Open window: an inevitable magnate for curiosity.As we sit with friends supping in the garden there is a recurrent flapping in the wisteria opposite. The sexual life of pigeons is something of a mystery, but what ever it is, it is far from discrete. On the roof above the wisteria a rejected male stands by. "Yesterday", says, Heidi, "the two males were fighting for at least 10 minutes, going at it hammer and tongs, feathers flying."
In the Italian delicatessen I ask the young man what is in the expensive looking bottle of grappa displayed in a polished wooden stand, on the shelf above his head. It seems to contain three or four fine flakes of red and something intriguingly frail and transparent. "It is a sheep," he says.
"A sheep?" Yes, a sheep". I look closely an realize that it is a glass model of a schooner and the streaks or red are pennants on its masts. "A ship," I say. "Yes, a sheep."
2 comments:
We'd been ski-ing and Bella, still no more than six or seven, rushed up to Occasional Speeder, saying: "Mum guess what we saw up on the piste. A vowel!" It was the extra l you'd added to the relevant noun in your headline that reminded me of this. OS deliberately didn't correct Bella and stole a glance at me, indicating that another significant contribution had been made to the children's repertoire of sayings. I wish Bella's announcement had been true since it would have enhanced the family's literary pretensions. As it was, and as you have probably guessed, it was in fact a vole.
Thanks. The spelling is now corrected. Ironic as the posting concerned a mis-pronunciation. This note should avoid anyone believing that your comment was superfluous. Vowel on the piste! A good title for something!
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