Wednesday, September 11, 2013

No Time for ‘Minnow’





No, I haven’t abandoned ‘Minnow’. It’s just that there has been too much going on for me to sneak a few moments for my mistress. She can sulk if she likes, but it won’t make a bit of difference.

Reading this blog, you may get the impression that I do nothing except lavish my love on the latest attraction, or shall I say distraction. Nothing could be further from the truth, and that is, I often find it hard to grab time for getting things done. I have had a succession of similar boat renovation projects, and the story has been the same for each one.

Idle hands are the devil’s delight, but he seldom finds me twiddling my thumbs while pondering what to do. Simply having a property to maintain, and more to the point, care for a wife, daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren, means my time is constantly in demand. Add to that relatives and friends, you can begin to understand, and I haven’t mentioned church and associated activities.

Well, today, a local tree surgeon and his team started work in our garden at 07.30 with instructions from the chief gardener to slay three conifers, lop the head off a eucalyptus tree, and hamstring two other trees! Two hours and twenty minutes later, light and air was restored to our garden, but there was an awful lot of sawdust, twigs and bark strewn about the place, not to mention two lawns requiring cutting.

I had more important things to do at that moment than set about making the garden tidy, and it wasn’t until early afternoon that I could put my hands to the task. Then I discovered a persistent badger had gnawed a hole through a panel of my neighbour’s fence. I was forced to be the purveyor of this unwelcome news, and I called him to check the damage. He had previously boarded a hole in a different panel. My guess is that a third one will be damaged and so on.

Isn’t there a Government sponsored badger cull on at the moment? Perhaps I could invite them to exterminate the beast. I know badgers are cuddly and adorable, and for thousands of animal lovers, they are sacrosanct, but they do cause problems, not least, a high percentage carry the tuberculosis virus which they spread to cattle.

Soon, it was dusk, and there was no time for ‘Minnow’. She would have to wait.

Link

Is a Badger Cull the Only Answer to Bovine TB?

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