WHISPERING SMITH: Mike ‘n’ Ika dicing with death on my mean street

Last week they were flapping around and falling off the chimneystack and wandering along the roof, in the hope that mum and dad would continue to feed them.

One morning, the fledglings came down to earth very early and I saw them wandering along Western Road, obviously having not received the email advising them that it would be safer for them to take flight and head for the beach.

Sure enough, that evening I saw Brer Fox carting Ike, the smallest, off into the bushes.

They are pretty dim birds and, alas, I fear the worst for Mike if he is still out there.

LOVE Littlehampton, the week-long festival of music, arts and events in and around the town, has been a big hit, with a seven-day programme much enjoyed by the majority.

These events do not just happen, they rely on a team of volunteers working tirelessly throughout the week and long before.

Staci Mendoza-Quinn and her team are to be thanked and congratulated both for that hard work and for having the vision to set it in motion in the first place.

I proudly strum my event-inspired ukulele and tip my Stetson to them all.

GORDON Aplin is quitting the allotment after 45 years of digging.

Now in his mid-80s, Gordon finds the large plot a bit of a hard row to hoe.

He will be missed, his advice was always sound although, to a newcomer such as me to the art of allotmenting, often a bit tongue in cheek and he must have gone home smiling a time or two.

I hope he comes back now and then to visit. He is welcome to a seat in my shed anytime.

THE much-maligned bandstand has been used by a variety of groups over these past sunny days and already I understand there have been complaints about the music from some local residents.

The town council is on a hiding to nothing with this project. There are moans when it is not used and groans when it is.

It’s a bandstand, there will be music, the clue is in the title.

Play on, Macduf!