Ravendale House

The Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, a place close to my heart, has been in the news over the last few days due to severe flooding. A beautiful area comprising, amongst others, the towns of Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge, it is where I spent many happy times back in the 1970’s.

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I’ve written at some length recently about the starlings who nest in and around our house. It is a few weeks since they all fledged and some pairs are now busy tending their second brood.

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The antirrhinum is a very under-rated plant in my opinion. Not that I’m an expert. I think my grandad used to grow them and apart from that and an attempt at a previous house to grow some and save the seeds (the cat decided to lie on the seeds as they were drying in the spare bedroom) I have little experience of them.

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At 3.37am this morning, as I made my customary mid-nightly trip to the bathroom, I could hear a blackbird singing in the garden, even though dawn was barely visible. Don’t birds lead an extraordinary life?

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Well I’ve been waiting a week or two now for this years starlings to arrive, in fact I was becoming a bit concerned about them given the recent poor weather.

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They say one swallow doesn’t make a summer, the same can also be said about  weather. (Yes, I know. Here I go again.) One week in  March and another at the end of May, which were warm and sunny, doesn’t constitute summer in my book.

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Isn’t it funny where your mind goes when you let it wander? This morning I was lying awake at 4.30am, listening to the birds and wishing on this occasion they wouldn’t sing quite so enthusiastically so I could go back to sleep, when I started thinking about things we’d bought over the years.

So here’s the question. What’s the best thing you’ve ever bought?

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we Brits are rather good at this stuff.

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