Birds of a feather will gather together

Life has been busy here for the last few days for a number of reasons. As you know Jon and I have been visiting Marjorie and Noela, and will continue to do so on a daily basis. Work is also well in progress on the next edition of Animals & Men. Interspersed with all this there has been the usual shopping, washing up, washing, cooking etc., (not necessarily in that order).

In the past, I have - from time to time - helped Jon out with the production of the aforementioned journal by typing while he dictates his articles, but from now on it seems that I am going to be a bit more involved on a different level. It has oft been suggested that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. It seems that my excellent piece of culinary ingenuity in taking that fried breakfast into the office the other day must have done some softening rather than hardening of the arteries after all. I now have my own column in which I am going to attempt to present a roundup of some of the more rare visitors to the UK - of the bird variety that is. It has been christened 'Watcher of the Skies' (those of you who know the songs of Genesis (with Peter Garbriel) will ‘get’ the connection) and I must admit that I have been surprised as to quite how many rare 'feathered friends' arrive here, whether on purpose because they wish to visit this green and pleasant land, or just because their onboard sat nav malfunctioned.

No doubt there will be a few jokes of the ‘twitching’ variety, but I do already have a green anorak and even some binoculars (well, somewhere anyway). So there.

PS: With regard to Jon’s little jape on his blog about his visit to the diabetic nurse. We all know the real reason for his closing comment. He just wants one of those old-fashioned bath chairs so he can sit sporting his suitably stiffened white silk scarf, his flying goggles and hat whilst being pushed around the village by someone.

Or , perhaps even a snazzy sedan chair for those more auspicious occasions, sporting the CFZ logo on the gilded doors of course.

The only question is, who has he lined up for this important work? I do have an idea .... and, no, it will certainly not be me before you suggest such a thing (considering I am 3 years older than he is, and my poor body would not cope).