So..... there was an exotic bufallo in the shopping centre the other day, a cuckoo in the valley yesterday evening and once, a long time ago an Elephant Bird in Madagascar.

Tim, the creator of the Egg festival in St Antonin was born in Madagascar, long years after the ex-"largest bird in the world" had passed into extinction, but in one of those wild twists of fortune and coincidence that often touch our lives an egg has united these disperate threads.

Although now living in Zurich Tim still has property in St Antonin and for the second year running has returned as spring and Easter demand our attention to help ensure an unbroken continuation of the almost legendary egg event, humbly reported in these pages a year ago.

In Zurich the zoo has started an exhibition/event/thing celebrating the Madagascan eco-system and Tim has successfuly encouraged them to lay plans for their own egg-festival where the egg will be dimensionally accurate to the Elephant Bird's own.