As I scoffed my toast I saw a new geocache had gone live
near Lydd. Set by someone who sets fiendish puzzles I thought I’d just have a
look. I immediately saw what this puzzle was all about, solved it, scoffed my
toast, and leaving “er indoors TM” and the dogs in
their pits I flew off in the hopes of a First to Find.
I didn’t get it.
I had a serious sulk…
As I drove home “Desert Island Discs” was on the
radio. Today’s castaway was someone I’d never heard of. Shirley Collins is a folk singer
who was a significant contributor to the British Folk Revival of the
1960s and 1970s (or so it says on Wikipedia). It turned out she was born
in Hastings (where my mother was born) six months after my mother was
born. Her early life sounded just like mum and dad described theirs - dodging
bombs and being evacuated. But then this woman chose her music.
Oh dear…
I collected the dogs and carried on to the woods still
listening to “Desert Island Discs”. This woman’s choice of music was so
bad I felt I had to keep listening to hear what came next. You’ve never heard
such a dreadful collection of caterwauled dirges.
We got to the woods; we walked our four miles. Once away
from the car park we didn’t see anyone at all. It was only a shame that Bailey
had to roll in quite so much fox poo.
As we drove home I saw the 666 bus from Ashford to
Faversham come past. I always chuckle at the number – and there’s a picture of
a devil on the back of the bus. Mind you the bus is rarely busy. The local bus
company runs an hourly service. This
morning’s one didn’t have anyone at all on it as it came past us.
Give it a year of so and the locals will be up in arms when
the service gets cancelled because no one uses it. Like what happened with the
Eurostar.
The dogs had a bath – some got scrubbed more than others. I
made a cuppa and had a look at the Internet later than I usually do. I sent out
birthday wishes, Munzed, got Wordle on the fifth attempt, then got on with the
bog filter project.
So simple to type…
I re-plumbed the pressure filter’s output. That took half
an hour. I then put some of the plants from the old bog filter into the new
one. But only some – they had rather grown over the summer. I then upended the
water and shingle out of the old filter tub. That made a mess so I ran out the
hose pipe to wash away the mess. That made more mess.
Eventually I managed to wash away the worst of the muck, I
got the excess pond plants to the green recycle bin, pressure-washed the old
filter tub and the old splash pool. I looked at the dustbin full of the top
soil I’d dug out a week or so ago to make space for this new filter, and took a
deep breath. I eventually managed to heave it to the other end of the garden.
As I fiddled about so a squirrel trotted down the fence and
quite happily walked across the garden. So much for ever vigilant dogs, eh?
After a couple of hours of heavy lifting and garden effort
I was all in. There’s still some topsoil to shift and the rockery to rearrange
properly, but they will keep for another day.
I spent a few minutes looking at the monthly accounts. Eventually
I got them to balance, and seeing I was unusually flush we got “My Boy TM” and
Cheryl to come round for a games and kebab evening. Games aren’t too pricey,
but kebab isn’t the cheap option it once was…
I *really* ache. The weather forecast for tomorrow
is rain. A day not being able to do heavy lifting in the garden probably wouldn’t
be a bad thing.
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