Buzz, buzz.
Another one of those 'I was sitting on the loo' posts I'm afraid; my toilet is situated in a sort of shingled extension rather awkwardly nailed onto the upper story of my little granite farmhouse, and a few days ago I was less than happy to hear the sort of furtive rustling behind the plasterboard that usually heralds the arrival of some meeces. Up to now I had assumed that my small army of permanently hungry felines would have taken care of that, and indeed I think I was right, because sitting out one night watching the sun set over the cow byre/come slurry pit (there's been a lot of rain), I noticed the bats were back, and I also noticed that my loyal and hungry audience were, to a cat, staring fixedly above my head. A shift of position, and a moments patience, and I saw that the bats were returning to a roost in the corner of my bathroom. Scrabbling and squeaking explained then.
I've been away for a few days at the day job, but when I returned in the wee hours this morning, I noticed that the squeaky noises had morphed into a more mellow hum, observation has revealed that my bat colony is now co-habiting with a bumble bee nest, it's getting kinda crowded in the wall behind my bog, I do hope nothing else moves in.
DVD of choice.
It's a bit sad that the success of a cultural artefact can often be measured by how swiftly it makes its way into the charity shops. I find it continuously fascinating that the urge to ditch seems to have a sort of weird synchronicity about it, why did every charity shop in Broughty Ferry have a copy of 'Borat' for example? I can fully understand why the fifty shades of grey trilogy is ubiquitous, mostly unread beyond vol.1, I can't quite fathom why every shop in Ealing had a used breast pump though.
Current favourite for jettisoning in Perth seems to be 'Australia' with Nicole Kidman, somehow I can't bring myself to pay even a pound to find out.
On hearing the second cuckoo in spring.
I've started a new job, unfortunately just far enough away to be a pain to commute. Happily it's not quite like touring and I should only be away for four nights a week. Although the weather is only just beginning to turn and there aren't many leaves on the trees yet, the first migrants have been showing up. The swifts started to arrive about two weeks ago, as did a cuckoo, we still have a few confused looking geese hanging around as well.
Meanwhile, back in the farmyard, the cats are all looking close to term, at least six are pregnant. I have the cats protection crack spaying team on hold.
I was standing around yesterday, feeling the sun (interspersed with rain showers) on my back, when I heard the slightly banal tones of the cuckoo, and the bird flew directly over my head, they are strikingly uninteresting in appearance, but it was pleasing to see one anyway. The hares were out in the fields yesterday too, the farm cats keep the rabbit population pretty much under control, but I can't see any of them squaring up to a hare as an individual, and co-operation isn't one of their characteristics.
