Bath?
Every so often I catch the sound of a distant train rattling over its tracks. This takes me right back to childhood when- as now- I was living in a 1930s suburb. My childhood home was a little grander than this- a detached house not a semi- and it was well inland (Croydon) and the garden was bigger and there weren't any gulls.
I saw a magpie this morning. That's the first bird I've spotted that wasn't a gull, a crow, or a pigeon. The big birds rule the sky. The feeding tables we've inherited have had heavy duty fencing wire fixed round their open sides to keep the bullies out. I've put some seed on them- but none of the small birds have shown themselves yet.
My mother asked where we were.
"Eastbourne, " I said.
"Bath?" she queried with her trademark snarl of incredulity.
"Eastbourne."
"Bath?"
And I told her not to worry.
Bath has come up in these kind of conversations before. Perhaps it's where she dreamed of retiring.
I saw a magpie this morning. That's the first bird I've spotted that wasn't a gull, a crow, or a pigeon. The big birds rule the sky. The feeding tables we've inherited have had heavy duty fencing wire fixed round their open sides to keep the bullies out. I've put some seed on them- but none of the small birds have shown themselves yet.
My mother asked where we were.
"Eastbourne, " I said.
"Bath?" she queried with her trademark snarl of incredulity.
"Eastbourne."
"Bath?"
And I told her not to worry.
Bath has come up in these kind of conversations before. Perhaps it's where she dreamed of retiring.