Country Mouse on house martins
While tending the runner beans last week, Mark gave an involuntary yelp of delight


I know from recent correspondence with readers that I haven't been the only person scanning the skies with increasing desperation. What began as a casual glance has become a look of yearning: where, oh where, are the swallows and house martins? By most accounts, our house martins were at least a fortnight overdue-the house sparrows, opportunistic squatters, had taken over a number of the martins' old nests for their own uses.
This spring is very different from recent years; the ash tree has beaten the oak into leaf for the first time in many, many years (‘Ash before Oak, we're in for a soak; Oak before Ash we're in for a splash'). I haven't heard a single cuckoo. Had something terrible happened to the martins?
Last Saturday was beautiful, and, if you have a garden, you will have been gardening. I was tending runner beans, when, suddenly, a tiny torpedo slanted across the azure sky and up into the eaves of the house. I gave an involuntary yelp of delight; my house martins had arrived. I felt honoured to have them back. Never had the phrase better late than never felt more appropriate. The lack of the normal south-westerly would appear to be to blame.
* For more Mouse like this every week, subscribe and save
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by His Majesty The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.
-
Eat our local cheeses or lose our local cheeses, warns Neal's Yard Dairy
England has a rich tradition of fine local cheeses. Put down the cheddar, and protect some of our heritage dairy.
-
Six beautiful homes around the world, from Portofino to Provence to Palm Beach
An exquisite villa tucked into a hillside? A A breathtaking apartment created to make you feel like you're flying through the endless blue skies?