Showing posts with label air-traffic control. Show all posts
Showing posts with label air-traffic control. Show all posts

Thursday, 5 April 2018

Building no 62



Is it a signal box? is it an air-traffic control post for very low-flying, micro planes? is it a end-of-the-world 'prepper's' holdout?
I was in a village last weekend for a 'Vide Dressing' a sort of car boot sale for clothes but indoors - in this case a rather imposing 1960s municipal building with rather wonderful Twinning Association ceramic tiles on its walls. Sadly for me, the sale had finished by the time I got there so a village exploration it was instead - which was actually far more interesting than searching through boxes of discarded French fashion in the hopes of finding whatever it was I was looking for - walking boots I think . . . not very likely.
So, this building . . . down a back road on its own; no runway, rail tracks or KTFO signs although there was a large and impossible-to-scale gate. I peered and hoped that some passing bod would tell me what the place was for but as it was lunchtime in a Southern French village that would be impossible. Mm, mysterious.

Wednesday, 4 February 2015

Pecking order

In winter I used to hang 'fat balls' in the pear tree, but the birds were not overly keen due to the cat being able to climb up and watch/eat them (birds, not fat balls).
This year I've hung them from the metal vine-holding construction (what is it called? - can't remember, but can't recall much this morning due to head being full of cold residue) at the front of the house.
This is good! Great, in fact. They can't see us, and we can see them. There's a sort of air-traffic control system of stacking in place now. Each fat ball has usually two or tree birds (tits of all sorts, sparrows, nut hatches, and once, a wily starling) attached to it, while other same-species fowl wait on the bare branches above and around. A second layer of birds hop around on the flower pots - sparrows, robins, dunnocks, etc, picking up 'fall out', and on the ground: blackbirds, thrushes, robins, starlings and occasionally, magpies, peck at grain and toast debris.
For the price of a cut price DVD, a bag of fat balls provides them with food and us with endless enjoyment at their arial acrobatics free of cat threat.