Yesterday brought a most welcome email with news of Robin, a former colleague from BT days (almost 20 years ago). Isolation leads us to our keyboards, and to thoughts of what is of real value, notably the many lasting friendships that we don’t refresh often enough. Today I’d a phone call from a neighbour who I’m sure wouldn’t mind my describing her as elderly, just checking that we were both OK, since she hadn’t seen us out and about. Rather ashamed that I hadn’t checked on them, other than to log mentally a sighting of her husband putting the bin out the other day. But I’ve grabbed their XD phone number now, so now have no excuse.
The last couple of days have been chilly, so it’s a moot point whether it’s a good thing we’ve got the majority of the summer bedding in the ground. I’m glad we’ve got them out of the sitooterie, though! The runner beans are looking a bit stressed by the strong winds, and of the twelve dwarf French beans sown, we have precisely one seedling. The tomatoes were starting to stick roots out of the bottoms of their three-inch pots, so I’ve potted them up for a boost while we await better weather for planting them out in their big pots on the terrace.
Another rite of passage: it’s less than 90 days till I achieve my biblical span (if I’m spared), whereupon my driving licence expires. Today I’ve applied to renew it, which involved five minutes or so tapping away at my iPad. No trip to the Post Office for a form, no need to dig out a recent photograph, no need to go for a doctor’s cerstifficate. It’s good news in a way that govt agencies appear to be talking to each other: part of the authentication process is the use of my National Insurance number, and the photo for my new licence will be dug out of the passport office. The bad news is that said photo is dreadful, but all too recognisable.
I think I managed to complete a tree canopy survey of our parish yesterday. Our local U3A is doing it on behalf of the Forestry Commission, with the intention of highlighting areas in the country that need more tree planting. The software generates cross-hair points on a google earth image, and you just have to say whether the point is on a tree or something else. It took over 650 sample points to get the standard error inside the required 2%, so my mouse hand is protesting a bit. (300 points are usually enough for urban wards). It’s not as easy as it sounds: it’s fine if the cross hairs land on the street, a ploughed field, the railway line or someone’s roof , but it’s often hard to tell from the aerial photo whether you’re looking at a tree or something smaller, eg a hedge or a whin, which don’t count. Anyway, our ward appears to be almost 40% treed, which probably accounts for the hay fever. I hope it’s worth the effort. At least it fills time we’d otherwise fritter away with trips to Eastbourne for fish and chips.
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