tempting fate good times and sad news

Well it had to happen didnt it. I talk about mild weather and we get frost for a few days. About time too it looked seasonal and winterish which makes a change.

Been out and about again, another trip to the coast to mark someones birthday. Frost on the sand and some nice mammals and birds and lovely Norfolk scenery. A stoat in full ermine was lovely to see as it dashed about on a roadside verge. A small group of Grey Partridges in a field beside a car parking area with beyond them pinkfooted geese and a quartering barn owl. Pictures in the mind for other days.

Then onto more sad news I am afraid, I posted about the number of Rangers lost in 2011 working in and gaurding the wildlife and special places around the world. 2012 has not started well in this respect at all. Four Rangers in four different countries have been killed be poachers and other folk who dont like what they do to protect the natural world in all its forms that we see and perhaps take for granted on TV screens. For most of the families of those lost life will be very hard now without a breadwinner. For one where the Ranger lost was a woman her husband is also a Ranger in the same park, going to work will never be the same again I am sure.

We must never lose our love of special places but we also never forget that people work hard to maintain them, in some cases risking their lived to do it on a daily basis.

This not cold winter

Well I know that we do still have plenty of time for it to get cold, and yes I am hoping it will despite the long range weather suggesting its only a possibility.

I was working in a garden this morning that I have been to for a month, there I was clearing away some rubbish and I came across this flower which is going over but is still a tender Abutilon.

Thought I would also include this picture that really goes with the blog for yesterday the 11th Janaury but I had not transferred the picture then. This is the early evening of the 7th January taken with my mobile phone camera, it shows Trevor one of my brothers and his wife Jane after we had seen all those marvellous geese. The light was fantastic on the beach.

Bard of Suffolk 2012

You might remember that I won the Bard of Suffolk competition in 2011 a title that lasts until the competition this year.

The date for the 2012 competition has just been announced its July 8th and again at West Stow Country Park. The organisers are making a big change this year, there will be a seperate competition for storytellers and poets, up to now its been combined.

This years theme is Love and I am not allowed to enter this year, I am instead a judge for the storytelling.

So if you know a storyteller or poet  who wants to have a go, have a look at the Suffolk Eisteddford website, the rules are on there and get in touch with Robin Herne the main man.

Winter will it get here???

Will it or not is the question. We all know its been a mild winter and they are saying that it might get colder yet but when. Try looking at a long range weather forecast and you will see what I mean.

The winter birds are here I know, I had the chance and took it to see thousands of wintering geese last saturday on the Norfolk coast. It was marvellous there were Pink footed, White fronted , Brent and Barnacle on top of the usual Greylag and Egyptian.

But back to the mildness, I was looking at a new garden this afternoon and already in flower way too early are Periwinkle, Bellflower and Hebe, not to mention a Passionfruit that looks like it has never stopped growing and is covered in buds waiting to break.

words and what they say

I am often accused of taking the written too literally, whether in a paper or even on the side of a lorry.

But why not I ask, if its written its there to be read and interpreted, I am a storyteller after all, well at times anyway. I was looking at the local paper when out fell a sales booklet for a local DIY shop.

If you are still reading you might be wondering where I am going, well turning the pages I came across some elctrical power tools and suddenly stopped dead, no surely not, yes there it clearly says; ***** & ****** Mouse Sander + 15 accessories only £15.98.

Now hang on a minute this could be a cruellty case I says and who asked mice if they wanted to be sanded in the first place and if they said yes why? Then there are these 15 accessories I darnt think what they are, are they restraints to tie the poor little things down while sander happy  folk carve intricate designs in their fur. Is it something to do with no body hair and these folk darnt have a go at the dog or cat and think mice are fair game.

Needless to say all I got was a smile after I finished rambling on and moved on to the next power tool; A Scorpion Saw.

Badgers vote to cull MPs

Have a read of this you might like it.

Badgers vote to cull MPs

More madness later.

Memories

Funny old things memories and its odd what triggers them sometimes.

I took part in a project with the storytelling group I belong to Cambridge Storytellers recently gathering the memories of folk who grew up in the 1930's mainly in Cambridge. Heard some fascinating stuff a lot relating to the second word war but after we had a performance sorted we took some of those memories back to the people we collected them from and let them listen to us telling bits from their stories.

It was fascinating watching them hearing what they had said and then from somewhere else they added more information to that we already had. Very moving as well, I wont forget the chap who had not said much about his was service who volunteered some very strong personal recollections of taking men of the beaches at Dunkirk.

While at a different care home I got chatting to this chap who tells me he is 98 years old, I looked at him and thought blimey if I get that far I hope I am in the same condition as you. We talked about his work and then some of my own memories were opened up. He worked as an entomologist at the Rothampstead Institute in one way or another doing a lot of work on Locusts.

Hold it my mind says Locusts and then from nowhere seemingly in my head comes the words Schistocerca gregaria the Desert Locust. And there I am back in school a member of the Bug Club looking after Locusts again.


Its small world and no mistake.