It’s very warm here this evening, and the village is very quiet. I can hear a persistent sparrow tweeting, but no-one is replying. There aren’t the usual guardian seagulls on the Victory Hall (our village hall here in Uphill) although I can hear one chuckling nearby. There’s no sound of traffic on the other side of the village from the road which heads south, and it’s altogether very quiet. It’s been hot and sunny all day today, as it has been across the country, and maybe we’ll have some relief when the sun goes down at 9:32. High tide of 9.5m was at 2:17p.m., and low tide (should we want to go for a walk along the beach which we probably won’t as it’s still very warm) is at 9:17p.m. and is of 2.5m.
The quiet is disrupted by a siren – it could be police, but it’s more likely to be an ambulance arriving at the hospital by the main road. The neighbours in the house at the bottom of the garden have their family and grandchildren arriving, and there’s a lot of excited Punjabi exclamations and greetings. The little grandchildren are out on their tricycles, England flags tied to the handlebars – obviously supporting our team in the football world cup this evening! Their dads, when they were young, were great cricketers in the local team, but they’ve moved away from the village now. We know when they’re visiting even if we don’t hear or see them because they park on our drive. The cul-de-sac where they live is always crammed with cars, and we have a double drive with only one car so we suggested they park here!
Our other neighbours seem invisible – we see a couple of parents taking and bringing children home from the junior school in the village, we see cars leaving and returning to and from work, but we rarely see anyone to speak to. The neighbours diagonally across from us wave and call out greetings when they see us, and if we bump into them we exchange news. Talking of news, if we want any local gossip we ask Shirley – she’s always out and about, taking her dog, Troy, for a walk and she knows most of what goes on in the village.
Now the only sound is a persistent pigeon, who is obviously not the slightest bit interested in the football unlike everyone else in the village who must be gathered round a TV. I’ll know how the game (England vs Portugal) is progressing by the cheers or groans from The Ship, audible across the village on a quiet evening.
Now I think I should return to editing my next Radwinter – this is becoming a never-ending saga to get it completed and out there!!!
PS Now an extremely noisy and quarrelsome pair of blackbirds are having a shout-off somewhere, I can hear them but can’t see them!
Lois Elsden 