Pigeons

At this time of year the farmers are happy for anyone to try and make a dent in the population of pigeon that strip the fields of newly sown seed. The birds arrive in their thousands and the sky can go black for the numbers that are attracted to an easy source of food.

A friend rang me to say he had pigeons up for grabs, He been asked to shoot on a local farm and had more than he could deal with. When the boot of the car opened I hoped he wasn't going to leave the entire contents but, almost fifty birds were unloaded onto my garden table. Luckily Helen, who isn't the slightest bit squeamish, came round and said she'd like to try some. After I'd given her a quick lesson on how to 'pluck and truss', she settled down and helped me render the pile into freezable bounty.

The chill wind gave us the incentive to work quickly but wasn't going to make it easy to keep the feathers in the bin bags. I now have a garden that looks like a Christmas scene. The grass might have to have it's first cut... the mower will double up as a hoover.