On scarecrows, birthdays, photos, sweet-toothed bears and thieving scarecrows!

It’s that time of year when you start to see people wandering round our village with a leaflet, or even a clipboard, ticking off scarecrows as they find them. It’s the Whit Week Delph Donkey Scarecrow trail. Shops put donkey scarecrows in their windows and private houses in and around the village put donkey scarecrows in their gardens. People who want to hunt the scarecrows can buy a booklet, from the post office I think, and the proceeds possibly go to the local library. At least that’s what happened when it started 10 or 15 years ago. A little bit of village fun!

Today is my younger sister’s birthday. She was born on our mother’s birthday. It’s a bit of a family tradition to share birthdays. My daughter was born on my father’s birthday and her daughter was born on my son’s birthday. It makes it easier to remember the birthdays. To celebrate today’s birthday my sister posted a photo of our mother as a young woman, a photo I have never seen before. Goodness knows why not! I suspect that on one of my sister’s visits home from Spain she raided the family photo collection, on the grounds that as she lived so far away she had the right to take whatever photos she chose. Not that it bothers me. Well, not much!

The odd thing is that my mother as a young woman in that photo looks remarkably like my Spanish niece, daughter of my birthday-girl sister. Coincidentally there are photos of my sister when young which could equally well be photos of my aunt, my father’s younger sister, also when she was a young woman. Again this was a resemblance we had not noticed before.  It’s as if the camera catches a momentary expression, a moment of stillness and suddenly we see the similarity. 

Now, some of us grew up with stories of Yogi Bear, who loved to steal picnic (pickernick) baskets. This morning I read an account of a bakery in Connecticut that was ‘invaded’ by a black bear which scared the staff, stole a tray of cupcakes, took them out into the carpark and proceeded to eat about 60 of them. Clearly a bear with a sweet tooth - rather like Winnie the Pooh and his love of honey! 

But how frightening to live in a place where you might be raided by bears! 

I also came across this account of seagulls and their eating habits. It seems they observe what humans eat and like to snack on the same things. I have long known that seagulls are intelligent birds and quite competent food thieves. We have often had to be vigilant when having a drink outside a cafe in Galicia because if there is a bowl of crisps or some mind of free tapas on the table the seagulls will happily land on your table and help themselves. And they are rather big and frightening birds. I once saw two young girls strolling along a Vigo street eating waffles only to have a seagull swoop down and literally snatch the food out of their hands! And in this country one of our granddaughters had her chips spilt all over the seafront when a seagull tried to steal the whole tray! 

Perhaps not quite as frightening as having your store room invaded by bears but even so, those gulls need watching?

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!