Wednesday 29 March 2023
This morning, it took a while to work out why my hands felt uncomfortable. Painting the banister components. It would be a lot easier just to have selected one colour rather than five. Today, the hand and base rails will need another one, maybe two, coats and I’d like to do at least one coat on each of the two-and-a-half newels. We have a friend, Nicky, staying from Monday. It will most definitely be finished by then.
For the first time since I had Covid last, I didn’t go outdoors yesterday, other than to take a photograph of my delicious and belly-warming chicken and vegetable thukpa lunch. I otherwise don’t remember the last time I didn’t go out. I didn’t feel miserable with the grey, drizzly weather, I just did not want to go out in it. I tried to convince myself that painting is exercise – I certainly have aches from it – but I know that’s a weak argument. The weather for today suggests it will rain until around 09:00 and then from 11:00 to 04:00 tomorrow. I haven’t checked the wildlife cameras for a few days so I’ll collect and return the SD cards, if nothing else.
The last time I looked on the wildlife cameras was the backlog from the week we were in London. Before we went away, I left out some old apples in front of two cameras. Apparently, deer like apples. I was hoping for deer. One night, two hares had a nibble on the apples but didn’t seem to have eaten much, though possibly because a male hare (who looked the size of a rabbit, but hares and rabbits never crossbreed and are as different as cats and dogs, says Google, or as different as humans and apes) could think of nothing but trying to mate with the other hare who seemed annoyed by the constant attempted humping so kept jumping away from the apples. The next day, ‘our’ dog fox approached the apples and kind of dabbed at them playfully, then sat down to eat an apple. He ate another one that night. Then we had a badger.
I noticed the sapling, which is tied against the pole one of the cameras is attached to, had some fresh chew marks. On looking at the camera, one night, sure enough, the camera was moving far more vigorously than it would in the wind. A furry badger ear then comes into view at the corner of the camera. There are then a few stills, one of the badger approaching with a look of interest (I suspect at the sapling rather than the camera).
Mr Pheasant has also been wandering in front of the cameras. There were seven pheasants around when we first arrived, then four, then none for ages, then Mr Pheasant started visiting and eating the bird food at the neighbour’s bird table, sometimes managing to fly up and sit inside the covered bird feeder. There is now a Mrs Pheasant who usually accompanies him. I enjoy hearing his rattly, croaky call and looking for him. There are a lot of pheasants around but far too many alongside the roads, which never bodes well for their survival. It is also apparent that they are hunted as I’ve seen a few lines of men with rifles and dogs. I’ve never been quite so aware of the perils of being a pheasant. I’m glad we have Mr and Mrs Pheasant visiting us, for now at least, every day.
