One step forward, two steps in random directions

There are days when it would have been better not to bother getting out of bed.  Wednesday, as it rolled out, was one such.  I got roped in to deputise for the chap who was doing the admin for a visit by a learned professor to the local beaks’ club committee, so that knocked out an extra hour of a fine day that I’d otherwise have spent in the garden.  Around 12:00, when he was due to arrive, he left a message to say that he was stuck in a train 20-some miles away, awaiting a replacement bus.  I offered to go and collect him and set out, only to be greeted by signs saying that the motorway was closed after the M25.  Well, I got to the station where he was waiting, but by then the traffic was completely gummed up with vehicles that had been kicked off the motorway.  It transpires that a van had collided hard with the railway viaduct, thus taking out both the railway and the motorway at a stroke.  Cutting a long story short, we aborted his visit, and I finished up dropping him at a different station to head back to London.  With all the detours and traffic jams, I finished up spending an almost wholly fruitless extra two hours at the wheel.  Still, I did give him my personal take on his questions about the new sentencing guidelines (in between swearing at fellow motorists) and he still seems keen to come and see us another time.

The ducks are still very much in evidence, and as hungry as ever.  They eat a bit, then swim for a while in the pond, then come back and eat a bit more.  The arrival of a crow sent them running to the pond this morning, and they were rather irritated by the squirrels, so didn’t hang around for too long.  They’ll be back for sure, quite possibly with a spectacular crash-dive into the pond as the female did yesterday. 

I had another look yesterday at the Spurn Head piece I started last week, and warmed up the colours a bit.  Happy with it now, so at a suitable moment I’ll slap a bit of varnish on it. 

DIY proceeds apace: the house looks a bit like a builder’s yard.  I did the rather nerve-wracking job of applying levelling cement to the cloakroom floor yesterday, and think I’ve got away with it.  We’ll probably make a start on tiling today.  Also on today’s agenda is a farewell to the horrible leylandii hedge between our driveway and next door’s.  Both households hate it, and once it has gone, the neighbours might be able to get all three of their (smallish) cars off the road.  I have a few bits and pieces to plant in place of the hedge.  Leylandii really takes it out of the soil, so I may use the opportunity to empty the contents of the compost heap into the resulting holes.