I have a new great nephew. He’s called Rew, after his grandfather, my late brother Andrew.
I thought today, that he wouldn’t see the phenomenon that was blue tits drinking the cream out of your milk bottle.
Such activities are no more in our civilized society
But how amazing was it that a bird that weighed no more than a piece of paper would learn to survive by drinking cows milk…go figure.
Things are always changing.
And like the milk bottle blue tits, there are things that have have gone from our world.
Overhead projectors, classified ads in the newspapers, dvds in supermarkets.
A road atlas in the car, working phone boxes and waiting a few days in order to collect 24 holiday snaps. oh and the lead pipe from cludo!
Nurses wearing paper hats, Pekinese dogs, sideburns, I could go on.
these things like the ghosts of life before us are only mildly interesting to a modern eye in passing.
I can live without the atlas, the phone boxes and the sideburns
but the blue tits and their extraordinary learning skills remains somewhat of a special loss
dont you think?
About two weeks ago I hung some grain-filled fat balls in the apple tree in front of our house; they haven't been touched. Have all our small birds died of Bird Flu? In France when I do the same thing, the balls disappear almost at once.
ReplyDeleteI do hope not cro, the wild birds here seem to be still here
DeletePhone Boxes. Same here in the US. I think they should change them into charging stations for cell phones and tablets. I have also thought they'd make a great conversation piece for outdoor showers.
ReplyDeleteWe the TCA have bought ours …it was the village food bank for a while …until someone weed in it
DeleteThere is a move amongst wealthy city-ites to buy milk in glass, returnable bottles from "single source" farms... beyond most people's ability to afford, of course.
ReplyDeleteAnd we have two map books in the car - the very recent one leaves off a number of points we are keen to identify as we travel, but of course doesn't have the most recent roading upgrades. We've taught our 7 yo grandson how to read the local maps and he loves working it out for himself. A dying skill in these days of Google Maps.
Did the BlueTits die out because of habitat loss, or are they common in another area of the country?
We still have lots of Blue Tits, just no milk bottles with foil tops for them to break into now!
DeleteWe have loads too, bright aggressive little birds ..with a knack at problem solving
DeleteIn South Manchester magpies have learned to take the tops Off milk bottles.
ReplyDeleteMargaret in Chorlton.
I wouldn’t fancy drinking milk after a magpie pushed his big old omnivorous beak into it first
DeleteI seem to mainly remember the good things which have gone rather than the bad. Rose tinted spectacles? The corner shop, the "mix up" of sweets which my children bought each Friday with their pocket money, gathering around a coal fire to watch TV with family and buses with conductors who had those ticket machines.
ReplyDeleteFascinating that the blue tits learnt that trick from others and changed with their environment - "a window into their world". To survive it's best to be flexible and open to change. Although nostalgia can feel so good.
I’m not feeling nostalgic about the birds , I’m just sad we’ve missed their old tricks
DeleteThe cream in the milk bottle freezing and rising an inch out of the bottle. Toasting bread in front of the living room fire. Vick valour rub on your chest when you had a cold. Great aunties and their horrible Parma violet sweets. Being able to go to a bank (find a bank!) talk to a human and get cash. Not being pressured into using self serve tills with no alternative. Pails of peeled potartoes or podded peas in water outside corner shops. And so it goes. Nostalgia throws up the strangest and often slightest but most evocative memories.
ReplyDeleteI do miss shelling peas …a mindfull exercise
DeleteLike Cro, I have also been worried about the small birds. I put 3 lots of food out for the birds while the snow was here, and it has hardly been touched. Hoping that the cold weather hasn't killed them all!
ReplyDeleteIm getting worried now although bird flu has not hit home here in the north west ….yet
DeleteI remember those little plastic cups that people had for the milkman (can we say milkMAN any more?) to place over the bottles to thwart the tits. Knitted mittens on strings, that got soaked when you made snowballs and made your hands even colder. Sitting on the stairs to make a phone call, or listening in to someone on a party line. Hearing cuckoos - haven't heard one for years. Watching thrushes bashing snails on stones. Vests. I could go on. xx
ReplyDeleteStill hear cuckoos in my part of the world.
DeleteNice memories HH …MY mother left pebbles fir the milkman to cover
DeleteOh John, you have brought back some good memories for me !
ReplyDelete5 years ago I lived for a short time near the Elan Valley - Mid Wales.
The house was rural and had a lovely garden room to take in the views.
I would regularly be sitting reading quietly in that room to look up and have several pairs of beady eyes looking in at me.
The blue tits would sit on the outside window sill and pick out the insects that were caught in the window putty.
I would sit for hours watching them watching me.
You have made my day to remind me of such times .
Thank you.
They are bright birds ,and typical opportunists
DeleteThank you for your contribution x
Our westie pup Stan knows how to prise the top off a bottle of milk - does that count!?
ReplyDeleteLovely memories. Happy New Year John
Alison in Wales x
It dies indeed
DeleteAnd Stan is a great name for a dog
Congratulations to you and welcome to Rew.
ReplyDeleteI’d heard of milk in tits but never tits in milk. Thanks for sharing the video. Fascinating.
Boom boom xx
DeleteI hope the population of blue tits has survived without cow milk.
ReplyDeleteMy memory of being tied to a half metre telephone cord at the hallway telephone table, when in American sit coms people had five metre long telephone cords and could prance around their living rooms.
Yes I always remember marvelling at their extra long cords with an always mustard coloured phone
DeleteI remember seeing a blue tit doing just that - bless it's little heart - During the 70's there would often be women 'up town ' on a Saturday morning - curlers in with chiffon scarf covering - I also miss the remark " all fur coat and no knickers" x
ReplyDeleteOh, I still use that phrase. I love it! xx
DeleteI do too x
DeleteIt’s still used in the uk soap “ coronation Street” set in manchester
DeleteTalking of milk. I closed the bedroom curtains last night at 10.45pm, and was surprised to see a small flatbed truck, and a man delivering milk to the house opposite, in tit proof plastic bottles.
ReplyDeleteMilkmen therefore do exist
DeleteA long piece of string hanging behind the letter box with a key on the end.
ReplyDeleteAnd the local folklore story when the local bull terrier bit a prospective thief ‘S finger off , as he tried to grab it
DeleteI have always had my milk delivered in bottles and if it isn’t covered it will be pecked and the first half inch disappears. I am not sure it is tits though- think it’s more likely magpies. I still sit on the stairs and talk on the landline. The signal where I live is so poor as to make
ReplyDeleteusing a mobile almost impossible.
My god it continues xx!!
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ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your new g-nephew. I miss the blue tits attacking the milk. I also miss Opal Mints.
ReplyDeleteOpal mints? I’ve never heard of them
DeleteH'mm...I still keep a road atlas handy, as I do OS maps and a compass for walking. Sat-navs and gadgets are all very well - until they don't work. Then again, waiting for holiday snaps to return only to discover that carefully composed shot turned out to be a blurry disaster was a right pain! Some change is good but not all. Thinking of the old glass milk bottle deliveries made me think of changes in diet. There seems to be a move to heavily promoted plant-based 'milks' that taste okay - but largely consist of vegetable oil (no thanks!) I wonder how many people now would have full-cream milk delivered (avec ou sans blue tits) even if they could?
ReplyDeleteA compass….lol you big Boy Scout you !!! Xxx
DeleteI buy full cream jersey milk in returnable glass bottles from a local organic 'ethical' (the cows raise their calves) dairy. The cream top is wonderful.
DeleteI still have milk delivered in bottles but here in Bristol the city foxes remove the tops if they aren’t covered! Deb
ReplyDeleteThe bloody plot thickens
DeleteThere is an AA Road atlas in my car, and they must still sell well as shops stock piles of them; and our supermarkets still sell DVDs. Oh and our local newspaper is full of classified ads and I do believe there is a Pekinese dog living not far from me. Perhaps your explorations are somewhat restricted?
ReplyDeleteOf course I was always going to be proved wrong
DeleteQuelle surprise
DeleteWe used to put a flat pebble on the step for the milkman to put on top of the pints that he delivered to foil the birds.
ReplyDeleteThere's a real lack of small birds around here except for along the tow path during Spring and Summer, we seem to have an abundance of Starlings that visit our bird table though to raid the peanut butter jar, taking it in turns to have a go and getting really ratty with each other if one takes too long.
I hope bird flu is over very soon
DeleteI hope so too, there have been dead ducks and swans further along our canal in the past month or so. Restricted area signs went up very quickly. :-(
DeleteStarlings down here in Cornwall have learnt to eat from the peanut and sunflower feeders. Warm school milk - urgh.
ReplyDeleteStarlings are the bully boys of birds , they blunder and never seem to think as the tits do
DeleteI still carry a road atlas in my car and use it from time to time as I don't possess a mobile phone or one of those smartie phones that a lot of people worship like gods. By the way, whatever happened to "Spangles"?
ReplyDeletemmm and Spangles Olde English.
DeleteI hated spangles , too hard
DeleteI remember home delivered milk, and when it stopped. One milkman became a beekeeper, one just shut down, he worked out the rest of his life cleaning the local school.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered how long a milk round would be, can anyone enlighten me?
DeleteJohn, reading your post and then the comments has been so enjoyable! Since I live in the states, I haven't had the joy of watching Blue Tits get milk! I am 61, and do remember our milk coming, the metal box on the front porch for it. We also had Charley's Chips and cookies delivered, from time to time. They were a real treat for us, as Mom never bought things like that. 5 kids, limited budget. I think we all have a tendency towards nostalgia, and yet, I feel like there's plenty we can celebrate now! I dearly love having info at my fingertips, being able to find weird shit like Wasabi in an instant, finding helpful tools and accessories for my elderly or disabled friends and family and having it shipped straight to them! And being able to converse with a diverse group across the world, learning all about them and their lives - I love it! So, I am of a mind where yes, the old was good, and so is the new!
ReplyDeleteThank you for that Karla!
DeleteYes celebrating both new and old is the way to go. I love the fact that foxes and magpies still steal milk
DeleteGreat title.
ReplyDeleteI found u in spam , as my messages to u seem to be going
DeleteI live about 1 mile from the city centre but there is a wood at the back of my flat.We get lots of blue tits, great tits, collared doves, sparrows , a robin, a wren, magpies, squirrels , buzzards in the summer. Pigeons and land gulls and the other day I saw a woodpecker for the first time.We have 2 foxes in a den near the edge of my courtyard. I am lucky that there is a tree in the courtyard just level with my first floor kitchen window.This is where the blue tits usually feed. I have my own nature station.So lucky.
ReplyDeleteMe too caz and only this morning , hundreds of Canada geese flying noisily over the cottage
DeleteI guess we all have to learn to live with change but, I am not good with it ! I always remember the milk bottle on the doorstep with a hole in it where the blue tits had pecked at it! Milkman and the milk being outside on the doorstep is pretty much a thing of the past now. And, do you remember when it was icy, the milk would pop out of the bottle in an icy cylinder ? Also, slightly different, do you see many Starlings John ? We used to see loads on the lawn but I haven't seen any for years. XXXX
ReplyDeleteI’ve never seen one of the famous murmurations
DeleteAlways wanted to dear Jacqueline …I think they are a south eastern phenomenon
I grew up in the middle class suburbs in the 1950's and '60's
ReplyDeletenear St. Louis, Missouri. We had neighbors who had milk delivered in a metal box on their front porch. Mom always got milk at the local super market. We did have eggs delivered to the house by an ancient farmer who drove an ancient green truck. I think the truck bed was covered in canvas. Mom was real particular about eggs being fresh. One time she decided it would be fun to hatch some eggs in a homemade incubator that she put on the buffet in the dining room. Mom and Dad rigged an incubator in a small aquarium heated with a light bulb and furnished with a thermometer inside, It seems there may have been a small bowl of water to keep the humidity up, but I was very young and don't remember for sure.
Mom asked the "Egg Man" to bring her 4 fertile bantam chicken eggs. He did, and into the incubator they went. I don't remember how long it took, but it seemed like forever, that one day Mom told me to wake up there were chicks starting to peck out of the eggs. I was up in a flash and Dad had to go to work, but Mom and I sat and watched the tiny holes being pecked in two of the eggs. It seems in my memory that it took forever, but finally we had the two cutest chicks, one a hen and one a rooster. The chickens lived out in the back yard, our Collie protected them. The hen had what looked like a very, very small A frame dog house filled with straw for her nest. She laid one egg each morning, and I went out and brought it in and had it for breakfast. We didn't have so many hawks around here as we do now.
Mom always got a kick out of doing things that she thought would be interesting and fun.
Most must work outside the home now. But I am sure they do the best they can to make life for their families interesting and fun. I feel nostalgic for a way of life, and all of the people who were in my life back then.
Incubating chicks is a delight all children should be able to watch…I’ve always marvelled at it especially as I only takes 21 days …over the years I’ve hatched dozens of ducklings, chickens , quail, guinea fowl and two geese and I never tire atvwitnessing little scraps of birds fighting for life
DeleteI had never heard of this phenomenon but it makes perfect sense. Birds are so very intelligent and of course they learn from each other, from observation.
ReplyDeleteCommon sense really , it’s the size of the birds that I marvel at
DeleteI was a very small child when home milk delivery was still available in our town. There were special coloured cards that would be put in the window every day to let the driver know whether you needed milk or cream or how many of each.
ReplyDeleteNot many get their papers delivered in the morning too I ve suddenly thought l in the 1980s our milkman tried to diversify into bread, yogurt, butter and orange juice
DeleteOur local whole food shop sells milk from Sheffield's Our Cow Molly farm in glass bottles but we bring it straight home so no opportunity for the blue tits which frequent the garden regularly to get their beaks in.
ReplyDeleteI'm minded on the "what you cannot get anymore" list to mention single Woodbine cigarettes which children of any age could buy from corner shops in 1950s Dublin.
We have a dairy bank nearby
Deletehttps://www.facebook.com/mynyddmostyn/
For better or worse, the one reliable constant is change. I also remember deliveries of baked goods, eggs and milk. All were placed in a metal box on the front porch. Currently, our bird population is in decline. I'm told it is Bird Flu.
ReplyDeleteSad, if it’s true, I hope the population recovers
DeleteWelcome to the world, little Rew!
ReplyDeleteIt was so interesting to read your post and the many replies. I remember the laundryman coming to the house to pick up my Dad's shirts and miss sorner shops, Hostess Cupcakes and Twinkies that taste the way the should, . It's annoying when the recipes for products are changed and the product name says the same.
Hugs!
In the 1940s our village shop delivered all items . The boy that delivered the goods on his bike has recently died
DeleteJohn i still have several road atlases and my SuperMarket still sells DVD's..lol.. I remember my Aunt always bought milk from a dairy in glass bottles.. Best Milk EVER! Oh and our newspapers still have classifieds..
ReplyDeleteI can’t find a dvd
Deleteraaagg bonnne x
ReplyDeleteIndeed xx
DeleteMy Mum's generation used to buy ice cream off a man on a bike. The ice cream was on a glass holder which you would lick it off and hand back the holder. It was called 'penny a lick'! Imagine calling that out nowadays!
ReplyDeleteI collect 'Penny Lick' glasses. For years I hardly ever saw any, then at one Antiques fair, I bought 36 of them, each one different. I think the collection totals 126 at the moment! X
DeleteThat's wonderful! I don't know if I have ever seen them in the real. I will keep a look out from now on! :)
DeleteI saw penny licks recently on celebrity antiques trip
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ReplyDeleteI was picking up my grandson at school and it struck me. I remember the huge old wood framed windows, and the green canvas shades, and how the windows were thrown open to the breeze and the heavy green canvas shades would flap in the wind. The kids will never know the sound of the movie projector when the film snapped, or the feel of a metal slide on a hot day, or the ping that a rubber playground ball makes when you play four-square.
ReplyDeleteNicely remembered x
DeleteI can remember the Blue Tits going for our milk, and the way it pushed out of the top in a creamy candle when it was really cold. I remember the Rag and Bone Man, and coal being delivered in a horse-drawn cart (milk too). Playground rhymes and games - does anyone sing Oranges and Lemons any more? "Here comes a chopper to chop off your head!" Apparently it's a Medieval rhyme.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the world Rew - yours will be different to our memories, that's for sure.
And it would be lovely to hear what they will be
DeleteThey are still going....as deliveries of milk in glass bottles returns!
ReplyDeleteWe used to foil them by having a small wooden box for the milkman to put over the foil top!!
What goes around……comes around
DeleteI miss the Friday mornings when I invited my milkman in for a cuppa and he warmed his gloves on my rayburn x
ReplyDeleteYou get worse
DeleteI thought I led a boring sheltered life - so thankyou - I hardly dare say but a young icecream man rang my door bell last Thursday with a Christmas gift x
DeleteWhen I was very small there was an old revamped school bus that came twice a week selling fresh veg and eggs. Also we had a Bookmobile [local library], such a treat for a child who read so much, so fast. It was bright blue! And everywhere I lived there was the ice cream van, playing its funny tune and selling crap paper wrapped ice creams.
ReplyDeleteWe still have a ice cream van in the village
DeleteJUST ONE CORNETTO
The Bookmobile! That was my dream job. Never got it but did work in libraries 40 years ago.
DeleteInteresting reading the comments here - we farm and our son does the milk round - yes they still exist! (we're in Lancashire) We have a steady number of customers enough to make it profitable and gained more during the lockdown, some of which have stayed with us. We also carry eggs, bread, kindling, coffee and tea. Occasionally our home reared bacon. We hope to continue the long held tradition from this farm as our son and daughter in law who both work with us will take over when we retire. Not that we expect to ever fully retire!
ReplyDeleteAdapt and grow
DeleteMost of the things John says no longer exist or happen in point of fact do still exist and happen all over Britain. I think he lives in a bubble. Geo.
ReplyDeleteI’m talking from my own perspective as always , your list , no doubt be very different . The only difference between us would also in the comment
DeleteI wouldn’t have bothered
Thank you John, what memories, loved reading them. My mum used Milk cheques to let the Milkman know how many bottles of Milk she wanted. Does anyone remember using Milk cheques?
ReplyDeleteThat’s a new one on me
Deletemy Grandma had them in neat piles in her cupboard -Royal blue plastic and yellow? coin shaped discs x
DeleteYes, when I was a kid in the 1950s we used them to pay for our milk from our Co-op. Early one morning they were stolen from all the doorsteps in the street except ours and the two houses either side of us because we had a dog that barked at the thieves. Our tokens were oval and pale grey aluminium, although I think there were other colours depending on the size of milk bottle, half pint or pint.
ReplyDeleteWhat about your Co-op number written on a ticket when you bought anything so that every so often you got your Divi? Still remember my mum's number (7025) after 60 years,
ReplyDeleteI remember my mum getting her Divi from the Co-op too.
DeleteWe have lots of blue tits and great tits in our garden, but I'd never heard of this phenomenon before!
ReplyDeleteThe lead pipe is gone from Cluedo?!