A Feral Ferret, etc.

Well, it's high time I posted something, but I have little of consequence to impart. With the departure of the Canadian branch of the family, and the absence of the Lichfield branch on holiday in Spain, things have fallen strangely quiet, though the latter contingent return today. I spent last weekend over the border in Derbyshire with my cousin, doing very little but enjoying it, and yesterday I took myself off to Tamworth to walk from there to the village of Hopwas and back. This proved largely unrewarding, but on the return leg, walking beside the river Tame (or rather a flood relief channel thereof), I was accompanied some of the way by a small flock of linnets, I heard (according to my birdsong app) the call (not the song) of a willow warbler, I saw a single small copper basking, and, best of all, a feral black sable ferret ran across the path in front of me. Earlier, in Tamworth, I dropped in to St Editha's church, not for the first time. A guide greeted me, and even recognised…