BIRD TALK

When I first saw this cover, I immediately thought of my joyful childhood days, 60-odd years ago. We were as poor as church mice, but a few of our friends did have old bicycles and that is exactly how we rode them. Someone was sitting on the handlebars and often, someone else was sitting on the seat while you drove standing up. We had no thought of safety, were usually barefoot and, if we saw someone with a helmet on their head, we would probably think that it was an alien. Wonderful, carefree days without a worry in the world.

But now, back to reality − our picture depicts dangerous behaviour, although we had no idea that it was dangerous way back then; the last thing that we want to do at CSANews is to promote dangerous behaviour. I was not really thinking when I chose this picture – I was remembering. We had more than a hundred e-mails to Bird Talk and many, many telephone calls chiding our choice of covers and we thank you for taking the time to bring it to our attention.

I don’t want to get into any more trouble, but the phrase “poor as a church mouse” is more than 300 years old and was followed by, “…or an honest lawyer.” I laughed, but will definitely be in trouble with my lawyer friends.

We also got many, many calls and e-mails thanking us for keeping our Medipac insurance in place and in full effect during the hectic March, April and May 2020 months of COVID-19. Again, we thank you for your strong support and complimentary comments.