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- 3 ornithological friends tell me that, due to the extremely rapid metabolic rate of these small birds, many species must eat close to their own weight of food each day in order to keep their vigorous lifestyle going, and that, after a long winter's night, they must, first thing in the morning find a source of food to revive them. Certainly our bird feeder presents a Grand Central Station aspect shortly after daybreak each morning, and my feathered friends seem likely to keep me poor buying the mixed seed which I supply to them. Actually in this area of relatively mild winters there is usually no serious lack of natural food to be found for insectivorous and seed-eating birds, though they doubtless have to work a little harder than in the halcyon days of summer. But when we do experience a "cold snap," or during the infrequent periods when the ground is covered with snow, the small birds suffer and the good citizens' bird feeders become popular - and vital - gathering places. Philip Croft: "Nature Diary of a Quiet Pedestrian" BLOOMSBURY - MEMOIRS OF A BLUE STOCKING (Frances Partridge, the oldest survivor of the Bloomsbury set, is interviewed by Helena de Bertodano, in the Sunday Telegraph, Sept. 25th, 1994) The writer Dorothy Parker once said that the Bloomsbury Group consisted of couples who were triangles and lived in squares. Frances Partridge's own network surpassed even these criteria. The man she fell in love with and later married, Ralph Partridge, was married to Dora Carrington, who loved Lytton Strachey, who was a homosexual and loved Ralph. Carrington married Ralph because she thought it would solder her link with Strachey. They all lived together under the same roof. In 1932 everything changed. Strachey died and Carrington, beside herself with grief, committed suicide. Ralph married Frances and some measure of normality enter their lives. They had their only child, Burgo, and lived out the war as "pacifists" in Ham Spray House in Wiltshire, left to Ralph by Strachey. Frances Partridge still writes at 94 - but feels she is "getting too old for all this." FINAL WORDS Once the game is over, the King and the pawn go back into the same box. (Italian Proverb.) A man finds out what is meant by a spitting image when he tries to feed cereal to his infant. (Reader's Digest) A well-knit family is one where everybody gives a dam. (Heritage Book) Tony Scammell Editor