Wednesday 21st September (Puddings and a Ploughmans' Lunch)


Mr. Kite looked out of his bedroom window onto a racecourse where only linnets and pied wagtails were racing. Today the breeze was from the south-west so Mr. Kite cycled south-west through Pudding Norton to Litcham Common. To cut a long story short the common was bare; hardly a bird fluttered or an animal trotted.

But the surrounding fields were different. Now that the harvest was safe in the silos the local farmers ploughed the field followed by thousands of gulls diving onto creature turned over by the machinery. The gulls could not have had an easier meal; fat juicy worms lying on the earth. A feast of a sight and a gulls' feast. Thousands of white gulls gorging themselves; large white blobs on the shiny brown clean earth. Mr. Kite thought what a 'ploughmans' lunch'.

Mr. Kite then cycled to Hoes Rough to bird-watch. Now here Mr. Kite watched a common buzzard, long-tailed tit and colourful bullfinch. The orchids had long gone and so had the song-birds but Mr. Kite thought it a peaceful place.

In the late afternoon the air was warm so Mr. Kite stopped at North Elmsham Chapel for a bit of history before cycling the last leg of the trip back to Fakenham. Stock doves and a sparrowhawk made the ride more interesting.

This feasting made Mr. Kite thirsty so he returned to The Joint for a Wychwood Scarecrow. Cheers to all those farmers feeding those greedy gulls on a perfect ploughmans' lunch.