Up To You, Porky

 

Marc, my nephew and sister in law on Sunday. So proud of them all, but especially Karen. She's an inspiration.

thought you might like this, CT x

Above is a selection of snaps from this past week.

There has been a lot of outdoors action. Today I saw my first hummingbird moth. I've also seen small white butterflies over the towans. There are baby animals everywhere. I have to dodge the teeny rabbits as I drive along the back roads. They have no road sense whatsoever. I stood at the utility room window this evening, and watched my blackbird pair in the garden. He has a raggedy wing, and a kind of lop sided hop to his gait. She is very plump indeed. They make a lovely couple.

We have put up some bird feeders in the garden. Again. We have a go occasionally, by are inundated with crows who scare the little birds away. I seem to have struck gold this year though. We have had all different kinds visiting us. It has become a very absorbing pastime for Olly and I. We sit in the conservatory eating our breakfast watching the birds eating theirs. We are keeping a log of the birds that we see. It's important for me that Olly (like Alf and Sam before him) keeps his toe dipped into the natural world. Lately he has been going off the boil, which is fine really. Lots of children wax and wane. Besides the time travel project at school is fuelling his imagination no end, and he is entitled to choose where his interests lie.

But garden birds are seemingly ubiquitous, and I love that he recognises most of them. I love that he told me about the white flutters that he saw during his play time at school. I love his fascination for wood lice, and how he is often found lying on his side, watching them scuttle about the garden. He has no fear of bees, but is very wary of spiders. That's okay too; there's nothing wrong with a certain wariness of the natural world. It fosters a healthy respect for all that's out there. He sees me happily pick up and deposit spiders outside the house. They just make him shudder. In the same way that I'm not too keen on earwigs.


This evening you find me feeling very sad. The news of Victoria Wood's death today has knocked me sideways. She was my heroine. There isn't a day that passes that I don't quote something of hers. I discovered her when I was fourteen, and would avidly watch her television show every Tuesday evening on BBC2. It was laugh out loud funny. I loved her use of language, and how she could make the most ordinary word incredibly funny.  I shall leave you with this. Her acidic comedy is unsurpassed, and Kitty was my favourite.

Leanne xx

(my blog post title is actually the title of Victoria Wood's sketchbook published in 1985. My friend Claire bought it for me for Christmas that year. We used to act out some of the sketches before school, and even wrote some dreadful skits of our own inspired by it. In fact I remember one called 'At The Bus Stop' It brought the house down when we performed it to 5E)