pumpkinstrokemarrow

Down at TB heard a nice arthurian romance yesterday.

Down in Brighton, when Arthur was maybe 10 or 11, maybe in the late forties, he came across a young jackdaw being bashed about by a cat. Arthur rescues jackdaw and nurses it back to health, feeding it chopped up worms and such like. No milk. Names the jackdaw Joey. Joey is given a place to live in the shed and takes to riding about on Arthur's shoulder. For example, on the way to school. He responds to Arthur's whistle and likes to nibble his ears in a playful way. Arthur's dad not to pleased to have a jackdaw living in his shed but there he was. This goes on for about a year.

Then one day, Joey flies off the shoulder on arrival at school and is not seen again. Arthur distraught. Has dad done away with him? Then, about a month later, Arthur is in the kitchen with his mum and a couple of jackdaws come and sit on the edge of the shed roof. I wonder if that is Joey? Shouldn't think so, says mum. But Arthur tries his special whistle and one of the jackdaws flies down and sits on his shoulder. It really is Joey, come back to introduce his lady friend to his benefactor.

After that, Joey and his lady friend fly off to raise their family. Never to be seen again. But Arthur is happy that he has been able to say goodbye.

We also have some nature news from nearer home. The white autumn cyclamen have almost finished flowering at the bottom of the garden and the leaves are starting to show. Got maybe half a dozen small corms seeded off big daddy now. The jelly lichen has reappeared on the patio with the autumn damp. Mainly the sage green variety but a bit of the dark as well. Scores of green slugs of various sizes clustered underneath the lid of the compost bin. Breeding time or just a festival of some sort? And something has taken to depositing empty horse chestnut shells on the back lawn, sometimes in a line. Presumably they are being fetched by a squirrel with mathematical tendencies who regards the back lawn as his larder. A bit of a palaver as there are no chestnut trees in the immediate vicinity. Just oak, beech, willow and ash. Plus an odd walnut.

PS: broadband a bit shaky today, despite all the proper lights on the router being on and steady. First time there has been a problem which was not signalled by router lights anomalies. Took a reboot and BT Broadband Help being poked by Internet Explorer (I usually use Chrome) to get things going again. Going into BT Broadband Help direct does not seem to work at the moment. Looks as if a chunk of it is missing, not that I have done anything.