A quarrel of rooks and first world war pigeons

Where most people tend to enjoy the sun’s hot rays on days like today, i tend to get a little bit crabby. My girlfriend refers to me as a Honey Badger. It’s not intentional, i simply am not one for heat. I’d rather be colder than warm.

This year however we have bought some sun lotion, so as not to have a repeat of my horrific ordeal of extreme sun burn last year.

We thought we’d go for a quiet afternoon at Middleton Hall today, however hundreds of other people had the same idea. Turns out there was a plant fair on, which meant my lady was in her element.

After being allowed 2 entry tickets for 1 due to our lack of physical money, we took a wander through the hall on the way to the fair. En route we wound up talking to a nice elderly man who was running a nice display of World war one memorabilia. Now i was in my element.

I find the subject of World war one both interesting and humbling. The man had lots of interesting information about the articles he had bought with him including a spiked item designed to puncture horses hooves on the battlefield​. Pretty brutal. Other interesting information included the other animals used during the first world war – including pigeons. In fact they even created a medal specifically for them – the Dickin Medal – which 32 of them were presented with.

After meaning to do it for a long while, we also finally joined the R.S.P.B. Down at the Middleton wildlife reservation a helpful lady helped us join for just £7 a month. It’s feels nice to be giving something back.

Apparently also otters are now on the incline – no longer as endangered as they once were. So that’s good news. We didn’t spot any however. I guess they’re all tucked away in their homes.