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I played golf with Ian Clayton again today in a mens pairs match - he and his partner in banditry beat us in the end - they were 3-over par better ball both off 13hcp. - that's hard to beat with me having to give them 3 shots each! Great company though.

Anyway, Ian's parents who would be about Tony's age  are Mick and Eileen and always say hello to you. Aparently Mick brought his trailer round to your field to collect some wood from a tree you had chopped down a while back.

We’ve got a cuckoo at Hampton water an old brick pit now a nice nature reserve / country park
I hear it most days
It’s the first one I’ve heard for awhile though
I haven’t seen swallows / house Marin's yet ? That’s a sign of warmer weather

Well, that was a pleasant surprise!

Heard that Cuckoo yet Tom?

No Trev.

I'm beginning to think I'll never hear one again.

These days, whilst doing or experiencing something that happens infrequently, I sometimes find myself thinking, I wonder if I'll ever do this again?

Not in a morbid way, more like a Be aware of the transience of life and squeeze every last ounce of pleasure out of it that you can way.

So if I do get to hear another cuckoo, you can bet I'm going to enjoy it.

I think I have heard one every year since this discussion, but not this year.

In the time before COVID my mum got so sick she almost died.  It has been a long road to recovery, but she isn't ever going to get back to how she was, as she is getting older. 

For a long time she has just used her car for getting around locally, so I kind of knew she wasn't going to ever drive down to see us again.  The other week she gave us our house key back. Such a small thing, but was in bits about it.

Only been to Hinkley once, passed it a lot on the motorway

Around 45 years ago my pals and I would always follow the transatlantic motor bike races, Barry Sheene, Kenny Roberts etc

Brands Hatch Good Friday
Mallory Park Easter Sunday
Oulton Easter Monday

We left Brands on the Saturday morning rocked up to Wolvey campsite Saturday afternoon

Spent the afternoon between the Pub and Bookmakers

After a considerable amount of sherbets onboard we ended up at a nightclub called Hinkley Nights, this is where it all got a tad messy.

The usual happened, Beer, Girls, Jealousy, Big Disagreements with the local lads, thrown out...resulted in a very memorable joyous day

Suppose to of grown up now!!

And if I do hear one, I'm gonna record it on my Merlin to prove it.

Click to see full-size image.

Heard that Cuckoo yet Tom?

No Trev.

I'm beginning to think I'll never hear one again.

These days, whilst doing or experiencing something that happens infrequently, I sometimes find myself thinking, I wonder if I'll ever do this again?

Not in a morbid way, more like a Be aware of the transience of life and squeeze every last ounce of pleasure out of it that you can way.

So if I do get to hear another cuckoo, you can bet I'm going to enjoy it.

I think their strategy in africa is to stay quite close to water so they can escape the smaller land based predators. They also have about a dozen young, so that one being taken is a distraction that can help the others escape.

I do think they have a very low survival rate and from watching the Wildearth shows, it seems to be fairly rare for them to raise goslings to fledging.

There is a lake about half a mile away but that would be a fair old trek for those day or two-old goslings.

The geese nest high in the trees and all the chicks just tumble down to the ground once they've hatched apparently.

You watched the latest series of Clarksons Farm yet Gramps ?

Heard that Cuckoo yet Tom?