Jenny arrived home from Germany on Sunday 4th at a fairly respectable hour. There are no photos of her trip as she didn't take any, but I did see some at a "cream tea" fund-raising do for the twinning association last weekend.
A couple of days after arriving home, she was off to Sidmouth, belly-dancing "through the night". Well not quite, actually, but it was well into darkness.
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Tribal belly-dancers @ Sidmouth
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As night falls, the dancing goes on ... and on
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We've had to change our holiday dates as the cattery couldn't take the kittens for a couple of days right in the middle of when we wanted to go. This also means that now I won't be able to go to the Severn Valley Railway on a coach with all the other lads/volunteers down at the station.
'Speed Watch' continues to occupy some of our time. Eventually, people will begin to recognise that they can't speed through the village without getting caught. They have to be doing 36 mph or more to get reported and, currently, we're picking one up every 5 minutes on average. We caught a neighbour once and a couple of other villagers twice. Not happy bunnies. Top speed so far = 48 mph! No excuse if they can't see a crowd of high-vis jackets on the pavement!
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| Erin, son Chris & Tom |
I went to see my brother, Bev, in his sheltered accommodation in Bedford and stayed with my grandchildren in Biggleswade. I also called in on one-time trainee, Dave Short, in Aylesbury, who is currently still off work following a none too successful operation. On the way, I popped in to my old haunt at Priory Country Park; as you can see the grass is beginning to take a pounding.
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| Priory CP - near Visitor Centre |
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| Entrance to Waterloo Thorns CES |
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| Church Street, Gamlingay |
Next stop was the "Secret Airfield" where we have run a Constant Effort Ringing Survey (CES) since 1988 when I first started it. I also went back to my old village of Gamlingay to see how it has changed. Lots more houses, I'm afraid. Picked up some bird food from G&M Growers and next year's diary in town.
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| Visitors from Bedford |
On arriving back home, we entertained three visitors from Bedfordshire who insisted on camping in our orchard. One was a veggie and the other two, vegans. Jen fed them, nevertheless. We think they were grateful. We didn't hear them come back at 12:30/1 o'clock at night after their evening "walk". They stayed three days and were excellent company.
Today, we had surprise visitors on their way to the South Devon coast. It was Jenny's nephew and his partner, Victoria, together with her son, who had travelled down from Peterborough. Of course, all they really wanted was a wad and a wet and the bathroom but they did the honourable thing and stayed and chatted and cased the joint - for next time. Oh, yeah? No. It was lovely to see them after a year [last time at twin sister's wedding]
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| Vicky, Gerry & Jen |
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| Josh & Amber |
Our next visitor will be Bex, my step-daughter. She is due in Taunton as part of her work and I am looking forward to seeing her after quite a while. She leads a busy life and I'm not complaining; it's a long way from Essex.
As you may know, the 'Badger Cull' has started in West Somerset and there are lots of anti-cull supporters in the area with others coming in from outside the county. Feelings locally are very mixed with impassioned feelings on both sides. Fortunately most people are protesting peacefully within the law as it currently stands. Perhaps the NFU syndicate won't be able to achieve their target of over 400 shot badgers each week for six weeks in the 99 square mile zone. Who knows? And what then?
