Friday 11th November (Armistice Day)


Mr. Kite looked out of his bedroom window into a grey sky. The top of the lime trees were bare and the leaves nearer the base were fewer and countable. Now Mr. Kite does not mind counting birds but leaves on a tree are a different matter.

Today it seemed that the people in the street wore poppies in remember of fallen soldiers; not fallen leaves. Now Mr. Kite lives in the house of a fallen poet who parents were notified of his demise ninety-three years ago this morning at midday with 'the knock on the door'.

Hopefully there will be no knocks on the door today. The poets parents had one knock on the door and Mr. Kite and His Lady have had their knock on the door. Today there will be no knocks on the door only on the old fireplace wall. So a bit of wall-knocking will be followed by a bit of bird-watching.

So after some  brick removal Mr. Kite went to Monkmoor Lagoon and today it was a good place to go bird-watching. With about two hundred canadian geese, scores of mallard, a few teal and mute swans with one solitary barnacle goose. With lots of birds to watch Mr. Kite watched them all rather than return to being a demolition worker in The Residence. After one hour Mr. Kite had watched all the birds and back to the building site.

In the evening Mr. Kite settled down to a tipple of Courage Directors. However in this technological world Mr. Kite and His Lady listened to yesterdays radio programme with Christine Finn visiting the Maison de Forestiere at Ors in Northern France. Now this reminded Mr. Kite of his visit to The Maison on June 18th 2011 where Mr. Kite and His Lady entered the building site and cellar for a sneak preview. With this amazing building still fresh in Mr. Kite's memory he had another drink.

Cheers to the Mayor of Ors, the people of Ors and all those who made this impressive building possible. Mr. Kite's contribution is a half-finished fire-place in the former home of the poet.