Michael Potts As A Bairn

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Many thanks Foxy!!

You pulled me oot thi hole!!...much appreciated.

Well,let's see if Little Black Jess, and Percy the Herring gull will perform for you!........

Hmmm.....error message saying I'm "...not permitted to upload this kind of file."

[it was a video clip of them both]

Let's find a decent pic...!

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Many thanks Foxy!!

You pulled me oot thi hole!!...much appreciated.

Well,let's see if Little Black Jess, and Percy the Herring gull will perform for you!........

[pilgrim]

Wilma you have become a victim of PC!! you can not upload vids of naked birds performing!!! go sit in a corner and behave yasel!!

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

So,aam not allowed ti upload,then when a put sum pics up,me text has repeated itself in me last post.......queer gaanin's on heor noo!

Aav spent the last haaf hoor typing a story aboot Percy,and it said a wasn't permitted ti edit this topic...!!....a wasn't editing owt...!!

Tha's nowt mekkin' sense ti me heor noo!

[pilgrim]

repeating yasel -- it happens when ya get older lol

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Heh heh,Pilgrim,wat a wit!!

Me Wife's knitting a nice little coat and bootees ti keep him warm....cos she feels sorry for him sittin oot there in the caad...!!

Pity aboot the video,aav got sum real funny ones!...wi Percy and Jess...that is..!!

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

...a wus jus syen...a wus jus syen......a wus jus....................................................................................................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pilgrim]

eeee I remember when all these fields were houses lol-- er are ya sure the the coat and bootees are not for you?

Edited March 1, 2015 by pilgrim

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

A gotta give a big plug for Taylors seafoods,at North Shields,they have given me a lot of support in the way of fish offal,heads etc,for Percy,cos he's been feeding on cheap dog food since he was a a babby,whey he is two-and a haaf yeors aad noo,and needs fish oil in his diet.

Thanks Tony at Taylors seafoods!

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Ye cud be reet theor noo,aav put me order in for a wil... -warmer as weel!![smaal,like the bootees!]

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Mickey,here's one of wor Jackie,sitting on he's cage....[an orange box...we were hard up in 1974!]

Me Wife's been delving through aal the aad albums ti find this one!

She recalls thi time when aa was at the pit,in backshift,and a neighbour came ti tell her that Aad Ernie Moore,[a lovely old fella],had caught jackie,amang he's strawberry patch...he wasn't raiding them,he was flown oot,wi thi wind,and was desperately trying ti lift off but couldn't..this was doon the allotments behind East Terrace,at Stakeford..aroond 1974-ish.

How  she is sure of thi year is because she went doon ti seek Jackie wi wor youngest Son,in he's pram,and she brought him back in he's orange box cage,

and wor Son was 1 year old in 1974.

There she was,pushing her treasure along in he's rolls royce,wi an aad orange box on the top cover...as yi dae ,like...!![mind,it WAS a Jaffa orange box!!

Happy days!

[pilgrim]

Taylors are one of the best fresh fish suppliers - always good quality!! .. funny old world though -- seems to be a Bedlington thing -- everyone had a dog and a pet 'Jack' !!!

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Taylors are one of the best fresh fish suppliers - always good quality!! .. funny old world though -- seems to be a Bedlington thing -- everyone had a dog and a pet 'Jack' !!!

Taylors are tops..really canny and friendly..

A think why that was,Pil,we were at the centre ,[in Hollymoont Square],of the lads from Haig,Beattie,Millbank,Cornwall crescent,the Park,and Millfield,aal at the bottom end of toon,and a two-minute waak doon Bedltn bank,and inti the woods,or doon the Furnace bank,and ditto.

There was over a hundred kids [well over a hundred!],and we had wa choice of playmates at any one time.

We aal went bird-nesting doon the woods,and owa thi fields,owa thi pit heaps,doon ti thi  Barntin tip....owa thi brickyard,up Netherton lonnen,owa ti thi oppencast,nae wonder wi were aal fit as lops!

So,inevitably,somebody would have a tame bird or animal....somewhere...but Jacks were the favourites!!

Wi thi exception of people like the lad who caaled me Wilma!,when HE was a kid,at Barntin colliery,he had a little monkey sitting on he's showlder!!

[Maggie/915]

Good pictures HPW and a good looking garden.

The balance of nature and wildlife.

Harmony.

Something achieved by our very own Bedlington in Bloom heros.

[Canny lass]

Thumbs up from me as well HPW. Lovely stories and even lovelier Pictures. A tribute to what real love for animals can achieve.

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Eh ye bugga!!

Thanks lasses for ya kind comments.

Any amoont o' folk wud think we were crackers...keeping a Herring Gull....it's not by choice,we wud rather see him fly off and join his marra's owa the fields and lakes!

But it's satisfying ti knaa and watch him moult successfully owa the last two years,and his third one is starting noo!

He's looking a smart young fella noo,wi he's adult plumage!

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Mickey,what did your Jack say,a hope ye didn't larn unrepeatables....like me Faatha did wi Charlie,one of wor budgies,when a was a little bairn....wi had him for years,a grew up hearing him say..."Cheeky Charlie"...etc etc....then......."Cheeky P...pot"....repeatedly!!

Me Faatha used ti blow cigarette smoke into his cage,with a cover over him at night,cos he used ti squark a lot......poor little thing,nae wonder he used ti squark....it was cruelty.

But he was a cruel person,so aa grew up tekkin ti me Mutha,who looked after birds and animals aal thi time.

She used ti mend bird's broken wings wi bits o' matchsticks and elastoplast....nae sellotape in them days!!

Remember,in those days,there was an abundance of most birds in the book,and the government blamed kids birdnesting for thi decline in numbers......

Kids nested for hundreds of years,with no effect,but as soon as hedgerows were taken oot for bigger farm machinery,and concrete was laid doon for massive housing schemes among other nasties,pesticides etc,not ti mention,of aal things...the testing of nuclear bombs in thi '50's,as if it wasn't ganna affect migrating birds on a massive scale,totally unprecedented!

So what a meant was,when numbers were high,in thi old days,it was inevitable that there were more injured birds taken in by kind hearted people to be nursed back to health..

Mrs Weightman comes to mind....AND Mrs Locker at Ashington.....Angels on earth.

[Canny lass]

"he's a smart Young fella noo wi hi's adult plumage". Better get him locked up now HPW. The ladies will be after him!

[pilgrim]

interesting comment about hedgerows - they are all disappearing - there is  some  good  facts about how long a hedgerow has been established by the number of species in in it - I have noticed over he years the demise of the traditional 5 bar gate in favour of the double metal thingy to accommodate the huge machines we now have

[Maggie/915]

I agree about the demise of the hedgerows.

So many are disappearing to be replaced by a fence or nothing at all.

Hedge laying seems just not to happen these days.

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

"he's a smart Young fella noo wi hi's adult plumage". Better get him locked up now HPW. The ladies will be after him!

AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!

A got a Wife,a dog,a Gull,a pond of fish,aal the other little bords ti feed.........a canna be done wi a harem aan aal!!

A doot he'll hae ti gaan ti thi doctors......[a had ti a lot o' years ago,and it did me nae harm!!!!!]

[pilgrim]

<-- is recalling going down to the pub at Mitford in me yoof  and they had a minah bird and the challenge was to teach it to swear...

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Heh heh!! They had a Minah at Heighleygate Nurseries a few years back,and it used ti taak away,a never heard it swear,but a bet a canny few lads would have tried to  learn it!

A used ti ti caw at it and whistle,and it used ti reply by mimicking me!

[Smudgeinthebudge]

Funny enough when I was in Bielefeld in Germany in the early 1970s a German family used to put their minah bird out in a cage in their back garden next to the barracks. That one used some choice language in English, in fact it swore like a trooper. 

[Smudgeinthebudge]

I nearly made a typo there, not capitalising 'English' after capitalising 'German'. Not the sort of typo I'd want to make on this site.