So many small pieces of news that it’s difficult to know where to start. My drug delivery arrived last night as planned. After 18 months it seems that I may have got through to them that I’m not at home during the day and that as they need refrigeration I need an evening delivery. Seems simple but it’s been hard work getting the idea across. They offer evening delivery slots so I don’t know what the problem is. It’s a small victory, but one that feels worth celebrating.
There was no smell of sewerage in the shop this morning. I’m cautiously optimistic that yesterday’s gurgling was a sign that things have been fixed. However, based on previous experience, it could be too soon to say it’s solved.
Following on from the last good news on acceptance I have had two more, one yesterday and one today. The momentum is building again. The tanka that was accepted today was one that was not selected last week. You just can’t tell what an editor is going to like.
I watched a news report on the reintroduction of water voles last night. They released several hundred in the lake District. The main thing with helping the water vole population increase is that you have to control the population of American Mink. I’ll let you read up on the subject. I’ve already made my mind up. American Mink don’t appear in Wind in the Willows, and thus, in my opinion, have no place in our waterways. The link has, in case you didn’t read it, the fascinating fact that mink droppings smell pungent and fishy whereas otter droppings smell of jasmine tea. It’s difficult, reading that, to imagine what some of these researchers get up to when left to work unsupervised.
Yellow Flag Irises
I am with Lavinia! I too laughed when I read about the smell of the droppings. Can’t help but feel sorry for the mink that were brought there against their will and are now just trying to survive. I understand that they have upset the natural balance, but still.
Nature seems able to accommodate all sorts of things, but in this case the mink is just too much for our ecosystem to bear and the water vole has nearly been wiped out.
I agree with you that it is hard on the mink, but if we don’t control it there will soon be no voles left.
Sigh.
It’s sad, but think of a mother vole and her babies as he smaller mink (females and adolescents), enter the burrow and slaughter them in the dark.
Mink are a real problem and it is hard to get completely rid of them. It just adds to the annoyance to think that they were brought in by fur coat farmers. Well done for the continuing acceptances.
Mink and coypu both. Fortunately coypu were easier to cope with. I would have no problem with a programme to eradicate mink. They just don’t fit in.
All good news then. I think those idiots who let out all the mink should be forced to read The Wind in The Willows
I would incline more to staking them out on river banks with mink bait placed on the more delicate bits of their anatomy. But it has often been said that I lack subtlety . . .
I had a good laugh at “mink droppings smell pungent and fishy whereas otter droppings smell of jasmine tea.” 🙂
Congratulation on the poetry acceptances, Simon, and good luck on the water vole front!
I am trying to work jasmine tea into a poem now. 🙂