Category Archives: Short Stories

On this morning’s dog walk heard the Greenfinch and the Skylark

Just totalled up the different species and I’ve heard 28 different species of bird,all of whom are unendangered and are regularly found in the South of the United Kingdom.

This explains the rich bird song I’m hearing…..

There was a Mallard Duck,quacking at 4.00pm in the afternoon,when we visited Blenheim Palace for a Dog Walk. It was a fair distance away in the man made lake.

Otherwise ,there really wasn’t much, bird song, it was I suppose quite late and it was getting cold.

The birds were getting ready for bed….

In the quaint town of Pennywise, nestled between rolling hills and sparkling streams, there lived a wise old owl named Oliver. Oliver was no ordinary owl; he was renowned throughout the area for his amazing ability to manage resources, which made him the most sought-after budget planner in Pennywise. Oliver’s approach to budget planning was […]

A Approach to Budget Planning: A Story

I’m on my allotment

This little fellow is singing along watching me dig for he knows there is a feast of worms.

This morning ,I walked up the stairs to our main bedroom where my partner was lying and out of the kindness of my heart asked him.

“Do you want me to bring you up a cup of tea?”

He replied sleepily.

“That would be nice.”

Unwittingly,I turned around and placed my hand on the top of the bannister at the top of the stairs.My hands were slightly damp as I hadn’t properly dried them after going to the bathroom. So my hand slipped as I pirouetted to go downstairs.

I often wonder what it would be like to fall down our steep stairway.My feet missed the stop step, and my shoulder hit the wall.Fortunately with my free hand, I caught myself.However,in those fleeting moments,I caught sight of the stairs and the drop and thought, am I going to die?

I didn’t, and my partner got his tea.

THE END.

Another February bird I heard ….collared dove.

I heard a siskin this morning ,very exciting,part of the finch family,it was accompanied   by  Great Tits,Robins and Crows.

I heard two new ones this morning….

The Marsh Tit

The Coal Tit

I’m using the  Cornell Lab’s Merlin App to listen and record the birds I am hearing locally,mainly on my dog walks.

I’ve been impressed by the cacophony of sound I  hear ,and I thought it would be nice to know what is making it.

The process is very simple ,press record on the app.The app will record the birds singing and  also identify the songbird.It also identifies the location and makes a list of my recordings so I can look back and see the pattern of where these birds are and maybe give an indication of their prevalence.

So far ,for February 2024,I have heard the following. I have, for my own enjoyment, tried to find a phototo  to match the sound from the public domain photos.Forgive me if it’s the wrong bird,but even in winter, there is such a variety and it is so beautiful listening to their songs.My ear is tuning in more and more.

House Sparrow

A Robin

A Goldfinch

A Great Tit

A Magpie

A wren

Green Woodpecker

Black Headed Gull

Blue Tit

Jackdaw

Chiff Chaff

Starling

Rook

Chaffinch

Goldcrest

Long Tailed Tit

Blackcap

Songthrush

Reed Bunting

Dunnock

Redwing

Wood-Pigeon

©️GeraldineBanks2024

It had started in his teens, petty theft,a bit of fun to brighten the day. Local shops,High Street shops when him and his mates were in town. If there was a store detective ,so much the better because there was nothing better than playing cat and mouse with them.

His thieving career had gone from strength to strength.He had left school and gone to work for a company selling insurance. He was very patient to begin with,had worked steadily to show his willingness to learn, and to be a great team player.Slowly he earned the female boss’s confidence, she had a soft spot for him. She was the cosignature for the cheques.

It was mana from heaven. Small amounts were siphoned from numerous accounts. After a couple of years at the insurance company,unbeknown to his bosses, he had tripled his miserly salary with these small amounts and was having a full-blown affair with the Financial Accountant, who was totally besotted with him.

Still ,things move on ,and he met a girl,the same age as himself ,and he fell in love with her.He no longer wanted anything to do with the insurance company’s financial accountant.

“George,you say you want to marry me,but how can we save for a house with your salary?” she said as they kissed goodnight on the doorstep of her parents.

“Not a problem.” George thought to himself,as he kissed her on the cheek  and said goodnight. “I’ll sort it.” he said  “You wait and see.”

And she did wait and see,in a few weeks her George had got a new job at another insurance company ,this time with management prospects.

“You wait and see…” She thought back now  how many times George had said that to her ,and it had come true.

To be honest,the money always arrived for them to fulfil whatever plan she had in mind.She hadn’t been extravagant,she just wanted the best for George,her, and the two children.

George , in the meantime,covered his increasing liabilities with  clever manipulations of his portfolio of clients.He spread his risk and looked at the long term.A forensic accountant would have difficulty in tracing the many small sums he had filched.Infact, the sums were so far under the radar that George knew they would not be noticed.It was his style.

However,the nine to five grind was getting him down ,and he dreamed of winning the Lottery and not having to work and grift to finance his modest lifestyle.So each week he bought a Lotto Ticket.The odds were impossible he knew, but why not him?

But,you know what happened next ,don’t you? George’s numbers came up.He won the Lotto. £1million pounds. Overnight, he was a millionaire. He ticked the box,no publicity, it made him think.He decided not to tell anyone,not even his wife whom he loved dearly.

He decided that going to work ,nine to five wasn’t a bad thing. Now, he had some serious thieving to do.He could cover his tracks with his lottery slush fund,he would stay one or two steps ahead of the auditors

And so George continued his thieving ways not because he needed the money,but for the thrill of it and because he had read an article in a newspaper a long time ago about The Duke of  Triminster and how he owned almost half of the UK,and was the fifth richest man in the World.

Unbeknown to everyone,the Duke was  knocked off his perch by a shady character called the Duke of Whitechapel,who  now owns the mortgages,leases and copyrights of properties in the country of his origin,the UK , and indeed ,when the interest takes his Lordship , global rights.No one knows his identity and he likes to keep it that way.

He’s no Robin Hood, and he lives quietly with his wife in a retirement cottage by the sea. She brings him his afternoon tea out to his “project shed” in the garden, which has an interesting array of electronic equipment that George loves to tinker with.

“It’s his hobby tinkering .” His wife would say ,when the neighbours asked about George ,who they very rarely saw,but seemed to have every electronic gadget ever invented delivered to his house by a steady stream of Amazon delivery vans.

George never let’s on, but the thrill of the thieving never left him ,and there were still even bigger fish to fry.

Officially, he was retired and enjoyed receiving his married man’s pension each month,which he avoided paying tax on .That was a matter of honour,he had paid his taxes all his life.He was not going to be taxed on his pension.

“It takes a thief to catch a thief,” George knew that wasn’t true. He would never be caught, thieving ,was an art, a science, and his obsessive love.No matter how many thieves there were in this world, George would outsmart every one of them.It wasn’t to do with lottery or luck ,his  numbers were always coming up and it was a thrill.