19 June 2019

I opened the curtains at Dad’s first thing this morning to find a male sparrowhawk perched on top of the bird-feeder with its back to me. Such angular birds, especially across the shoulders: the stealth fighters of the avian world.

Back in Yorkshire, I found three more furniture beetles on the frame of the large mirror in the downstairs loo. Like God (if JBS Haldane’s famous inference was correct), I have an inordinate fondness for beetles. But woodworm is intolerable: thanks to our lazy predecessors, we lost our previous dining room floor to the vile grubs. I squashed the three latest offenders, and added woodworm treatment to the shopping list.

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