swanning around

This morning which was Sunday, I was just slicing the top off my boiled egg when something large and white plummetted out of the sky outside the window. It was a swan, who then sat under the magnolia tree looking worried. After a while it lumbered to its feet and started waddling round the garden hissing and glaring at any of us who approached it. Obviously it couldn`t get enough of a runway to take off, so I phoned the RSPCA It was one of those `press one for a cow, two for a dog sort of messages, and when I got to birds, it was ducks and pigeons but no swans. After some time I spoke to a real live person in the same county who was very vague as when she would arrive. I pointed out that the elderly Quakers did not like an angry swan on the doorstep. An efficient woman came an hour or so later with a long hook and a thing like an icing bag (cone shaped linenbag with a small hole at the top for the beak to poke through)
It took a considerable time to get it into the bag I must say, but now our swan is happily swimming in the River Itchen again.
I have just come back from a few days up in Newcastle where there was a dedication of a Writing Room to Julia at Live theatre and an adaptation of one of her novels as a play, which was beautifully acted. It brought out a lot of mixed feelings especially for my two lovely grand daughters, but it is good to have her remembered and honoured. I loved seeing so many old friends too.
I had a funny time on the train last night. Firstly the guard insisted on moving me down to a first class seat as he said there was a crowd of Derby football supporters getting on at Sheffield and they `were like animals`Then a wild looking man got on, tipped out a set of very large chess pieces on the table and more or less ordered me to play with him. It was a most exciting match which he of course won, but I have never known the journey pass so quickly.I almost went past the station.