Spartan Eye

Image by Christine Renney

Mark and I have just returned home from the Ledbury Poetry Festival, where we heard some fine poets speak their words and cadences and rhythms. Between events we wandered about Ledbury, which is a beautiful old town, and met this lady who now lives in one of the Alms Houses there. I got talking to her after watching her put lots of nuts out in the flower beds on the street and asked her why. She told me that one of the rules of living in the Alms Houses is that you do not feed the birds because of encouraging rats. As she enjoys waking up to birdsong she just moved the feeding part of the equation to the street which her flat overlooks. A delight indeed.