The world from my window

One of my all-time musical heroes is eighty five today. Take a bow, Mr John Williams . You are epic. By Chris Devers (Flickr: DSC_0937.JPG) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons This man, this incredible man, has provided the soundtrack to so many wonderful films which have become the soundtracks to our lives. Of course, there's Star Wars and Jaws and ET and Indiana Jones . He also wrote the music to  Schindler's List, Lincoln (now there's a film for current times), Saving Private Ryan,   Memoirs of a Geisha, Home Alone and many, many more .  The man is a legend, bringing classical musical to the masses through these fantastically atmospheric film scores. How can anyone not like the theme to Jurassic Park ? So when Mr Grigg and I were travelling travelling up to Heathrow last year (on our way to Colombia, don't you know) and heard a plug on the radio for a special Radio 2  Friday Night Is Mus...

I was making the rounds of my pelargoniums out on the terrace this morning. For the past few days, there has been the tell-tale sign of cat trying to scrabble in amongst the plants. But now, with plenty of souvlaki skewers sticking up bottomwards and a load of pepper put around the outside, it seems the cats have given the flowers a wide berth. And then, today, deep within the terracotta planter I discovered this. Here, have a closer look. It was nestling in an egg-shaped indentation in the soil between two plants. But there were no visible signs of whatever it was that put it there. No broken stems, no disturbed soil, nothing. Just a big, fat, hard, speckled egg. Mr Grigg put it in water to see if it floated. It didn't. It must be fresh then. Unless it's ceramic. But it doesn't feel like it. It's too big and white to have come from any of the hens next door. And, besides, they've never, ever ventured over the wall. And it's too small ...