Today was Herself's mother's birthday, and she wanted to visit her parents' graves which are side by side in a small cemetery not far from here, a nice place covered with daisies and other small scattered flowers. She clipped a few dockleaves and other weedy things from around the headstones and placed a branch with red blossom in a jar in front of each while I stood respectfully and silently around.
As the weather is fine we dove up onto the South Downs and walked a mile or so along the ridge, flanked on one side most of the way by an immense, garish, reeking field of oilseed rape. A lot of pheasants and small birds, but not a sign of the skylarks whose joyous bebop riffs make the Downs such a pleasing place. Until we heard two at once on the way back, upwind perhaps because we couldn't see them, and a faint twitter from some even more distant ones. Two red kites hunting a little below us.
The more distant peaks of the Downs were outlined faintly, and the horizon - the sea which is usually visible to the south between peaks - was completely invisible anyway to us. It's a sunny cloudless day but the air is thick with something, probably this French smog we've been told about.
There were seven or eight pheasants wandering about in the drive when we got back a while ago. They seem to have twigged that we won't run over them and have become very self-important, taking their time to stroll out of the way in an ostentatiously indifferent manner. Damn cheeky lower creatures, they deserve to be eaten.
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We have had our Blackbirds joyously giving it some beak in the evenings for the past two weeks. No doubt warning off others from their patch. Wood Pigeons are at it as well. You don't hear many birds in the suburbs due to other noises. The Blackies have a nest in the Camellia next door by the fence. They keep an eye open for the Magpies and cats.
The trams have been busy this evening....since the airport branch opened with the junction a couple of hundred yards past the end of our garden, they seem to have doubled in number...thumping past the house at 30/35 mph every six minutes or so and in both directions. We don't mind though, keeps the burglars and vandals at bay !
A lad went past in a BRG Midget yesterday with the top down...enjoying the day. I looked up whilst sat on the patio with a cuppa some days ago and counted no less than 18 vapour trails all at the same time, criss-crossing the sky . Just enjoyed a glass of Lidl's 6 for £18 Bardolino.....good for the price.
Nice here...innit ?
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Goldfinches singing loud here for last few weeks. Plenty Blackbirds too, singing at dawn and letting out alarm calls when local cats are on the prowl at dusk. Heard a Chiff Chaff too, don't remember them locally in previous yrs.
Spotted first Swallow last weekend while walking in Chilterns. Summer migrant Martins should start to pass through Bugbrooke any day now with resident population arriving in early May. Swifts usually on similar arrival schedule but they're off in August while Martins linger to mid September.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Thu 23 Apr 15 at 23:17
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>>I looked up whilst sat on the patio with a cuppa some days ago and counted no less than 18 vapour trails all at the same time, criss-crossing the sky
Chemtrails, most likely: www.nickpope.net/chemtrails.htm
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You should see the English pollution we get down here at some times of the year!
When I went to get in the car yesterday I saw the neighbour's cat running away from beside it. I looked down and found a dead grass snake - only about 18in, so a youngster. I picked it up (behind the head) to take and show SWMBO. When I held it out we found it wasn't dead at all. Did it ever wriggle! I wonder if, one day when it's 4ft long, it'll remember who saved its life and come back to thank me?
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>> You should see the English pollution we get down here at some times of the
>> year!
What, you mean the tourists?
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...and some of the 'residents'...
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>> Blackbirds joyously giving it some beak in the evenings for the past two weeks.
Saw two, both males, just outside last night and later heard them both from the edge of the forest 100 yards away. But they didn't let loose with a full king-of-the-castle triumphant melody, just a few complex little riffs, Ornette Coleman style. Because there were two of them I suppose.
Herself thought they might be thrushes which we also get round here, and which have a similar if slightly less aggressive song. But we hadn't seen any thrushes.
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>> Herself thought they might be thrushes which we also get round here, and which have
>> a similar if slightly less aggressive song. But we hadn't seen any thrushes.
All members of same family though - turdus of one sort or another.
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>> All members of same family though - turdus of one sort or another.
A family with more than a touch of the tar brush judging by its innate talent for syncopated melody, hmm?
Never heard of turdus before. You learn something new here every day.
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>> Two red kites hunting a little below us.
Sorry, forgot two critters: small distinctively-marked white-rumped deer that jumped out of a thicket and fled with a very bounding gait. I suppose they were muntjacs but the markings were more distinctive than I remember from previous sightings.
Another odd sight was a plastic bag of dog excrement hung on a fence post. A conscientious townie pooch owner?
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Fri 24 Apr 15 at 13:04
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>> Another odd sight was a plastic bag of dog excrement hung on a fence post.
>> A conscientious townie pooch owner?
>>
Quite the reverse I would have thought.
This is quite prevalent in leafy Surrey! A very curious habit.
Has anybody ever witnessed this being done and asked the excrement bag hangers just why they are doing this? Do the plonkers hanging up these bags think that someone is going to follow behind them, take the bags down and dispose of them in a safe and environmentally friendly manner?
Do you Mr/Mrs Dogowner hang up your dog's bowel contents in a plastic bag on a fence, or a tree?
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>>Do you Mr/Mrs Dogowner hang up your dog's bowel contents in a plastic bag on a fence, or a tree?
I've thought about that for some time actually, Dunc. I reckon that what happens is Mr or Mrs Dogowner, picks up the poop in a poopbag, and than chucks it into the hedge but, it then gets caught on a branch and looks like some *muppet has actually hung it there.
*Um, I've been guilty of doing just that but, before you start hollering, I live in a very rural area and, my dog does all his busy ness within my domestic curtilage these days.
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I am a dog owner and that sort of thing really annoys me. Why can't they they wait until they get to a dog poop bin or just take it home?
I've just been out along the canal with mine and such action was required.
I also call him to heel when walkers or cyclists are passing. Many don't and when I'm out on my bike in forests etc there are many who let their dogs run in front of cyclists. Not a great idea. The cyclist could easily be hurt but the dog is likely to come off even worse. I always slow down when I see them ( or indeed small children ) but even at walking pace being struck by an adult human on a bike wouldn't do a dog much good.
It's not the dogs fault of course, the owners just in some cases need to be more aware and take appropriate action. There's room for everyone still thank goodness with a bit of cooperation.
Incidentally, a question about human behaviour now. I wonder why, when a family group, or any group really is out walking together do they usually walk line abreast taking up the entire width of a path and remain totally oblivious to anything approaching from behind them? If there's more than 4 people in the group it's not like it's a convenient way of talking to the people at the other end of the row.
But there must be a psychological reason for it because its astonishly common behaviour. The result is that if you're coming up behind them on a bike you need to slow right down and announce that with a gentle ping of the bell or a polite "excuse me" which more often than not results in confused faffing and in some cases tutting. If only they would leave a bit of passing room rather than advance like the front rank of a battalion of infantry.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Fri 24 Apr 15 at 14:32
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>> Incidentally, a question about human behaviour now. I wonder why, when a family group, or
>> any group really is out walking together do they usually walk line abreast taking up
>> the entire width of a path and remain totally oblivious to anything approaching from behind
>> them?
A simple need to be sociable, people in families/friends like to see and hear each other and chat away. Walking aline abreast helps this. Not many want to be in front or behind if they all want to be part of the group. It's easy for many to get caught in the moment when they are chatting away. They become engrossed in the conversation and the moment. Like you say very common with people.
Although (IIRC) you aren't one for crowds and people in general, so perhaps it is a bit strange to you.
;-)
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>>Why can't they they wait until they get to a dog poop bin or just take it home?
Shear laziness and a lack of respect for others I suppose.
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>> I am a dog owner and that sort of thing really annoys me. Why can't
>> they they wait until they get to a dog poop bin or just take it
>> home?
If my dog poops on a path or right of way, it gets bagged and taken home (i had to get perfumed bags for Mrs Z to use, poor thing has a delicate nose). If its in the country, where every other form of animal is crapping and pooping it gets left there.
>> I also call him to heel when walkers or cyclists are passing.
Sometimes not the best course of action, specially when doggy is yards and yards away, the dog can get in the cyclists way if its running back to heel. I teach mine "distance control" that is put it into a down wherever it is. The cyclist can then simply cycle round the downed stationary dog. Tho it has to be said, its shared space, and the cyclist should give way to man or beast.
>> But there must be a psychological reason for it because its astonishly common behaviour. The
>> result is that if you're coming up behind them on a bike you need to
>> slow right down
And so one should as i said its shared space and any cyclist should give care to pedestrians NOT the other way round. If there were four people there in two lines one should still be expected to slow down on the pass, not like my favourite pet hate, the speed freak cyclists who blast along crowded thameside footpaths dodging round crowds of people with ringing bell, some of them even shouting! They don't have right of way because they are on a bike.
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Well, we'll just have to agree to differ on that one. In my opinion everyone has equal rights to courtesy whatever their preferred method of propulsion. It's just about empathy not priority.
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>> Well, we'll just have to agree to differ on that one. In my opinion everyone
>> has equal rights to courtesy whatever their preferred method of propulsion. It's just about empathy
>> not priority.
Actually its about safety.
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Indeed, and common sense as opposed to any sense of superior rights. Theres room for everyone with a bit of give and take. It's when one side does all the taking there's a problem.
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Coming up behind pedestrians on a bike whilst on shared paths and ringing a bell seems to annoy some of them and they get sniffy for some reason.
A local resident lady cyclist has solved this by attaching a squeaky toy to the handlebars instead. It attracts attention easily in that situation, and when I've seen her use it, pedestrians laugh and get out of the way like jollikins.
Good on her for being creative.
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>> the speed freak cyclists who blast along crowded thameside footpaths dodging round crowds of people with ringing bell, some of them even shouting!
Heh heh... Oxford eights week (or is it called Bumps? Can't remember), when the college eights compete with each other in a knockout competition, used to see supporters of the various eights hurtling along the towpath on bikes bawling through megaphones ('Come on St John's!'; 'B***** well rowed, Nose! etc), firing (blanks as a rule) from old service Webley .45 revolvers kept for the purpose, and quite often in the general excitement riding into the river. I wonder if it's still like that?
I was too idle, and not big enough, to row at university. But I had friends who did... yes Zero, some of them were big strong 25-year-old Yale and Harvard graduate students you might see as 'mercenaries'. They weren't though, just innocent athletes.
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>> If its in the country, where every other form of animal is crapping and pooping it gets left there.
Absolutely, stands to reason.
But on the South Downs way, a lot of the main path is stony, uncomfortable if you're wearing thin-soled shoes. The grass verges are nicer to walk on, and there are sort of paths worn in them.
You have to watch where you put your feet though because many dog owners let their animals excrete right there on the comfortable path. Why don't they send them into the nearest field or thicket?
Can't say I mind all that much, but dogs and their owners are anti-social creatures. Live and let live however. It would be a measurably thinner world without dogs.
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We didn't have a dog for a few years and next door's cat used to crap on our garden. Doesn't try that now but it does occasionally sit on top of our shed taunting the dog. The dog really is too stupid though, somehow he thinks that if he keeps trying really hard that one day he'll be able to jump that high.
;-))
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>> We didn't have a dog for a few years and next door's cat used to
>> crap on our garden. Doesn't try that now but it does occasionally sit on top
>> of our shed taunting the dog. The dog really is too stupid though, somehow he
>> thinks that if he keeps trying really hard that one day he'll be able to
>> jump that high.
>>
>> ;-))
One of the things I have to teach the dog to do, for working trials competitions, is to scale a 6 foot wooden fence thing!
guess how tall my fences are......
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My dog has short legs ( but a lot of enthusiasm ) he looks quite a lot like Mutley really. He must know I'm talking about him, he's just lain down at my feet in the office and farted.
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>> he's just lain down at my feet in the office and farted.
You can reward him with a huge bowl of charcoal biscuits and no meat for several days.
It occurs to me that the plastic bag of poo hanging on the fence that I complained about above was really an endearingly misguided effort by a non-rural dog owner not to be too anti-social.
I like dogs but Herself can't abide them. I'm easily influenced I suppose.
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French murk on South Downs Way - Ted
