Fifty

Well here we are, two old ducks just turned fifty

and if the experts are right the sustained and determined consumption of red wine, dark chocolate and biffidus digestivum guarentees that in the football game of life we are just approaching injury time at the end of the first half.

I say we because yes, both Madam and myself passed the mark in the same week as I am her senior by three days.

On the day of the passing of my fiftieth year we dined at home with my menu of first choice for the day being Pie, Mash and Mushy peas with the pies sourced from The Good Life Farm Shop and hey Good Life if you'd like to furnish me with some free pie for this product placement I don't do Chorizo.

That's The Good Life Farm Shop folks,

Pricey pies, but crikes they're good, give them and their meat, cheese and much more besides, a go.

Anyway I pulled the pies out of the oven and promptly threw the lot on the floor in an oven glove fail incident.

I have dropped other things since turning fifty.

On Madam's 50th birthday her desk was decorated at school and she received many gifts, had the Happy Birthday sung to her several times and the pleasure of one of her pupils guessing the significant age she was passing as forty.

Needless to say he received good marks for his efforts with a "should go far" writ large in the margin.

Having informed me that I was dropping many more objects since I passed fifty the day after she reached the landmark I received an urgent call from Madam at school who had left home without any spectacles and could I run some up to school toute de suite!

A spectacle chain and oven glove are now on order.

Welcome to the world of fifty.

The snow and ice has now all gone and the spring hole that we cleared after Christmas is already demonstrating the benefits of improved light and a slowly increasing discharge although the spring ditch that runs through the village that should be running remains dry.

On the pond the senior pair of swans are making preparations to nest with an elaborate raft of twisted reed. On the river the ducks are way ahead with the odd egg already abandoned in the fringe. Kingfishers have resumed their aerial dog fights over best places to nest and just the other day I buried a micro Muntjac that had broken its hind leg.

Cormorant numbers remain on the rise, an observation confirmed by the nearby "Big Fish" trout lakes and for the second season running we seem to have acquired big numbers of somebody else's two to three pound triploid brown trout; a sociable bunch they have subsequently drawn the eye of Tarka whose presence was betrayed during recent snowfall, when they also sussed out the small streams in my employer' s garden. The fen that we fired a month ago is on the cusp of leaping into life and a trickle of olives in the afternoon are beginning to catch the eye of the numerous brown trout although the grayling are showing no sign of starting spawning yer.

I'll keep this one short as there will be much to discuss in the coming weeks.

Oh yes,

Here's one of some ducks that Hilda and Stan would approve of,

Oh yes again,

Why is Michael Gove Minister for the Environment?

He's spouted some pretty odd views in recent weeks regarding the environment. Madam still bears a grudge from his time as Education Secretary but what are his bonafides for his current position?