Busy showery day for my Dad to arrive with three new doves and for him and Diana’s parents to come and see them and the video I took this morning of the Roe deer buck that visited our riverside garden for acorns before an evening editing and improving my family video collection as the US/USSR Geneva arms limitation negotiations take a strange turn but Holland accepts cruise missile deployment despite protests
Awoken from a deep sleep by Daniel this morning to see a deer in the Hayling View. I sat at the window, drinking my tea, and watching it bound about on our riverside garden, eating the acorns that had fallen from the oak tree. No doubt it had also been nibbling at the shrubs and bedding plants as well. Then I managed to open our balcony window as it jumped into Marilyn’s plot and then video it as it came back and went back along the Hayling Walk in the direction of the gravel pits. We decided later that it was a young male Roe Deer, because of its dark grey-brown winter fur, white rump patch and small horn stumps; being only about 2 feet high. Our neighbour, Chris, also saw it and at first thought it was a Muntjac. Up then, after the excitement, and down to breakfast and then to telephone my Dad to see how he got on with the doves. He has three in cardboard boxes in his car – a pair with a white hen, and another hen, who is unattached. They were a bit put off by Di not inviting them for lunch and had decided that Dad would come over on his own this morning, rather than continue to keep the birds until later in the day.
Washed, dressed and then out with Della to the birds. No eggs, but the doves feed well and we also note that there are plenty of acorns left if the deer wanted to return. Four builders plus the plasterers here today. Two builders work on putting the new fireplace into the lounge and two more on opening up the outside of the two upstairs door openings in No7 for the link building. The plasterers finish off the dining room and put coving in place there and in the hall area. No sign of the decorators yet and they are now needed urgently to prepare three rooms for occupation early next week. I hear they are due to come tomorrow and I hope that they do. Whilst waiting for our parents to visit today, and in between times, I set down to my video tapes and checked out the state of my archives. Before doing too much my Dad was the first to arrive (my Mum not deciding to come). I showed him my film of the deer and those of the latest building work whilst we drank coffee and he was very impressed with the progress. Then out to his car to collect the three doves and along to the pole-cote to put them within my new retaining cage. I had already put seed and water within and so I popped them right in to the pigeon-holes, a pair in one facing the house on the lower and the single hen into the left hand entrance facing downstream. When I introduced the first doves in the other dovecote it was ages before they would go in the holes, eventually only responding to being pushed in with sticks. This time I was decided that they should start their days within and have to venture out for food and water and I calculated that they would roost within until tomorrow morning, and they did. Whilst watching them afterwards, Diana’s parents arrived and strode out to see the new arrivals and then over to see the work on the new house extension. In to a fine varied meat salad lunch and then I went into St Neots to look over the Shaw auction showroom and onto the video shop to buy some more film for backing up my originals. Home and then to play the deer video to Diana’s parents, who were also intrigued by its presence within the housing estate. Out again to the birds and this time the ducks had the largest appetite and the new doves had yet to show any sign of coming out. This evening, I worked constantly at my video recordings. Late at this task, finding most of my master tapes in good order, but upset near the finish to find that two of my original JVC miniature tapes (including this morning’s shots of the deer) had been affected by the interference and were now wavy. I will really have to overcome this problem or all of our archives will be affected. To bed much troubled by this turn of events, which is a cloud overhanging my best hobby. The news tonight was of the US/USSR arms negotiations in Geneva, with more posturing and flamboyant statements by President Reagan. An offer to share defensive weapons technology with the Russians is dismissed by some observers as it cannot be their true intentions. In Holland the decision has finally been taken to deploy cruise missiles. The latest space shuttle has been chartered to a large extent by the Germans for a number of research tests. The weather was a bit more changeable today, with the odd light shower as well, but not enough to affect the building work.