15th December 2021

A funny thing happened on the way back from shopping at Lidl.  I stopped the traffic.  No of course not in that way but by dropping my purse in the middle of the crossing.  Horns honked at the kind man at the head of the queue who held the traffic back, a passing van shouted out Oi love, you dropped your purse.  How did it happen? lousy newish Lidl bag had come adrift at the seam, allowing my heavy purse to seamlessly fall through!

But my walk along the canal was refreshing, geese, both white and Canadian, plus ducks eyed me up and down for food.  I am somewhat bereft of birds.  I hear each morning the blackbird singing its heart out, the jackdaws sit on the eaves of the houses round here and squawk.  The other day I saw a robin for the first time and also a little grey wagtail, bobbing his way down the street. 

I heard this morning that the greenfinch is disappearing because of a disease transmitted through their feeding stations - wash, clean, sterilise. In the night, because I did not sleep well, listened to a podcast.  The interviewee was Robert Macfarlane at Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire.  He talked about the 'Spells' book, no not a book to cast spells but memories of words.

Matilda is coming home this afternoon from London, already a message from my daughter, that her friend she shares a flat with has just tested positive, so Matilda must first take a test when she comes into the house, though her last test was negative. Both my daughter and I have had the booster, mine two weeks ago, we missed the rush thank goodness. When will it end?