Scared now
Jun. 24th, 2008 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
So in our back garden we have this amazing cherry tree (now much bigger than shown), and over the past couple of weeks it has been cooking up the most amazing crop (it's been hot then wet then hot again). Over the past week, the local blackbirds and starlings and assorted others have been feasting. Today I looked out and thought, "Right, time for my share," and out I went with a chair and this fine and sturdy piece of Lock'n'Lock.
The birds fled. I went round the tree for a while, picking and nomming, and I may have been humming 'Cherry Ripe'. And then I heard, up above me, high at the top of the tree, a murmuration of starlings. It became a clutter, then a gathering, then a concentration and then a fucking scary load of starlings, all yelling down the road and out far into the fens that SOME BITCH WAS NICKING ALL THE CHERRIES. All of sudden I was starring in a Hitchcock movie.
Well, the other week I faced off a huge green-eyed and hissing black cat - nay, panther - that is trying to claim our garden as its territory and has been worrying the polyamorous blackbirds in the hedge, so I thought, "Starlings, no sweat," and picked on fearlessly. It was touch and go for a bit as they rocked the tree around and screamed obscenities at me and then, WHOOSH - they all flew off. In a cloud.
Now, pie.
The birds fled. I went round the tree for a while, picking and nomming, and I may have been humming 'Cherry Ripe'. And then I heard, up above me, high at the top of the tree, a murmuration of starlings. It became a clutter, then a gathering, then a concentration and then a fucking scary load of starlings, all yelling down the road and out far into the fens that SOME BITCH WAS NICKING ALL THE CHERRIES. All of sudden I was starring in a Hitchcock movie.
Well, the other week I faced off a huge green-eyed and hissing black cat - nay, panther - that is trying to claim our garden as its territory and has been worrying the polyamorous blackbirds in the hedge, so I thought, "Starlings, no sweat," and picked on fearlessly. It was touch and go for a bit as they rocked the tree around and screamed obscenities at me and then, WHOOSH - they all flew off. In a cloud.
Now, pie.
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Date: 2008-06-24 04:10 pm (UTC)Also, cherries, mmm...
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Date: 2008-06-24 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-24 04:24 pm (UTC)I don't know why I'm offering you ways to kill and eat starlings.
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Date: 2008-06-24 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-24 04:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-24 04:29 pm (UTC)ROAST STARLING: After skinning the birds, clean them and roast them as you would sparrows.
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Date: 2008-06-24 04:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-24 04:52 pm (UTC)After the gray squirrels help themselves to a few juicy cherries, the fur around their mouths is all red, making them look like squirrels from a Stephen King story.
Our cherries should be ripe in a couple more weeks. Perfect timing so that it will be a mad dash to harvest them before leaving for Shore Leave.
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Date: 2008-06-24 05:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-24 05:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-24 05:25 pm (UTC)Perhaps I need to give them that starling recipe!
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Date: 2008-06-24 05:41 pm (UTC)Shame on you for taking food out of innocent young mouths. 'Course, 90% of the young 'uns will be dead by Christmas regardless, but ... shame on you ... Well, shame-ish. We are talking cherries, after all...
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Date: 2008-06-24 05:49 pm (UTC)I'm glad you got the cherries. (;
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Date: 2008-06-24 06:14 pm (UTC)Well, save to the sterlings and the squirrels and the blackbirds and the jays. They love it.
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Date: 2008-06-24 06:17 pm (UTC)I'm just jealous
Date: 2008-06-24 07:34 pm (UTC)But couldn't you set the panther onto the birds?
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Date: 2008-06-24 08:11 pm (UTC)You know, "fucking scary load" should have had a link, too! :)
Birds can be quite intimidating when you realise they really are directing all of that noise at *you*, can't they? I had a similar situation with a flock of jackdaws (my collective noun's just dull!) when we had to clear years worth of their nests from my chimney. Enjoy your pie!
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Date: 2008-06-24 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-24 08:25 pm (UTC)Cherries, nom!
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Date: 2008-06-24 08:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-24 09:33 pm (UTC)They'll be back.
On the other hand, by then, you'll be fuelled by PIE. My money's on you.
Well done, facing off the cat! It's really strange, isn't it, being aware that you're engaged in a contest of status and show, with absolutely no idea of the rules...
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Date: 2008-06-24 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-24 09:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-24 09:51 pm (UTC)I don't know, I'm quite PIE-SLEEPY now. They can have the rest of the cherries. I only wanted a pie's worth.
It's really strange, isn't it, being aware that you're engaged in a contest of status and show, with absolutely no idea of the rules...
It hissed first, but I hissed last.
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Date: 2008-06-24 09:51 pm (UTC)