And then there's the man who says that he and his wife don't have to go away every year to foreign parts or even other parts of this island to have a good holiday. They stay at home and rediscover what they have, with all the time they need to enjoy it. Too much travel isn't relaxing or invigorating. You get bugs in airplanes; something to do, he says he heard, about the companies not changing the air sufficiently because they thereby save fuel and money. Not so long ago he went to the south of France via several planes, and on the night of arrival got a flaming throat, then a cough and soon he was with a doctor who prescribed huge doses of antibiotics. So his two weeks in the sun didn't do him any good.
At home, he says, he can watch his little fountain and pool where, as he was talking, about a dozen great tits of the new generation were apparently finding it for the first time, and having the adventure of their young lives, splashing and fluttering and edging out two goldcrests who seemed to want a share of the joy. Then there are the badgers at night, clearly visible in the light of the halogen lamp. Their main use in a suburban garden, he says, is that they eat slugs and snails as well as worms. They're not accused of giving TB to any animal around, for these are mostly half-wild cats.
The badgers deserve the handfuls of monkey-nuts and other scraps for the sheer pleasure of watching their sinuous and graceful performance: the slender head on the awkward-looking body as it pecks, birdlike, at the nut or scrap in front of it; the whirl around and fast, loping flight if a car comes into the drive or something else disturbs it. The white stripe down the mask gives it a quizzical air.
The fox comes, too. At times one fox and two cubs. A restful evening for our home-loving non-traveller. He swears, too, that in these holidays at home, he keeps on finding books he thought he had lost, books he feels he never knew he had. There are little jobs around, the odd shrub or the spot where a paving stone or two would make life easier; and the regular foray out for a hotel meal or even a daytrip in the car. But basically - your home and garden are meant to be enjoyed. Take the time to do it. He may have a point.