Mr Toad made a rare appearance. We don’t see him around the garden but every so often he turns up. The last sighting was in 2009. Then, we thought it was prompted by the arrival of a new motor car, toads being known to have a predilection for motor cars. Poop,poop !
No such novelties were at hand on this occasion
so he was probably just enjoying the humid weather with it abundance of the
sort of delicacies that toads like to eat.
Toad and
his adventures with motor cars on the open road mirrored the experiences of
early drivers and resulted in the creation of the RAC and the AA, organisations
that existed to help stranded motorists. I can remember the patrolmen on their
motor-bikes saluting the cars that carried their badge. It used to be believed that, if they didn’t
salute, there was a speed trap ahead.
After getting my first car, I duly
obtained my badge and the key to the roadside boxes from whence help could be
summoned. Much to my later disappointment, I left my
badge on my first car when I sold it and never liked the modern version but,
strangely enough, I still have the key.
It was with delight that I came across one of the few remaining AA boxes at Cappercleuch near St Mary’s loch. A reminder of pre- MOT motoring when cars, especially the kind I could afford, were completely unreliable, when fan-belts were regularly replaced by a nylon stocking, radiators boiled over and hoses perished.
I’m sure Mr
Toad hankers after those days but not me, I like surround-sound, climate
control, warning lights and beeps of every possible kind. I’ve no wish to go back to standing in the rain
trying to figure out why a pile of unresponsive metal won’t move.
Still, it
was nice to see an AA box again.
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| An unexpected sight Apparently ,out of eight hundred boxes, there are nineteen left and eight of them are Grade II listed buildings |
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| A " listed" building Mr Toad would have approved of them. He needed all the help he could get on the road. |
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