Shirley: A Progress Report

I'm over a hundred pages in and no-one called Shirley has yet turned up. There's a lot of politics and a lot of religion and the omniscient narrator talks too much. The hero is unpleasant (but not attractively so like Rochester) and the heroine insipid. Bronte says in her preamble that we're not to expect a romance and, by George, she means it. At times her determination not to give us another Jane Eyre seems wilfully perverse- as though- in the attempt to extend her range she's quite deliberately avoiding what she knows to be her strengths. The most interesting characters are a tough old parson and a bunch of comedy curates. 

Green Woodpecker

The green woodpecker comes down to aerate the lawn with that great spike of a beak of his. He's very shy and takes wing at the slightest movement, shouting as he goes. "Yaffle, yaffle, yaffle". Yesterday I found a vantage point where he couldn't see me and watched him through the binoculars. He has a scarlet skullcap and a dusty green body fading to fawn, with lemon yellow around the rear end. He holds himself very erect, nose pointing to one o'clock when not otherwise engaged, and moves in great hops or pounces.  If you magnified him by ten he'd be terrifying. Ailz says he reminds her of a T Rex.