Pig Sty Avenue

There's been at least one hoopoe around The Bungalows since we got here. They are lovely looking birds. Molly will appreciate them when she gets here because they feature in a musical scene in In The Night Garden ; (or maybe not - she tired of that programme quite quickly: it's very repetitive and essentially vapid; students on cannabis no doubt love it, and I do wonder if that is the intended audience). I spotted one in the garden this afternoon, and watched it pull out a grub from beneath the ground with it's long beak, and then, to my delight, saw a young bird run up with beak open to receive it's dinner. I watched them for a while, both parent and child probing the ground with their long beaks. The juvenile wasn't having any luck but every time the adult found a fat grub, the bairn would get it. A late night last night, mostly acting the fool in DMU . And then a long, long lie in this morning, (the first time I've stayed up past two, and slept past 11...

...is how I'd describe South Tyneside council. The trees in Jarrow precinct have been there since the early 60s. They had plaques by them to tell you when they were planted by the children of various schools. Those kids could be grandparents now. It's an unlovely spot. The trees were all that prettified it. And now, after forty-something years, they've been chopped down and then uprooted. The plaques torn off clumsily by a mechanical digger, getting bent in the process. I don't know if there's a rationale, or plans to plant new trees. The old ones had been there most of my life, and their removal is unsettling.