The Wildlife Talk and Slideshow was fantastic. The Speaker, a sprightly 80-year old had well over 50 years worth of personal and direct knowledge of my island, which was over 350 acres at its fattest and has now eroded to less than 30. I learned all sorts of interesting facts about the flora and fauna that I'd never known before, despite having lived so closely to it all my life. Sadly, one high Spring tide and a storm might well see it disappear for good.


The evening was split into two parts, not completely halves, interspersed with a short break for tea. The final section was only about 20 minutes long, which seemed almost prematurely and abruptly ended until I noticed the queue outside the toilets, the Gents, not the Ladies as is more usual. I estimated a combined Prostate ago of about 3 millenia. The audience was predominantly male with just a couple of loyal wives serving the refreshments. I was easily the youngest by a good 40 years, save for my dad of course. Surely I can't be the only person interested in nature and wildlife and stuff still more than 30 years off pension age.

Freshly enthused, I roped Sophie into spending her lunch hour porpoise-spotting with me the next day. I was following a hot tip that assured me we'd see loads of the lovely creatures just 5 minutes from the office. We didn't, despite being armed with binoculars and the knowledge that one only has to take a step towards the water to literally fall over a beached marine mammal this month. But it was a very pleasant walk which is sure to be repeated over coming weeks.