I saw my first black plastic hay bales of the summer last week
Bring back haystacks, I used to think, when I saw these ‘monstrosities’. But they are nearly as old as I am, & clearly have many advantages
And certainly these days I am not going to want to clamber up a rickety ladder with my picnic of a bottle of ginger beer & a cheese sandwich. Still less have a bit of hows your father on top
I miss corn stooks much more. When I was very little you could creep inside to hide, & if you were very lucky, you might find yourself sharing the space with a dormouse
A few years ago I was on my way to Loughborough to do a Summer School. Surprisingly, the train was fairly empty & I had one of those table seats all to myself. Just south of Alfreton I was leaning forward, reading the paper, when there was a pop just to my left – a small hole had appeared in the outer skin of the window, but not come all the way through
Looking round, there were just stubble fields as far as the eye could see. I guess someone had been after rabbits rather that wanting to vandalise the train
I made what I later thought was the mistake of pointing out the hole in the window to the ticket collector
Funny how embarrassing it can be to be interviewed by the police in Nottingham station even if you are simply giving a witness statement
