I often wonder how many people have looked through my binoculars. I wish I had carried a sort of " visitor's book" for them and got all those grateful lookers-through to make a comment and maybe write their name in it. Because I'm a dedicated binocular-lender .... and my "total" must be in the hundreds. A significant percentage of them would have featured Waxwings .... not only passers-by who have stopped to find out what we're looking at ...but the householders too .... but I've also got complete non-birders looking at all sorts ... Rose-coloured Starlings, Bee-eaters, Hoopoes, Wrynecks, Eider ducks, Cetti's Warblers, Bitterns, Bearded Tits .... even pretty common stuff like Bullfinches, Sparrowhawks, Buzzards .... and then there's lots of Lithuanians who have looked through them .... very few people know about my Lithuanian experience ....... I hardly ever mention it........ 288-when-i-was-in-lithuania-part-1.html 293-when-i-was-in-lithuania-part-2.html 389-when-i-was-in-lithuania-part-3.html And I've never had any "trouble" .... nobody has ever run off with them or owt like that. But the real mystery is .. what about the people who owned those binoculars before I did. .... I didn't buy them new .... and especially all the people who they let have a look. Lots of people have looked through my jellyscope as well, but not recently ... I just can't cart it around as much these days .... I might have mentioned once or twice that I'm getting old and knackered. But there's something you can have a think about ... an unknowable number really. Unless , of course, it is zero. Which is perfectly understandable, and probably the sensible thing to do. My optics, they are just for me They cost a fortune, yes they did So why should I lend them to thee when they cost me 800 quid ? Maybe I should charge them 50p per minute it's a brilliant stratagem and it's sensible, innit ? I get a bit of dough They get a bit nearer To a Waxwing or a Chough so they see it much clearer. A point well made.
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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