Out and about today I couldn’t help overhearing the conversation of two gentlemen as we all waited for the bus. One of them was describing his plans to move away, to buy a house somewhere in the Northeast. Everyone was happy with the idea, he said. The wife was on board.
The wife!
I’ve heard that sort of thing before. A gentleman is asked if he intends to do some activity or other and responds, “I’ll ask the wife”.
THE WIFE.
I have never yet heard a woman in a similar situation talk about THE HUSBAND. No, we tend to use a possessive adjective. It’s usually MY husband or YOUR husband. No doubt, someone will correct me if I’m wrong. It’s just a small difference between men and women. That’s all.
Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with an angler. He was fishing in the small pond adjacent to one of the millponds. I asked him were the fish biting, not wishing to express my surprise that he was not fishing in the much bigger millpond. He explained to me that he was catching fish in the small pond and transferring them to the larger millpond. There is a sort of tunnel or pipe which connects the smaller to the larger. The fish have a tendency to travel through and congregate in the small one.
I didn’t suggest (heaven forfend that I dare) that maybe this was a smart move on the part of the fish. Fishermen/anglers sit on specially constructed platforms at intervals round the larger pond, usually comfortably installed on folding chairs and with their equipment and a flask and maybe sandwiches alongside. No such facilities exist around the smaller pond my chatterbox angler had to stand on the footpath, which is how we got talking in the first place. Avoiding anglers is wise!
Having explained his aim to move fish from one pond to the other, he went on to have a bit of tirade against the heron. If the small pond is overfull then the heron has a field day catching the fish. It’s not so much that he objects to the heron being fed but rather the fact that the heron doesn’t eat a whole fish, just the heart and other vital organs.
I told him about the people who live by the bridge in the village, the people who feed the heron in the belief that doing so will prevent the heron from feeding on ducklings. The heron waits most afternoons where the water rushes down, occasionally perching on the fence outside his benefactor’s house.
A waste of time, declared my angler. He says the heron will attack the ducklings and the moorhens and anything else he can get his sharp beak into, despite someone feeding him sardines or mackerel. And, as with the fish, he’ll only eat their hearts! Well, yes, I’ve heard that before.
The mink are another problem, another set of predators. I didn’t know we had mink! And there are the cormorants, birds that should stay by the sea in his opinion. Now, I have seen the cormorants. Most impressive they are too. All in all, this was one disgruntled angler, but in the end nature is like that!
As I seem to be on a nature thing, here’s a link to an article about a viaduct in Derbyshire where renovation work has led to holes that swifts nest in being blocked up. Swifts like to return to the same nesting spot year after year and will just fail to nest if the holes are blocked up. They also make repeated attempts to get in and so they injure themselves. We are not kind to nature.
I have often ranted about the, in my opinion, foolishness of paving over gardens in order to have a parking space for two or more vehicles. Here’s a link to an article by Emma Beddington on the same subject. Sometimes it’s not even to provide parking space but simply to have a smooth surface for the garden furniture and the barbecue. Like Ms Beddington I am in favour of wild gardens, with dandelions providing sustenance for the bees and butterflies. Having said that, our back garden is suddenly looking more like a meadow than a lawn. We are going to have to get the mower out soon.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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