The Rat Catcher

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Barn owl sculpture

This is the owl our offspring gave Jackie for her birthday.

Pedestal etc

Clearly this splendid sculpture needed a plinth on which to perch. Fortunately I had noticed one in the very dealership from which we had purchased yesterday’s troughs. So back we went to Molly’s Den and bought it.

Chairs etc

Much more can be found in this emporium: chairs, table and settings;

Recordings

recordings old and new;

Figurines

figurines to every taste;

Bears

bears, of course;

Wooden boxes

boxes of possibly dubious provenance;

Headscarfs

headscarfs on mannequins;

Fairground signs 1Fairground signs 2

fairly optimistically priced peeling and faded fairground signs;

Copper jug

and bright copper artefacts, to select a few.

ponies outside The Rising Sun

On our return home, a cluster of ponies gathered outside The Rising Sun at Wootton. Were they perhaps waiting for lunch to be served?

Barn Owl sculpture on plinth

Rats continue to enter our garden from the empty and unkempt North Breeze next door. Perhaps that is the reason that Jackie wasted no time in allocating a place for the barn owl’s plinth beside the patio. I expect that benign looking predator appears rather different to a rodent.

Later, Jackie continued weeding and planting, while I fed this year’s compost pile and emptied the last of the matured one onto the Palm Bed.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s bountiful beef casserole served with abundant boiled potatoes. She drank Peroni while I finished the madiran.

 

60 comments

  1. Well, I hope that works for your rodent guests. The owl doesn’t actually look very scary though . . . . Good job putting it all together!

  2. What a difference a plinth makes! The owl looks perfect in that setting. That shop has such a wonderful assemblage of stuff – which surely ensures that every person through the door finds something to purchase 🙂

  3. I hope the elevated owl does the trick Derrick! I love these places for rummaging and finding treasures … that I don’t need 😉

    1. It looks amazing – A perfect tableau, with the fence and tree behind and the white of the owl and plinth leading down into the white flowers. Well done!

  4. the Rising Sun was always called the Japanese pub because the sun sign seemed to mimic the Japanese national flag. Is it still?

  5. The owl looks beautiful in its spot in the garden. I enjoyed the tour through the emporium as well. I can get lost in store like that. 🙂

    The wandering ponies never cease to bring a smile. 🙂

  6. The owl looks splendid perched in your garden!
    The ponies do look like they’re waiting for the doors to open. I’m amusing myself now by imagining them wandering inside. 🙂

  7. I enjoyed this post and am wishing Jackie a very sincere and belated Happy Birthday! 💐🎆
    The owl sculpture is beautiful! I loved your thinking of where his perch was to be purchased. Good memory, Derrick. Also, the placement should possibly be a perfect protector from the rodents’ intrusion. 🙂

  8. or perhaps the bar to open; Jackie seems to have thing about that Peroni stuff, she’d get on well with my chum Neill, he scoffs it, as if it were going out of fashion.

    Am I mistaken, or has Mr Owl got his back turned on where the Rat Pack emerge? Cunning fellow; perhaps he’s waiting for them to try and sneak past. A wise old owl indeed.

  9. I can relate to gifts that send you for further shopping. That is an intriguing store. Why does the glass shelf showcasing the decapitated mannequins says ‘RUN’ on the top left corner? As usual, images are tastefully framed.

  10. I’m sure that your local council would be interested to hear that somebody else’s property is allowing rats to come into your garden. Rats can carry Weil’s Disease and it’s fatal, so it’s probably worth an email to the council.

  11. What a fine sentence this is: “This evening we dined on Jackie’s bountiful beef casserole served with abundant boiled potatoes.” What I enjoy so heartily about your posts is the “everydayness” and how on the surface things seem so familiar from so far away, yet when you get close up to your photos, your world is so vastly different. ie. ponies loitering for lunch. Fabulous.

  12. Your offspring have very fine taste in owls. This particular fellow looks a little too serene to scare the rats (yuck), though.

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