Driving home late the other afternoon we came into the village from the strawberrry field end, past vast acres of plastic which feed Sainsbury's or Tesco's insatiable need for the precious Perthshire fruits.

The great lines of polythene hoops are emptied now of all those young people from Poland who worked there all summer and who are the modern inheritors of those generations of people from all over Scotland who came to pick the berries in Blair and who would sing all day and celebrate all night.

I don't know whether the young people from Poland sing and celebrate all day and all night, but thanks to their sterling efforts and minimum wages, growing strawberries is still just profitable here, although for how much longer no one knows.

It is appropriate too that they should come here because this area is where their grandfathers came as part of the Free Polish Army during World War II, having fled from Poland, goodness knows how, after 1939. The monument to these brave men in Blair Town Hall bears testament to their courage and determination never to be defeated.

As we drove into the village we passed a place where the normally small burn that flows through the village may be seen for just a short distance heading towards the road before it curves away again and heads across the fields towards the river. The heavy rain had swollen it considerably and it was great surprise to glance, standing absolutely still in the fast flowing water, a heron, long crest and yellow tipped beak and all. The ultimate fisher seeking his supper.

I drove on a little distance, then reversed course, driving back to confirm the sighting. As we passed for a second time, he started and flew away from us back up the stream and out of our sight under the darkening evening trees.

Now the interesting thing is is that the local estate has recently built half a dozen new houses immediately adjacent and upstream of where we spotted the heron, houses that share some sort of mini sewage plant which discharges directly into the burn perhaps about fifty yards upstream. I don't know if anyone did a survey or took samples before and after the houses were built, or did some sort of environmental impact statement, but I would not mind betting they didn't. Perhaps they should have consulted the heron?