The House That Swallowed An Elephant
I was listening to Mark Stephen ask an expert why he had swallows nesting in his roof-space. This is the kind of question you would only ever hear asked on our Out of Doors programme. No, that's a lie. You could imagine politicians being quizzed on Good Morning Scotland and the same question being used metaphorically:
"So, Minister, this latest plan to rescue the economy...do you have swallows in your roof-space or bats in your belfry?"
"Neither, but we obviously must do more to communicate the proud record of the Government and blah, blah..."
On Out of Doors, however, the question was answered by a bird-expert who didn't try to dodge it, shift blame towards a previous administration of bird experts or even point to a global crisis in roof-space provision.
Well, actually he did. In fact he said that there should be more birds nesting in our eaves but moden building regulations meant that houses these days are ventilated in different ways and there's a shortage of cosy nooks for our feathered friends.
All of which brings me to the subject of old houses and the forthcoming series of A House With a Past. We launched this programme last year and it does for your home what Digging Up Your Roots does for your family tree. In other words, it solves mysteries.
Producer Claire White and history sleuth Dr Bruce Durie are again hoping to hear from listeners whose homes have untold stories and maybe skeletons in the cupboard - literally.
Last time around Bruce visted a house in Kircudbright where the present owners were puzzled by the existence of strange hooks in the ceiling. It turned out that hooks were once used to hold the carcass of an elephant before the bones were cleaned and transferred to a museum. Obvious, when you think about it.
So if you want to know what's rattling about in your attic then ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio Scotland offers you two options. Out of Doors for anything that's alive and A House With a Past for the dead stuff.
We look forward to hearing from you.
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