where art collides philosoperontap

The world is silent. I have turned off the sound. I have visual contact but am not looking. My last swim is booked and I should be leaving now but am not inclined to go. Melancholic disinclination. 

We are heading back into lockdown. The first lockdown was an adventure. The second is not. We are lockdown weary. Tired of the shackles. A modern day imprisonment.

There is something mischievous about downing tools to go and play golf. A sense of rebellion. When you should be hard at work you are not. In fact I’m played out with work today. Music streams in the shed. There is a clarinet there somewhere.

A chainsaw disturbs the peace.  I thought next door had finished sorting out the trees. Now it has stopped. The silence without it sounds loud.

Went to bed early to read my latest acquisition: Westminster Abbey and the Anglo Boer Wars by Hannah’s boyf George. It’s a good read. Not to everyone’s taste but I like this sort of thing. The upshot of the early night is of course early up. This is not a bad thing although nicer in summer than at this time of year where it is dark.

This morning I am sat in the library, the erstwhile TV room. It still has a TV but it typically only gets used to watch University Challenge on a Monday night. The room has more books than TVs so calling it the library makes sense to me.

The conservatory became the orangery over the summer because it contained a miniature orange tree. This is now outside and I’m not sure it will survive due to a distinct lack of watering whilst indoors but we shall see. The oranges, which were mini ones and very bitter, have all dropped off. The orangery does still have a lemon tree in it with one emerging fruit. I doubt it will reach it’s natural life goal of being the garnish for a gin and tonic. Only time will tell.

It is 11am. I’ve had breakfast, spoken to me dad, read a bit, chopped back some bamboo and mended the drain pipe going into one of the waterbuts by chopping a new bit of pipe to replace the old one that has dropped into the but. 

It is now time to take stock of the day ahead. My primary objective today, one that I have chosen to accept, is to make another planter to accompany the other one I made a couple of weeks ago that is now painted and in place under the kitchen window. Before I can start this activity I need to await instructions as to the required dimensions. This is a convenient halt in proceedings as she who determines such things is out at the moment. An unilateral decision regarding this would be too high risk.

I may at the same time as building the planter get out the chainsaw as the bamboo needs some additional aggressive trimming. There are also more apples to pick. One final job could be to build an enclosure for my outside temperature sensor. Otherwise known as a Stevenson screen I have decided it is going to be a lot easier to make this out of some cedar remnants than to do a full blown job with slats. It will be good enough. I can just drill lots of holes in it and it will blend in nicely with the cedar wood sides of the shed. 

I’m also thinking maybe a bit of a run later this pm. Not been for ages. This isn’t to say I have not been exercising. I’m getting 5 or so swims in a week. The pool is looking relatively busy this pm so figured would be ok to pass. The weekends tend naturally to attract more people but also people who don’t have the same intent as me. In other words they quite often stop and clog up an end whilst resting between lengths. This can break my rhythm. During the week it is not unknown to end up with only me and one other person in a lane which is clearly preferable to a crowd.

Dinner tonight is already sorted. We have defrosted a beef casserole wot I made earlier and which will be completely satisfactory. Might even stretch to a bit of smoked salmon as a starter innit.

Finally this is my first post since February I’ve posted a lot of stuff on Facebook and some on trefsgreenhouse.com and figured I’d move on from philosopherontap. I’ve changed my mind innit.

I have also changed the theme to the basic “classic” wordpress theme. Will leave like this for a while pending deciding what to do themewise. I really liked the old theme but it’s been there for some years now and it doesn’t do any harm to move on. Featured image is a screenshot of the last moments of the old theme.

ciao

PS I need to get rid of that RSS subscribe feed text somehow. It is not immediately obvious which plugin is generating it

PPS need to work on how to get images sharper!

This morning I have a clear head and am feeling relaxed. Woke up naturally at around 06.30, had a cup of tea and then a shower and we ambled over to the terminal to check in. This was easy although came with the news that I was going to be subjected to an additional (SSSS) search at the gate. Ah well.

We are travelling in first class today so were quickly through security – there are more security people than passengers. At the Concorde Lounge we dropped off our coats and carry on luggage and went for a very pleasant breakfast. I had California Eggs Benedict with a side of bacon and Anne had porridge. The coffee was good. The champagne has been resisted as we have a long flight ahead of us with lots of champagne and other goodies. 

This easy start to the day is the cause of my relaxed state and if you can do it is really the only way to fly. We have another 30 mins until we need to head to the gate – slightly earlier than normal to allow for the SSSS (Strip Search and other Such Stuff?).

I can see but not clearly. Outlines are not sharp. The low sun shines through the window as steam from a pan rises. A form in the shape of Anne moves around the kitchen in front of me, tidying up after breakfast. Classic FM relaxes in the corner. On the table is a fresh cup of tea, a green vase like object holding some cutlery, and a jug of water. The writing on the page is unreadable unless I screw my eyes up or move nearer. The butchers block in the middle of the kitchen has a metallic bowl on it. I am ignorant of its contents.

Although in one sense by not wearing my specs I am removing myself from reality I think I prefer clarity. I have put them back on. Anne is squeezing oranges.