No Starving Starlings

There is less of me today than yesterday. The dentist smiled sadly and offered a couple of options and a couple of odds on success. In the end mister molar had to go. A shame. He didn't go without a fight, and I rather feel like I've done a few rounds with the local middleweight.

If it hadn't have been for Covid I'm quite sure it would have gone differently, but I'd chosen to avoid any external contact for pretty much a year, and so the story goes. I'm slightly annoyed that my anaesthetic of choice is denied me for now, and all I have are the never ending paracetamols...

Anyhow, the rest of the world still turns. Out on the back lawn the starlings are clearly outlining their natural pest reduction strategy. We had large numbers of crane flies in the late summer when first we arrived, but all you really need is a good gardener who lets nature do the work.

I'm aware that the houses on one of the newer estates are riddled with leatherbacks - unsurprising since they're built on what was previously semi-improved water meadow. They're all about spraying off and even laying down plastic grass! And they're not listening.

Starlings, hedgehogs, slow worms, frogs... If you allow them, if you make them welcome, and don't kill them off in the rush for convenience, the non-human denizens of the garden will do more than half the work for you. Thankfully, Janet knows this.