STILL LIFE
This week has slipped away like a parent tip-toeing past the cradle of sleeping babe. We have been immersed equally in tasks (mainly pool) and Brexit. The blog I usually sit down to on a Wednesday is seeing the hurried light of day barely an hour before its customary deadline. So I have only a few snippets to offer you.
One task was to find a way of keeping ratty and partner off the bird feeder, where they were dining at leisure each morning. Slavic suggested using the top of an old tub, which seemed a good idea. Slavic had hurt his eyes while welding the previous day and was lucky not to have sustained a serious injury.
As Jones pointed out, the new arrangement deterred the birds as much as the rats, either because they didn't like the look or it or had no easy landing point. So I've added a framework of sticks that I hope may prove more attractive to the avian community.
Last Saturday Slavic and (a neighbour) Sven assisted us first to drain the remaining rain water from the pool and then to rearrange the lining to remove the wrinkles. The previous day Jones had climbed inside, in an (ultimately successful) bid to drain most of the water by gravity suction into a large tub. (Note the hat, whipped off - to my intense irritation - by a gust of wind and resting in a shrub.)
Before filling the pool completely we have to connect up the filtration system that I have been slowly assembling with assistance from Fintan. The parts come in several packets and boxes, each with a manual that covers several similar systems. As often as not I find that I'm either missing a part or wondering what to do with those that remain.
On advice from Jodi (who has an identical pool) we have invested in a (bubble-wrap) solar blanket as much for the sake of "Jones's" bees (that we fish out each time we pass) as to warm the water. I've yet to cut away the plastic lining inside the skimmer, visible on the far side of the pool.
YES, I KNOW ABOUT THE HOLES
In a bid to silence the guest room and guest bathroom doors, I have invested in special magnetic door closers and lined the door frames with rubber strips. In some respects I have created a rod for my own back as it's meant that I've had to re-engineer the locks and bolts.
The evenings have seen us glued to the media to follow the critical Brexit votes in the UK parliament. (The news follows me around the hills via the mobile phone in my breast pocket.) Some of the outcomes have been welcome; so has the improvement in sterling.
The whole business tends to get us rather worked up, which fortunately is not true for the beasts, whose daily routine helps to distract us from the political uproar. How can presumably intelligent people be so insular as to cut off their noses to spite their faces?
Some of them we can hardly bear to listen to. Little wonder that the UK is so divided over the issue. As least Jones and I are on the same side. I sent a brief complimentary email to a female Cambridge professor who was the only sane voice on a BBC political discussion programme. To my great surprise I got a grateful response early the following morning.
BREXIT - WHAT BREXIT?
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