Preserve nature - pickle a squirrel

I'm easily excited, living in rural East Yorkshire, if the milkman goes by with a smile on his face it's a talking point. Today two things tested my imagination. The first was the fantastic story via the BBC from Australia where wallabies have been eating the poppies in a field used for legal drug production and have become so high that they are wandering round in circles making 'crop circles' in the crops - fantastic. Apparently this is not new and sheep have been known to do the same thing.

What do get if you cross LSD with a birth control pill? A trip without the kids.

Well that answers a few questions and perhaps solves the mystery of British crop circles; I always thought they were the result of mad artists with planks making patterns in fields in the dead of night. Now we know that it's simply mad artists who have been eating poppies - same result but much more enjoyable process.

The second piece of news, unverified as yet, is that the planet Mars is due to come the closest that man has ever seen it to the Earth, just over 34, 600, 000 miles away starting around August 27th and will be the brightest object in the sky. It won't be like that again for over 60,000 years and its all due to the gravity tug from Jupiter.

Just as a matter of interest, Mars is the fourth planet in the solar system, with two moons, Phobos and Deimos and is half the radius of the Earth. Its red tint come from the iron oxide on its surface. The red planet is named after the Roman god of war and the astrological symbol for Mars is the circle with an arrow coming from it pointing at 2 'clock, the same symbol as 'male'.

I'm not big into astronomy and don't know how it all works, but I am interested - does that make sense? If the USS Enterprise was available today, I'd be one of the first passengers on board. It's a cliche to look up to the stars and dream and think of what's out there - but what is out there? I often sit on the patio at night with a drink looking up and pondering the possibilities and sometimes the thought is too stupendous and enormous even to contemplate; and the shame is, I'll never see it or experience it in this life.

Well to sign off tonight, there's a slightly sad note. The squirrels have decimated all the flowers I have planted this year including destroying 6 out of seven begonias I had put in an ornamental planter. Although I will miss the flowers, I have decided that for next year, the pots will all be planted with ornamental shrubs. The only alternative is to get someone to catch the squirrels and take them to the countryside and let them loose near a forest of some sort which I don't really think is wise in case it creates an imbalance. Disappointed that I have been beaten (unless you have a solution dear bloggers), but I can't get wound up about it anymore - I used to get angry, but now - so what.

Here's some handy excuses to get out of a date...

• I have to worm my dog.
• I'm teaching my ferret to yodel.
• I have to check the sell by dates on all my dairy products.
• I'm going to count the bristles on my toothbrush.
• I have to study for my blood test.
• I'm so busy, my plot to take over the world is gathering pace.
• I never go out on days that end with a 'y'.
• My gerbil is about to give birth.
• I'm sandblasting my oven.
• The Pope might drop by.

Chat soon,

Ta-ra.

Will the real Sherlock Holmes please stand up...

Hello bloggers. The domestic routine has taken over and life has become pretty unremarkable as life plods on. There's no sign here of the sustained summer that we've all been promised although the BBC weather forecasters seem to indicate as soon as we get back to work, it will start getting warmer. Cheers.

The squirrels in the garden are digging the plants up out of the tubs looking for buried peanuts - the squirrels will be joining them soon if they carry on! Nice to look at the furry little darlings but very destructive. There was a baby squirrel in the garden recently which is unusual, but I guess its parents have been killed because we've seen a couple squashed on the road recently. When it saw me, it didn't know what to do (a normal reaction) so it ran up the wall and just clung on nervously, so much so that I was able to stroke it for a few seconds before it scampered off. It comes back occasionally and is starting to grow. The picture above is the baby squirrel on the bird table.

Now the weekend's here, it's time for the debate and this week, only because I have a weakness for him, it's 'Who's the best Sherlock Holmes?'

There's been many fine film and television Sherlocks thanks to the creative genius of one of the most fascinating men of Victorian and Edwardian times, Arthur Conan Doyle - whose life in itself is fascinating reading. Doyle was a writer, poet, novelist, doctor of medicine, spiritualist. His epitaph on his gravestone was an indication that he would rather have been remembered for his interest in eye surgery and other more serious writings as in later life he tried to minimise the success of the very work that had given him fame; ironically in truth the world in general only remembered him for the quick witted, logical, untidy, less than desirable drug addicted tenant yet remarkable amateur detective creation of Sherlock Holmes.

Ably supported by Doctor John Watson, physician, Holmes operated his business from an apartment at 221B Baker Street, London and in London today, there is a very good Holmes Museum which I have visited with my children.

Basil Rathbone, dashing Englishman with a clipped accent more noted for his swashbuckling swordsman skills in villain roles portrayed Holmes in a number of films in the war years supported by a rotund Nigel Bruce who played Watson with far less intelligence than he deserved.

The superb and definitive Holmes played by the late Jeremy Brett shone on our television screens after a creative creation by John Hawkesworth and I am fortunate to own the box set of all the Brett appearances as Holmes. His success is in no small way due to exceptional television production and support by first David Burke and then the intelligent portrayal by Edward Hardwicke, surely the best of all Watsons. There is something about Brett that I can't quite put my finger on, a unique interpretation, eccentric, emotional, fiercely loyal to his good friend Watson, the very antithesis of the straight character portrayed by Rathbone and shows sympathetically a man walking the line between genius and madness at times.

Another favourite of mine, the late Peter Cushing was a more than acceptable public face of Holmes. 'The Hounds of the Baskervilles' was his triumph, again not really showing the flaws of Holmes, but someone you would imagine was in the mind of Doyle.

There have been others who have played Holmes, let down by directors and writers who were far more interested in the plot than the character; for now I'll stick to Brett and Hardwicke, Holmes and Watson.

It's my thirtieth wedding anniversary next week, more on that later but here's a little toast to women I found:

Here's to our wives,
They keep our hives
In little bees and honey.
They darn our sock
And sooth our shocks,
And don't they spend our money!
Anon

Chat soon

Ta-ra!