TIME OUT ON OLD TOWN STREET
Sitting with a soya latte, Old Town Street-side, the centre of Plymouth, last day of On The Plot On Tour.
“It’s lovely in the sun,” I say to a whistling early riser at a table t’other side of the door. He nods agreement.
“Tis low this time of year,” he volunteers after a considered pause.
“Aye.”
Sitting down facing empty tables, chairs, weeping willows and a row of financial institutions, I pull my hat brim down to the right.
The whistling coffee drinker is blowing out ‘Summertime’. He minds mine as I pop inside, up the stairs to take a leak and then pick up the biscuit I’d earlier politely declined. I rip the cellophane, break it in to crumbs and tip the contents on to my table for the sparrows.
Females are bolder. She flutters in to land, picks up great beak-fulls and crushes them down. He perches on the back of a chair, nips in and out but is much more restless. Four spadgers, at a female to male ratio of 3:1, share my breakfast in the sun.
Copyright, Joe Hashman www.dirtynails.co.uk
Tags: december, on the plot, plymouth, sparrow