I’m not going to take you very far away for this week’s ABC Wednesday. In fact, this particular ‘B‘ is only about five minutes walk from my house.

Now, it’s not the hanging basket (or its bracket), the Belisha beacon, the bushes, or the ‘blacktop‘ as my American friends call ‘tarmac’. It’s not the strengthening bolts in that big house to the right. It’s not even the burglar alarm that you might be able to pick out on the front of that end house.

I’m doing shops this time around, remember?

So this is the High Street of my village, looking west. The buildings in this part are mostly 18th century, and built from the local Barnack stone and this ‘B‘ is no exception.

You still don’t know what it is, do you? Does it help if I tell you that Sid loves walking past the (usually open) door, and that all of my dogs have tended to make a bee-line for it? Does it help if I tell you that features in this blog post here?

Okay. How about another picture?

This little pointy-roofed single storey building is our local butcher’s shop! There might be a blank space where the name should be, but everyone knows where it is. Also in this picture you’ll probably notice someone’s bottom as they bend over to do something in their driveway – there they are, just opposite their black bin*.

And if we go just a little closer, you might just be able to see the butcher’s meat saw and a couple of birds (possibly duck) hanging from the traditional butcher’s hooks inside that doorway.

How very obliging of that young lady to pose for us with her brolly, don’t you think?

It’s not a very posh shop – you might call it ‘basic‘ – but he’s painted it a beautiful blue, don’t you think?

* We do actually call them ‘black bins‘ to distinguish them from the green bins (recyclable rubbish) and brown bins (garden waste).

Now, what on earth has caused Sid to look so interested, and why is he behind a barrier?

Well, I’ll tell you. OH was outside mowing the grass and halfway through he came in.

OH: ‘There’s a suicidal pigeon out there!’

Me: ‘There is?”

OH: ‘Yes! It’s just walking around on the patio. It didn’t even fly away when I got to within about a foot of it with the lawnmower!’

Me: ‘Really?’

And I got up to see. I already had my suspicions, and it turned out that I was right. Our little visitor was a very tired and hungry racing pigeon.

I put out some grain and an old dog dish with water in it, and the poor thing was soon pecking happily around my feet.

Sid isn’t really what you’d call a ‘prey-driven’ dog, but there’s no point in pushing your luck, is there? So OH propped one of Sid’s beds in the doorway so he wouldn’t let curiosity get the better of him, and in fact he was as good as gold. Later, when we ate lunch outside at the patio table, Sid curled up at our feet and the pigeon came back down to potter about picking up the odd seed from between the slabs. He watched it potter, and when it wandered out of sight he got up and turned around to look at it, but I told him no, and he lay right back down again.

I expect the pigeon will sleep on the garage roof, pop in for breakfast tomorrow morning, and then make its way home. It won’t win this race, but maybe next time, huh?

So, if you ever see a very tame pigeon with a couple of rings on its legs with numbers on them (and it’s not injured or in danger from predators) just give it some food and water, and it’ll rest up and then be on its way. If it’s injured or in an unsafe place, and if you can catch it*, jot down the colours of the rings and the numbers/letters, and let the Royal Pigeon Racing Association know. There’s a ‘Report a stray’ button on the home page. Most pigeon fanciers care deeply about their birds and are always very happy to know what’s happened to a lost bird. That’s if you’re in the UK, of course, but I’m willing to bet the US and other countries have their own Racing Pigeon Association too, which you’ll probably find in a Google search.

* You can pop it in a cardboard box and put something on top to keep the flaps shut, or if you have one, a cat carrier.

I keep trying, people. I really do. I keep trying to make these Macro Monday puzzles easier without giving the game away completely … I’ve posted pictures before which look so easy to me and you’ve all struggled, so I’m not going to say this one is easy. Just have a go, huh?

Now, this is something you won’t find in a house, although there are some buildings where you can find them, and I actually found one in the bathroom of a guest house once. That, however, was highly unusual, and I’ll probably never see that in my lifetime again, unless I go back to the same place!

Outside the house they’re very common indeed, and although there are some places in the world where they are not to be found, there really can’t be anyone who has access to a computer and hasn’t at least seen one of these things.

Most of you will have used the object this is a part of. Most of you will own one – possibly more than one. However, sometimes the object doesn’t have this particular feature … and this applies more in the US, I believe, than in other countries. If you are in the US, and you feel the need for an extra clue, go here for a second picture of a different part of the object which, if you ask me, should completely give it away. But remember, the puzzle is the picture on this page, and that’s what I want the answer to.

So, off you go. I’m expecting lots of correct answers this week! The answer will be posted here tomorrow evening (UK time) in a link at the bottom of this post, along with the winners, and there will be further information in the comments.

Have fun!

And here we are on Tuesday evening, and I see I made this one far, far too easy! I think it is pointless picking out a winner since only two or three of you failed to guess right, but I have to say, well done, pretty much all of you!

The correct answer is here, in picture form as usual. So, thanks for playing! Next week … well, I’ll make it harder again, see if I don’t!

MWAHAHAHAHA!

Neither the man nor the dog in this photo could claim to be examples of physical perfection, and maybe they wouldn’t win any beauty contests, but that’s not the point, is it? The best kind of beauty comes from within, and is entirely separate from physical appearance.

I love Sid and OH dearly, because they are mine, and because I know them both well enough to see their inner beauty.

Who wants a perfectly beautiful face? Or a perfect body? Oh yes, we would all love to have them, wouldn’t we? But that type of beauty can be shallow and empty. When you love someone, their face is beautiful simply because it is theirs. Lucky indeed are those who have both a beautiful body and a beautiful soul* … but most of us have to make do with one or the other, and I know which I would rather have.

Anyway, what is more beautiful than the love and trust so clearly expressed here between members of two distinct species, who cannot ever completely communicate with each other – not fully – because of their cultural and physical differences?

And about those physical differences? Either could quite clearly kill the other, should he so wish. Sid, because as a dog he is physically superior and has a mouthful of deadly weapons, even though he is smaller and has a leg missing. OH, because he is bigger, intellectually superior and has all kinds of cunning and tricks up his sleeve.

But there they both are, totally relaxed in each other’s company, trust and love binding them in a way no kind of force or coercion ever could. And that, dear friends, is a thing of beauty.

Thanks to Claudia of Dipity Road for this weekly meme.

*That would be Johnny Depp – and no, it’s not fair, is it?