Saturday 28 April 2007

The things that make you late for work

The duck egg lady phoned me, so I went over to Broad Street to pick up my eggs. Rose was on the desk, and she wanted some eggs too. She tried some from the local garage, but the yolks were nearly white. These are a good dark yellow, lovely and rich, and the ducks are laying like mad.
Rose hadn't actually been late for work, but it had been a near thing. She lives near Kilpeck with her daughter, and early in the morning, her daughter rushed into her bedroom and said; "You've got to get up and look at this now!"
Coming down the lane in front of the house was a stag, a couple of hinds, and a few younger roe deer. They went in procession up to an open area further up the lane. Rose thought they were trying to get so some woods further on, but the way was blocked. They stayed there for some time, and then the stag led them all back down the lane and they disappeared.
This isn't the first time Rose has been nature watching instead of getting ready for work - they sometimes see a fox crossing the fields, and the pheasants are so tame they join her for breakfast.

Kilpeck is worth visiting for the church, which is covered with wonderful medieval carvings. And when I say covered, I mean it's like a gingerbread house - the carvings really are everywhere, inside and out. The most famous of them is the sheila-na-gig, a quite crude picture of a smiling woman opening her vulva with both hands - it's a fertility symbol, needless to say - but there's a huge variety of other sculpture there.

Meanwhile, the Guardian has been reporting on our pipeline. There are no problems in this area, but if I was living further south, I think I'd be deeply worried about it, as the local residents are. www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2066624,00.html

And finally, I heard that a group of Rumanian buskers were coming to Hay, having played at Presteigne yesterday, but I haven't seen them around.

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