Thursday, December 27th 2012
…so it’s back to normal – whatever that is! 
There are many ways to spend Christmas and each of us probably has an opinion as to how it should be spent. As far as I am concerned, our Christmas was perfect. We stayed indoors like a couple of hibernating bears, eating, sleeping, reading, watching videos, whatever we felt like doing, whenever we felt like doing it. We let the world get on with its business and confined ourselves snugly within our own little world.
Writing last Friday (see A market, a green and some pigeons), I said I had been a bit depressed earlier in that week. I’m glad to say that that dark mood has passed and I feel a lot brighter. Christmas with Tigger put the finishing touches to the improvement.
Not that I feel fully recovered yet. That is the main problem at the moment: I feel as though I am still at the beginning with a long way to go. The quoted recovery time is six to eight weeks so perhaps I should not be complaining after only two. Things will perhaps improve so that life can return to being something nearer normal.
Self-portrait
Post haircut
Tigger had to go back to work today and I decided it was time for a haircut. Last time I visited the barber, he proposed an all-over trim with a number 3 clipper. I agreed but was somewhat taken aback by the result. It was SHORT. I vowed not to make the same mistake again but in the days that followed, I found that short hair has advantages. For one thing, it’s easy to wash, and for another, it hardly ever needs even combing. So on this occasion I proposed an all-over trim again but this time with a number 4 clipper, thinking that would leave the hair a tad longer.
The above photo shows the result. Yes, you can see through my hair to the scalp! Never mind, it’ll grow back. It always does. Or should I have my scalp tattooed so that people have something interesting to look at? I took the photo in the bathroom mirror and then reversed it horizontally so that you see me as you would have done had you been peering out of the mirror at me.
While I was in hospital, Tigger bought me a book to read. It is entitled Corvus, A Life with Birds (ISBN 9781582434773), and it is by Esther Woolfson. I won’t say much about the book as I don’t want to spoil it for you if you choose to read it and there are plenty of reviews (e.g. here). In brief, it is the true story of a woman, a wife and mother, and a professional writer, who takes in birds that have fallen from the nest, and rears them. For me, the point of interest in the book is that two of its main avian characters are corvids (members of species belonging to the crow family), a rook and a magpie, respectively.
Why does this interest me? In a word, because the corvids are probably the most intelligent of birds, and scientists studying them have made, and continue to make, striking discoveries about their thinking and reasoning abilities. Some researchers would place them on the same level of intelligence as chimpanzees and possibly higher. And yet the relationship between corvids and humans has been a terrible story of cruelty and persecution, motivated by ignorance, misunderstanding and myths that traduce their true nature. I am very glad to see a book that goes a long way to revealing these remarkable birds as they really are in a book that is well researched but easy and fascinating to read.
My current reading (also bought for me!) is A Street Cat Named Bob (ISBN 9781444737110) by James Bowen. Perhaps I will find time to say something about his one also when I have finished it.
Copyright © 2012 SilverTiger, http://tigergrowl.wordpress.com, All rights reserved.
Regarding haircuts, there are always trade-offs. Is it so terrible that your scalp shows? Maybe next time with a number 5 clipper? Birds that will eat carrion, as crows and ravens will, always get a bad rap. They have been associated with war goddesses and battlefields because of it. Still theirs is an important role in nature. I, for one, am always glad when humans are taken down a peg or two when we discover another species shares some of our vaunted mental abilities.
It doesn’t matter that my scalp is visible. It’s unusual for me, though. I will certainly try another number next time in the hope of finding a number I like
Anyone criticising the carrion-eating habits of crows should remember that 1. if there were no carrion eaters, we would be buried in putrefying corpses and 2. compared with the insane destructiveness of human beings who create battle fields strewn with bodies, crows eating the bodies is a positively benign act. Those who murder cannot afford to claim the moral high ground.
Battle fields are, happily, relatively rare in people’s experience. The myths used to justify persecuting crows are more likely to concern their supposed killing of newborn lambs and other false charges dreamed up by ignoramuses. Crows, when left alone, actually do far more good to the environment than harm.
Hello Silver Tiger, just curious because I grew up on Dover road Brighton, We lived at no44, in the 1960′s and 70′s. My name is Charlie Stokes born 24/11/1958. I now live in the north east but still remember my childhood. Wonder if we know each other?
happy new year anyway !!
Best
Charlie
What a fascinating comment – thanks for getting in touch. Dover Road, the scene of my childhood, remains in my memory and imagination a very special place, warmly remembered. I hope you have similarly pleasant memories of it.
Unfortunately, we missed one another. I left Brighton in the summer of 1957, just over a year before you were born.
Have a good year 2013.
Hey – the haircut looks good (but you may need to wear a hat in the sun…scalp burn UGH, peels, and the headache resulting…learned from hiking with part on top of head)
Thanks for the book titles – always looking for a good read.
Hope your new year is full of great adventures and smiles
Thanks for the appreciation of the haircut
I do always wear a hat when I’m out, so that’s all right, then 
I will review the second book as soon as I have finished it.
Thanks for the New Year’s wishes. I hope you too will have a good and happy 2013.
Ah, hair. I remember that. I still have tufts left, and those are usually subject to either a 9mm or 6mm clipper (when I want to look more menacing) once in a blue moon. I think there’s one coming up…
Your cameo reminds me of a character called Wilson from the TV series Home Improvement. The audience never actually gets to see his face in full, too…
Well, we wouldn’t want to frighten the horses…