Sharing our nest

 

Nigel and I work from home in different rooms.  He is at the back of the house, I the front.  Both of us have been suffering from persistent tapping at the window.  Tiny, hormonally crazed blue tits have been defending their territories against their own reflections.  They have been showing an interest in the nesting boxes fastened in the sheltered nooks of our walls.

On the gable end of our house, in the dove cote, one dove had been sitting on an egg for what seemed like forever and a day.  We had assumed the egg was addled and would never hatch, but she had faith and continued to brood the egg.  Recently, her patience was rewarded by a magnificent young squab.

I would call her ‘plucky’ if ‘plucky’ did not seem rather an insensitive word to apply to a bird.

The only nest we don’t like to see is the magpie nest in a tree which borders our property – the parents rob the nests of songbirds to feed their young.  However, this year, a crow with a single white feather in its tail has been bullying the magpies and they appear to have abandoned their nest. 

Amid all the home-building around us, we have thought about sharing our own nest.  Several weeks ago, we signed up to the Homes for Ukraine scheme and are waiting now to see if our guests are granted visas.  The process seems to be taking forever and a day, but we must keep hoping, just like our plucky dove.

Fit for foraging

Growing up in Cornwall, my parents didn’t like my foraging habits. 

Entranced by Richard Mabey’s ‘Food for free’ I would gather wild hazelnuts, chestnuts and blackberries.

However, Mum and Dad drew the line at leaves.  When I plucked sorrel from the hedgerow they would grow concerned I might make a mistake and poison myself.

This Easter Nigel and I rented a house in Falmouth and stayed there with Pascoe, Perran and Carenza and friends Jamie and Hannah.  We visited my parents, but they no longer have a say in what I pick and eat.

There is no more fragrant time in the Cornish hedgerows than April, and all of it was available to us to gather.  Each day, we came back with packets of greenery in our rucksacks.  Three-cornered leeks flavoured stews, wild garlic pesto (made by my old friend Jennie) made pasta delicious.  Blossoming alexanders provided flowers which we fried in tempura batter and leaves which I steamed for greens.  Wild sorrel and fennel added savour to salads.

And at the end of all this foraging and green eating, I was suffering from the runs… and completely unable to pinpoint exactly which herbs had given me them. 

So perhaps Mum and Dad were right after all.

An opportunity to stop suffering

 

If someone offered you the chance to do something now to stop the war in Ukraine, would you say yes? If by your actions you could help stop the suffering of millions, would you?

Unfortunately, the war in Ukraine has already started, so you are not being offered that chance. However it is still possible to curb climate catastrophe.  This month's IPCC report has announced that through drought, rising sea levels, wildfires and massive storms, many millions of people across the world will suffer famine and homelessness. Widespread wars will ensue as countries compete for resources.  You are being offered the chance to do what you can to limit climate catastrophe.

Gutteres, secretary general of the UN has said in the last week, “Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries increasing the production of fossil fuels. Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness.”

Have a chat with your conscience and join Extinction Rebellion this week in London as they show the Government how very much this issue matters to us.

XR - rebel now - details

Can it be right to disrupt people going about their everyday work?

The oil companies and the banks who finance them are keen for us to go on burning fossil fuels so they can continue to screw the last few billion dollars out of a dying planet. The last thing they want is for people to look up from their daily routine.

However, the argument of Extinction rebellion is that the small amounts of disruption they are causing now are nothing compared to what is very soon to hit us as a result of climate catastrophe.  Their purpose is to waken people to the threat of much greater disruption in the future.

Photo CFH - shows Claire and Rich with Claire's amazing banner

Lost time, Spring time, Mother’s Time

On Mother’s Day, we don’t go to church.  Instead, I have decreed that my children spend the whole day worshipping me, their mother.

Sissinghurst is somewhere I have had in my sights for a long time.  I remember my friend Kathryn coming back from there, beaming and full of praise for the delightful gardens, designed by Vita Sackville-West.  I too wanted to glow with pleasure after a perfect day out.

But it is quite a long drive so we have never been.

However, as Mummyzilla, I put my foot down.

Perran and Carenza obeyed the three-line whip and arrived the night before so that we could make an early start.

We had reckoned without the clocks jumping forward.

And without that wrong turn we took when the conversation in the car got interesting.

I was beginning to fear that when/if we finally got to Sissinghurst, there would not be enough left of the day for me to achieve my full glow.

However, when we arrived, the misty lawns were swathed in daffodils, snakeshead fritillaries, scylla, grape hyacinth and primrose in all their pastel varieties.  Each border put forth its own cornucopia of spring blossoms and birds sang in the trees. Water features bubbled quietly.

The effort had been worthwhile.  We may have lost time, but somehow, in the end we had arrived at the very heart of spring time.