It is not my fault that I like blueberries. My Mistress eats them every day and occasionally gives me one. When I say ‘gives’ that is in the sense of drops one and I get to it first. You really can’t blame me for being delighted that she is growing them in the garden. She has been a little frustrated that as soon as they ripen they seem to disappear. She had concluded it was the birds. She has developed a new procedure of picking them late afternoon before they are fully ripe and then finishing them off on the window sill in the kitchen. I couldn’t help myself when we went outside yesterday. She was watering the plants and spotted one she’d missed picking… so I picked it. Except I did not put it on the plate to ripen, I put it inside Alfie to taste nice. It would have been fine if she had not turned round at the very moment and seen me with my mouth clamped round the bush! I tried arguing that if she would let me have some of the carrots she is growing then maybe I would leave her the blueberries but it did not get me a lot of sympathy!
I was staggered to learn that our family of swallows are probably getting packed up ready to fly to Africa. That’s an awfully long way. It’s funny to think the beautiful little creatures that have given us so much pleasure and left a large amount of guano for us to clean up, will spend the next part of the year in flight and the bring pleasure to those who see them so far away. I do hope they have a safe flight and come back to us again next year. I think we should plan a welcome party for when they return. Maybe they could show us their holiday photos. There must be a way of strapping a very small device to their leg that would take time interval pictures while they are gone. Maybe we could get them to transmit them back over the internet, although it all sounds a bit complicated.
Alfie’s Diary – the Book is available at Amazon UK –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00583ZGSA
You can find short stories to read at www.alfiedog.com