Lola in the Window

VE Day. I walked up to Ann's up the drive at 11 am with G&T as promised. Len brought me a camp chair. Ann and I stood for the two minutes' silence before sipping our gins. Ann had been to Buckingham Palace on VE Day in 1945. She was 11 and small. Crowds thronged and pressed. She was worried that she  might get crushed and she desperately wanted a wee. No lavs outside Buck House.

The ladies next door came out to chat. Young Mum and daughter were making bunting out of Aldi carrier bags. Very effective.

After I'd recovered from the gin, Basil and I wandered northwards across Fairway Road, where not only was there plenty of bunting, there were tables and chairs set out and people enjoying tea, wine and beer. Good for them. The lad I met on the swing told me his street was going to have a barbecue later.

The excitement on our street had nothing to do with street parties, worse luck. Peter two doors away had disturbed a badger in his compost bin last Saturday afternoon, undoubtedly the same one that had been sleeping in our garden and digging along the fence a couple of weeks ago. At any rate, it got away overnight by digging underneath his fence into our immediate neighbour's garden. I can't get Len to understand that our neighbour's fence with us is insecure and we're now likely to have a badger burrowing in our garden.

No wonder Basil and Lola up the road go crazy at 10.30 at night. The badger must be on the move then.

The Lola in the photo is a different Lola. I've seen her before on our walks. She always eyes Basil as he goes past. I thought she looked very fetching beneath the bunting.