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News from Mr Grady

Hello Everyone,

Well, it’s nearly half term, and this one feels like it’s been hard fought.  We all deserve a break, and whatever the restrictions may be, this week I have been thinking about those small things that will bring me joy and some respite, that I can really take time to appreciate over the week’s holiday.

Across the road from my office window is a tree with no leaves but an abundance of bright orangey-red berries, and, over the course of the last few weeks I have watched a variety of birds scoffing the berries both from the branches, and the small mounds of them that have dropped off onto the pavement. 

Particular times of day bring different birds, the sparrows seem to flutter about it working incredibly hard to pick them off between about 9 and 10, and there are blackbirds on it, with a little more decorum, from 12-2pm, and then at about 3pm every day the fattest pigeon I have ever seen lands on a branch and proceeds to work his (it has to be a he) way up whatever branch he’s landed on picking off every single berry in his path.  He is thorough, calm and relentless in working his way along the branch.  He’s like some sort of avian Yul Brynner in Westworld. (This reference ages me more than I would like.  The film came out in 1973 – I would like to make it clear I am not old enough to have seen it originally at the cinema.)  There is no doubt that the pigeon is going to eat every single one on his chosen daily branch before he makes the effort to fly away. 

That pigeon has now kept me quietly entertained for the past few weeks.  It’s particularly amusing when he chooses a particularly thin and whippy branch and, as he sidles up to each berry, the branch bends ever-more alarmingly towards the ground.  Why this image fills me with such glee I can’t tell you, but it’s 2.30pm as I write this on Wednesday, and I’m already on the lookout for him.

The berries left are now more and more to the extremities of the tree, and therefore harder work for the pigeon to reach, but this does not seem to have deterred him.  It has certainly upped the entertainment value for the spectator, as he has to balance his considerable weight ever-more expertly to pick off those outlying berries. 

It is perhaps telling that in this time, when so many other pleasures have been curtailed that a rotund pigeon losing its balance and throwing itself about to regain some form of dignity has kept me going.

No, we won’t be going away for the half term, or even catching up with family and friends in the way we’d like, or even just “popping to the shops” on a whim if we feel like it, but with my own version of Springwatch going on outside my window, I’ll take what small delights I can, appreciate them for the joy they bring, and be back ready and refreshed for the next half term!

Stay well and safe everyone,
With very best wishes,
Mr Grady