
talking about her new book and she spoke of it as if it were a little
boy about to go out into the big wide world for the first time –
perhaps to school – and the fears that live in a mother's heart at
that time. She explained to the Transworld people that she was
expecting them to be kind to her boy, to make sure they did
everything that they could to help him to succeed and to ensure that
they kept all bullies at bay. I don't think anyone had spoken to them
along those lines before but whenever I meet anyone who was at that
conference they delight in retelling the story.
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| Some youngsters should never leave home. This sparrow with the white flashes on the wings (obviously a genetic fault) was easy prey for the sparrow hawk - probably because he was an easy target on which to concentrate. |
Most of this week
has been spent in deciding what we shall take with us, what we shall
have to sell and what we will give away (to our local children's
hospice, by the way). Not only shall we have one room less but all
the rooms are far smaller. Next week won't be that different except
that we are away for four days out of the five so won't have much
time to worry about it all.
