It was a bit of a late night last night: I was slaving over my PC combing through the Byzantine connections between individuals and movements in Welsh public life and their sponsors in the wind power industry. Some of the claims are very funny: if you believed their claims for community benefit, the tarmac on the A458 would be replaced by solid gold. The scary part, however, is the way in which the tentacles of these companies have reached deep into Welsh institutions but for us, octopus slaying is all in a day's work. Fuelled by a couple of bottles of alcoholic ginger beer (which brings back childhood memories as Mrs Foskett, the second string char-lady, used to provide us with three things: anecdotes about the Dagenham Girl Pipers, fushia cuttings and the so-called plant to make home-made ginger beer), I did not head to bed until after one, having first put out the indolent cat Lightening. In my gnger-beer haze, I clearly did not close the door properly. A couple of hours later, I heard some snuffling and heavy movement: nothing unusual there, thinks I, as mother of teenagers.
In the morning, however, as I was cleaning my teeth, I noticed a small badger behind the bath. Friends, I was admirably calm. Equipping myself with the broom handle all single women in this county keep inside their front doors, I chivvied said badger from the house. I tried to enlist the indolent cat but he just gave the badger a haughty look and walked away. For a while, the badger attempted to re-group behind the wood burning stove but patience and prodding encouraged him to shamble away, blinking in the daylight.
A few weeks ago, the people of this county woke up to find a shambling, malodorous presence in our midst. for a while, we wer frankly too startled to know what to do but now we have armed ourselves and the power plan badger is scrambling down the stairs. All of this is hard work and most unexpected but one thing I know: our homes will soon by ours again and the door will never again by open, so much as a crack
Yay for Crabbies! You are one brave woman! Badgers can make mincemeat of us all, but as you have demonstrated, determination and quiet fortitude, plus judicious use of a broom, can solve the problem!
ReplyDeleteI love an analogy - or is it a parable! A metaphor? Whatever, here is to the exile of badgers from unsuitable habitats!