The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2975 by Angharad Copyright© 2016 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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The following day I received an email from Jan asking if I had any ideas as to how they could improve upon what I’d seen. Quite honestly, I couldn’t. Nor could I think of anywhere that I’d seen so many pyramidal orchids in one place. I’d gone too early to have any hope of seeing the silver studded blue butterflies, a variety of which is only found on Portland.

All I could suggest was someone surveying the old quarry on a regular basis checking on the status of different species, though with butterflies that can be difficult due to weather conditions. It happens with my speciality too, dormice suffer from weather conditions a mild wet winter possibly being more dangerous for them than a colder, drier one.

One thing I had noticed was the amount of dog’s mess around the paths and even the odd poo bag that had been chucked into bushes and things. Perhaps a notice asking dog owners to take their dog shit home with them might improve things. I’m sure the vast majority are quite responsible but it seems we have a significant minority who spoil it for everyone, a bit like litter louts. Why we have to tolerate these people I don’t know, but we do and the countryside, like the towns is frequently covered in fast food wrappers and other litter, dropped by ignorant morons who seem not to care. They should be made to, not with ridiculous fines they are unable to pay but by being forced to do hundreds of hours of cleaning up theirs and other’s litter with no excuse accepted for not turning up—except a death certificate.

Very few places in this country are free from litter and I don’t know why. Are children no longer taught to take it home with them or to place it in a litter bin when they are available? The same with dog poo—owners caught not cleaning up after their dogs should be forced to clean up whole swathes of it—there’s plenty on any green space, with no excuse accepted for not doing it. Personally, I’d make them eat it because that would guarantee no further deposits, so would shooting the dog but that seems unfair on the poor animal who already has to cope in living with a pretty stupid human.

Butterfly surveys are usually done every week, with the surveyor walking the same route each time, at the same time of day—the best time is usually the warmest time of day, late morning or early afternoon as the insects’ activity is often controlled by temperature. Male butterflies are possibly the luckiest creatures on earth, all they do is fuel up on nectar and mate or fight each other. Their lives are short and sweet for the most part, but for many humans it would be an ideal lifestyle.

Tuesday had started fine enough with some warm sunshine, however, by the time I went to collect the girls it was cloudy with rain and much cooler. Wednesday was predicted to be worse, so I was glad I’d been to the quarry when I had. They all grumbled because they’d wanted to go out and play after school and I know Danielle was wanting to do some running to keep herself fit. She was hoping to play for England at the weekend.

If I’d had any energy, I might have gone running with her. I did try to get Julie or Phoebe to go with her but they just laughed at me, presumably thinking my idea was bizarre. I wasn’t too happy about her going out on her own, especially in singlet and shorts but she insisted she’d be okay. I disagreed and pulled rank on her telling her to wait and I’d ride my bike alongside her. She eventually acquiesced and we both got wet. I also got cold as I was just trundling beside her as she trotted along. But I knew she was safe if damp.

Phoebe came to have a chat with me after I’d showered and we’d had dinner. David did a beautiful meat pie with new potatoes, broad beans and carrots. Mima complained that the peas tasted funny. Phoebe it appeared was a little bored with beauty therapy and wanted some advice about doing something different.

The problem was she didn’t know what she wanted to do. She and Julie were earning a reasonable income but she felt life was more important than just money it needed some sort of fulfilment as well. I asked her to describe what she meant by that and she couldn’t tell me. However, she could suggest that I seemed fulfilled in my chosen career. I told her I probably was but it might not suit everyone to do the same. We have a fair number of new students who seem to think we teach dormouse juggling rather than the ecology and conservation of several species. Some knuckle down and go on to get a degree while others leave and do something else.

I tried to tell her that life is largely what we make it, especially in the western democracies. I asked if she’d spoken with Julie and she said she hadn’t because she didn’t know what she wanted to do. I told her to explore some websites of different colleges and universities and see what was available but she needed to talk with Julie because her absence would affect Julie’s life as well. She said she appreciated that and it was a worry for her as she felt it limited her choices. I had tried to point this out to her at the time and I was also worried that she was clever enough to go to university but didn’t and might regret it later in life. Seems that might be starting. The problem is, she’d be older than most first year students and that I think concerns her. That universities like the Open University, often have very mature students on most courses didn’t seem to occur to her. We have the odd one now on our courses. We rarely turn them down because they have a civilising influence on some of the younger students and because they really want to learn, they are a joy to teach. At the same time you have to remember that older adults have been out in the world longer than you have and thus have loads of experience and sometimes interesting skills to go with it—including that of putting patronising teachers in their place.

Thankfully, it’s never happened to me but Tom relates a story of a colleague to whom it did and after attempting to appear superior to a mature student on a subject discovered the student had a master’s in it and wiped the floor with them. He made sure he never fell into the same trap when he was teaching and I was attempting to do the same as I thought it sound advice which fitted beautifully with my idea that universities were there to help people develop their potential educationally and to facilitate this mind expansion. Personally, I think the latter is more important than a degree. In other words, we teach people how to think and how to use thinking in supporting their future needs.