Sunday, 18 May 2008

Over breakfast, Jackie and I discovered the root cause of yesterday’s cacophony in the garden: the starlings are fledging. This morning, young starlings (greyer and fluffier and plumper than adults) flew down to feed on our lawn. But instead of pecking at the seed, they just screamed to demand food and adults put seeds into their beaks just to keep them quiet. I know how they felt. But gradually the adults ignored the screams and within fifteen minutes or so the youngsters were pecking away alongside the adults.

We visited Ayot St Peter and finally managed to get inside St Peter's Church to discover that the interior is not nearly so interesting as the exterior suggests. I was very tempted to stay and see the Communion Service conducted using the Book of Common Prayer. Instead we visited St Mary’s at Welwyn: it is now virtually impossible to discern anything of the original structure, but it was interesting to see the modern extension and there was an impression here of an active church at the heart of its local community.