Gilbert starts his letter X by expressing his frustration that he has no local like-minded people with whom he can share his interests. Writing his letters to his two friends is as close as he gets to conversing with anybody who shares his interests. I found myself asking how long a normal exchange of letters might take.
I asked an Artificial Intelligence, and a reasonable example might be 2 weeks in each direction, so a complete exchange could take up to 4 weeks. Compare that with today, where exchanges are done by email. It is only as long as it takes for each respondent to write the email. The exchange/transmission time is effectively zero. A conversation becomes much more achievable. Organisations such as the university of the 3rd age (u3a) also make it so much more enjoyable. I joined just after Christmas, and am loving it. I feel that I am building a circle of new friends. It is really nice to have what Gilbert did not. Good, regular and easy connections to people of a like mind.
There was a chap up at the Shed on Monday who had a copy of the 2025 Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society. I had a chat with him about it. Turns out that there are signs of Iron Age activity on the outskirts of Gosport, which is covered in the proceedings. He has a copy because he lives right next to the findings. I’ve applied to join the society.
I can tell you about a small period of watching the birds in our garden. I have a small bird table (I did have a bigger table, but the small one was bought for me by my wife as a birthday present. I drop subtle hints that I’d like to put the big table back, but the hints seem to bounce off whatever forcefield she has).
There is a flock of starlings that visits us regularly. It doesn’t take long for the first one to arrive after I’ve put food out. It’s obviously a scout looking ahead of the main body. If there is food, it doesn’t take long for the rest of what can only be called a ravening horde to descend on the food. They squabble, and if there are young ones, a single one will take over the bird table and fight others off.
Starlings are beautiful little birds; the colouring on their coat of feathers is wonderful, and they have an amazing range of noises.
Next to visit are the pigeons. Elayne doesn’t like them, but I feel sorry for them. We used them so much for carrying messages during earlier conflicts, and then as communication technology developed, we no longer needed them and so abandoned them. They are like the homeless rough sleepers of the bird world to me.
Over the last four years, we have had a grey wagtail visit us. I thought it was a yellow wagtail because its colouring is very striking, but no, apparently it is grey. I can’t imagine that it is the same one each year, but they behave in the same way. It’s wonderful to see them bobbing along as they run to get a seed. They could get on the table and stuff themselves, but they don’t.
We love to see the birds. I know we can’t feed all of them, but we do what we can.
All The Best
Bill
Bills Posts 