To blog, or not to blog?
Blogging? Not a very elegant word, but having read (and enjoyed) quite a few blogs, I decided it was time to add my own musings to the web. So why “Shooting Parrots�? Well, primarily because it seems you need an odd title for this blogging mularkey.

The story behind it goes back some years when we were taking our kids to Clayton Vale, a country park in east Manchester. It was once the industrial heartland of the area, but now it is a strip of green, running from the city centre to Ashton-under-Lyne, either side of the River Medlock.

As we dropped into the valley, I told my wife that I used to drive that route in my youth, to collect a friend to go parachuting at Cark in the Lake District. Several minutes passed, and I was parking the car, when my then five year old daughter, Bryony, piped up from the back seat.

“Well, I think that's cruel.� Pat and I looked at each other, nonplussed.

“What do you mean, sweetheart?�

“Shooting parrots,� she said. "That's very cruel."

Parents even more nonplussed. Then the penny dropped. Parachuting = parrot shooting to a five year old!

Out of interest, I searched Google for the phrase "shooting parrots" and up popped this site. Wasn’t that worth waiting for!