Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

Spivs and Siskins

by admin - 21:41 on 28 March 2010

The early retirement prospects of The Rural Retreat's occupants took a knock today following a Sunday Times report that the first oil drilling off the Falklands was unsuccessful.

However, the story was stuffed so full of caveats and undisclosed sources that nothing is certain.

Conspiracy theorists believe that stock market spivs have given duff information to gullible journalists in a bid to force down the market price. The spivs will then buy oodles of shares at a bargain price before the real news of a successful strike is announced and the value rockets.

Or maybe that's just wishful thinking. Monday's trading will be interesting.

What is certain is that five more wells will be drilled in the next few months. We could still be oil barons by the end of the year.

Around the Retreat, spring continues apace. The snowdrops have faded after an unusually long bloom but the daffodils are ready to burst forth. Buds are budding and small birds zipping around the garden and squabbling over the feeders. And The Invisible Pine Marten returned after dark last night for his midnight snack.

Thanks to people who know more ornithology than I do, I can now state that siskins are among the garden's feathered freeloaders, and here's a photo to prove it.

Other highlights of today's twitching were sight of our pair of woodpeckers (only the male was snapped) and a blue tit with a bit of an attitude.

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