COMING UP

I was happy to see this sign of Spring in the cemetery this afternoon. There were also at least two Greater Spotted woodpeckers flying around, which was pleasing, though I couldn't get a photo.

More unusual was the plane in the extra which made a few low circuits and got all B's conspiracy sensors tingling. I've looked it up and believe it's an A400M Atlas military transport plane. When I was growing up on RAF stations I used to be good at plane identification, and entered a competition on the children's page of Dad's Sunday newspaper when I was about 9. Apart from correctly identifying the silhouettes of six or eight planes, I had to write an essay about Malta, as the prize (for three winners) was a week in Malta with "Uncle Jim" or whoever the children's editor was (I can't see that happening these days!). I got a letter saying that I'd got all the answers right and my essay was the best, but they hadn't expected any little girls to enter, and the prize was just for little boys so they couldn't give me the holiday. They may have sent me a ten-bob postal order, but the resentment and sense of injustice I've been nursing for nearly 60 years has wiped out that detail! My Dad thought that was rotten too.