Monday, June 09, 2008
9th June Death in the evening.
Today we have given ourselves a moderately gentle day - though it has drawn to a close with a ringside seat of a fight to the death.
It had been a difficult night for Bill - downstairs for a while.
He has had a nasty claggy cough and claggy nose and sinuses for a couple of weeks. He has often been feeling very much less than well - but has battled on to do all the things we had to do and had planned to do.
He has felt more comfortable during the night making an exit and using the spare room bed.
This morning I woke late and he stirred even later; it must have been 9 0'clock.
He will ring tomorrow and see if he can talk to a GP and see if they might advise an antibiotic, especially as he has a condition affecting the immune system - the rheumatoid arthritis.
We did pop into town, for we had almost no vegetables left. And, being us, came out with more than planned because somebody had been round with yellow stickers for things at their sell by date. Many good reductions!
We met Gay and Norman there - Gay was at school with me.
I remember dawdling at the back of a cross country run with Gay, which our Latin teacher took us on because she wanted to run and lose weight to get into her wedding dress.
Gay and Norman are also friends with Pete and Jean, though have rarely embarked on that long drive to North West Wales.
We advised that they might like to consider the train - if you know the ropes and book early enough you can get exceedingly cheap train fares.
I think our Ashley should set himself up as a train ticket buyer consultant.
On Saturday he said that he hadn't been able to get a ticket for the holiday he has in August with us, bringing Ekatarina.
Ah - he shouldn't have said he wanted to travel to Crawley!
Today he has it all organised for 29th July. By travelling to Three Bridges Station ( about the same distance from us as Crawley Station) and being flexible he now has return tickets for the 2 of them for £31.50 - and that includes a charge for paying with a debit card and the charge for sending him the tickets.
It would have been over £100 to Crawley!
It is crazy! When Bill and I considered returning home by train recently - the single fare for each of us would have been £78.
But of course in that situation we couldn't book in advance or be very flexible.
This afternoon Bill began printing photos for our albums - he still has The South of England Show and the wedding to do.
Of course I had intended to do a blog tonight with portraits of Bill's family at the wedding - but I found I had a couple of people missing (apart from me!). So, Julie is coming round in the morning with her chip/card out of her camera and we will see if there are any there.
I described 6 books and listed them before dinner this evening.
That's my plan - list a few most evenings. This will leave empty days to do other things.
Now, I will explain about the fight.....
We heard the most terrible racket outdoors - birds were screeching and squawking in a frenzied manner.
The crows were attacking something.
I know crows are part of Mother Nature's totality - but I don't like them at all.
We went over to investigate and to drive the crows away.
At the foot of a tree was a baby jay, flat on its back - winded and almost certainly wounded quite badly.
We turned the little fluffy bird over on to its front and he seemed like he might have a chance of survival. And at least he could die more peacefully in a natural position.
The parents were soon back - and so were a couple of crows.
The parents must have exhausted themselves trying to get the crows away - dive bombing them in flight, trying to land on them whilst on the ground.
On and on it went.
The baby didn't move.
The jays would swoop across the sky showing their beautiful colours, shrieking loudly.
They did everything they could - but it wasn't enough.
One crow got close enough to grab the baby - still the parents tried to frighten the crows away.
Two magpies then flew into the little tree and waited hopefully for any pickings.
At this point I couldn't watch anymore.
I know - it is only nature's way.
But somehow one couldn't help but take sides in the contest between these 2 birds - the elegant jay and the bully boy crow.
It had been a difficult night for Bill - downstairs for a while.
He has had a nasty claggy cough and claggy nose and sinuses for a couple of weeks. He has often been feeling very much less than well - but has battled on to do all the things we had to do and had planned to do.
He has felt more comfortable during the night making an exit and using the spare room bed.
This morning I woke late and he stirred even later; it must have been 9 0'clock.
He will ring tomorrow and see if he can talk to a GP and see if they might advise an antibiotic, especially as he has a condition affecting the immune system - the rheumatoid arthritis.
We did pop into town, for we had almost no vegetables left. And, being us, came out with more than planned because somebody had been round with yellow stickers for things at their sell by date. Many good reductions!
We met Gay and Norman there - Gay was at school with me.
I remember dawdling at the back of a cross country run with Gay, which our Latin teacher took us on because she wanted to run and lose weight to get into her wedding dress.
Gay and Norman are also friends with Pete and Jean, though have rarely embarked on that long drive to North West Wales.
We advised that they might like to consider the train - if you know the ropes and book early enough you can get exceedingly cheap train fares.
I think our Ashley should set himself up as a train ticket buyer consultant.
On Saturday he said that he hadn't been able to get a ticket for the holiday he has in August with us, bringing Ekatarina.
Ah - he shouldn't have said he wanted to travel to Crawley!
Today he has it all organised for 29th July. By travelling to Three Bridges Station ( about the same distance from us as Crawley Station) and being flexible he now has return tickets for the 2 of them for £31.50 - and that includes a charge for paying with a debit card and the charge for sending him the tickets.
It would have been over £100 to Crawley!
It is crazy! When Bill and I considered returning home by train recently - the single fare for each of us would have been £78.
But of course in that situation we couldn't book in advance or be very flexible.
This afternoon Bill began printing photos for our albums - he still has The South of England Show and the wedding to do.
Of course I had intended to do a blog tonight with portraits of Bill's family at the wedding - but I found I had a couple of people missing (apart from me!). So, Julie is coming round in the morning with her chip/card out of her camera and we will see if there are any there.
I described 6 books and listed them before dinner this evening.
That's my plan - list a few most evenings. This will leave empty days to do other things.
Now, I will explain about the fight.....
We heard the most terrible racket outdoors - birds were screeching and squawking in a frenzied manner.
The crows were attacking something.
I know crows are part of Mother Nature's totality - but I don't like them at all.
We went over to investigate and to drive the crows away.
At the foot of a tree was a baby jay, flat on its back - winded and almost certainly wounded quite badly.
We turned the little fluffy bird over on to its front and he seemed like he might have a chance of survival. And at least he could die more peacefully in a natural position.
The parents were soon back - and so were a couple of crows.
The parents must have exhausted themselves trying to get the crows away - dive bombing them in flight, trying to land on them whilst on the ground.
On and on it went.
The baby didn't move.
The jays would swoop across the sky showing their beautiful colours, shrieking loudly.
They did everything they could - but it wasn't enough.
One crow got close enough to grab the baby - still the parents tried to frighten the crows away.
Two magpies then flew into the little tree and waited hopefully for any pickings.
At this point I couldn't watch anymore.
I know - it is only nature's way.
But somehow one couldn't help but take sides in the contest between these 2 birds - the elegant jay and the bully boy crow.
