Migration and Immigration

One of the problems of working for yourself, especially if you work alone, can be simply that you do not have someone to bounce ideas off. Additionally as I have been working like a Chinese worker in an iPhone factory, I don’t often have the time to think ideas through.

Therefore, I took some time out yesterday to get out and away from the core work and just mull over a few ideas. As the business has been growing slowly but steadily, I wanted to try and work out what my next goal needs to be. While I have a few options, I wanted to think the ideas through.

So I headed into Bishop, as I wanted to look critically at the option of taking a shop. While there are a number of empty retail units about, the owners of these premises are totally unrealistic about the rents they expect. This frequently is why they are empty. Thus, I wanted to see if there were any gaps in the types of products I am selling or in allied areas. So I decided to just wander all along the main shopping area and even further along.

This brought a rather wonderful discovery for me. First was a very good “Greengrocer”. While I have found some good ones, this stood out as being a couple of steps better. It was while in there that I started to talk to the woman who was managing this shop. Anyway, when I mentioned that I was selling herbs and spices, this was just in conversation, she was asking for my contact details to pass on to the owners. It also emerged that they had a butchers shop opposite and I went across there after I left there. Again I was impressed by the quality I saw in there. Further, as they were emphasising that the meat came from local farmers, they were ticking the right boxes for me.

Anyway, with my shopping completed, I made my way home and by the time I got home I had a clear plan of what to attempt with the business. As well as a couple of meal ideas for the next couple days too. The sausages from this new butchers were excellent.

Now in true Monty Python fashion, here’s something completely different. When I got home, I had not been in for ten minutes when the phone went. I had spotted an Osprey a few days before and it was such a close clear sighting that I had been able to partial reading of the rings. This was important as there are now Two Pairs nesting in Northumberland, and it looks as though this was one of the females that I saw.

I was strange how this sighting came about, as one of my fellow villagers had said they had seen an Eagle. I was told it must be a youngster as it was still small, and it look shabby and tired. Well if it was a bird on migration the shabby and tired could apply, but as juveniles are the same size as the adults, I had my doubts about it being an Eagle. Also the general location just did not appear to match my understanding of roost sites. So early the next day I went out to look and see if I could spot the bird. I was all but ready to start heading home when I thought I would look at the sort of locations I would have expected an Eagle or a Hawk would have roosted. Within ten minutes, I had spotted the Osprey. It was not tatty or shabby, in fact it looked in quite good condition. I had about seven or eight minutes of good observation before the bird stretched its wings and took to the air from the tree it had roosted in. I was not really in a good position to observe the flight away, but at one point it did look as though there were two of them in the air. Now that would have been very unusual as the male and female normally make their own (separate) migration. Meeting up at the breeding site. However, I am now informed they may have joined together and were looking for potential nesting sites. So I don’t know if this is what I had observed.

Going back online and looking for the news story again, I spotted a new news story. This one was about a Hawk that had been rescued from a tree. I had to read this as in my mind birds are often found in trees.

However, it was true. As it was a captive bird, and the Jessie that are fitted to the legs of Falconry birds had become entangled in the tree. Further it was a Red Tailed Hawk, not a native British Bird but an American one. As I knew the location and I had lived very near there.... Well if I had not moved that would have been a new sighting for me. But at least the headline made me smile.