Plus for conservation

On the negative side, the fridge has blown its entire contents of freon, the ozone-hole-punching gas, in one go; straight up through the atmosphere, most of it via my lungs. I had been having a major reshuffle of kitchen and larder, and decided to move the fridge into the larder and out of the kitchen, bringing a bureau that had belonged to my mother into the kitchen. I needed the bureau to store a dinner service that had previously been kept in a china cabinet. Unfortunately, in cleaning out the china cabinet I discovered that it was riddled with woodworm, as it had been stood in a damp corner where the carpet and wood has rotted away.

Panic. Large tin of wood preserver purchased. Carpet pulled back to dry out the corner and prepare the floorboards and skirting for a major dose of woodworm killer. Cabinet banished to a stable until I can souse it in woodworm killer as well. Have also realised that I have added fumes from wood preserver to the freon gas.

Going back to my fridge, I think it was just too old to stand being pushed and pulled over a bumpy tiled floor. Once in place in the larder, I restocked the fridge, plugged it in, and was then enveloped in a cloud of gas. At the same time, the fuses were tripped, and I thought at first that the acrid smell was something electrical burning out. Not so. It took several hours for the smell of the gas to dissipate and, for all I know, not only has the ozone layer been mortally damaged, but maybe all of us as well.

To the good news. For several years, we have had a pair (maybe not always the same pair) of barn owls, nesting in a tea chest in a willow tree over a pond. John has resisted the approaches of a variety of bird watchers/naturalists/experts, to take a closer look at the owls, preferring instead to let them rear their chicks in peace. This spring, however, our barn owls deserted us, lured to a flash new nesting box in a Dutch barn, installed by a nationally-accredited nature group, with a handy ladder nearby for easy viewing. Every week or so the naturalists have been up and down the ladder. The baby owls have been ringed, their every move monitored through binoculars. Our owl box stayed empty. The owls seemed to prefer the activity of the Dutch barn, to the solitude of our pond.

Until this week, that is. The owls are back. They have voted with their feathers and we can see the male hunting for his mate, back and forth across the fields, mice and voles his prey. The Dutch barn box is empty. The naturalists thwarted. The owls have peace and quiet and John will not let anyone near their nest box. Viewing only permitted from the roadside.

Meanwhile, my old larder fridge can be recycled and not added to the mountain of discarded fridges and freezers that have accumulated in municipal waste disposal areas. It will make an excellent, vermin-proof store for poultry feed and pose no danger to children, as it does not have a lock on the door.

In fact, hung in a tree it could even provide the owls with a secure place to store any spare rats they have caught, stockpile voles, amass some mice and wind up the watchers.

Updated: 11:33 Wednesday, September 11, 2002