A day of nothingness. Just heat. I had a terrible sleep – wakeful and then the early morning was broken by a couple of drift offs. I used a sleep app during the night where some gentle visualisation saw me off for a while.
However, after that whinge, I have slept well recently. Maybe it was just the warm night that caused the problem .
T keeps complaining he is cold at night – I won’t tell him I had swapped the winter duvet for a summer one a few weeks ago.
The Illis (along with all of RG8) had no water this morning. Luckily they have a substantial above ground pool full of water – for cooling and flushing loo etc. No back up agricultural water supplies here.
(update … 18.45 … still no water, though may be restored soon)
I was up and out with H around 09.00 which was too late because the warmth was already controlling outside comfort. We went to Castle Meadows where the ground is baked hard and the grasses are brittle, crisply bleached of all colour.
Meadow plants are also becoming drained of colour and leaves have crinkly edges that no rain will repair. Not that any is forecast.
A few people were out walking their dogs early. Earlier will be necessary,
Harvesting may begin soon – I have seen heavy tractors and their kit taking over the highways and bye ways. Hood luck to them.., The crops must be devoid of moisture.
I have also read a plea from a tractor driver for cyclists to give way to them and dismount. Now that the law has changed, cyclists, horse riders and pedestrians rule the roads. They know their rights!! I can understand they needed better legal protection, but, cyclists in particular, also need to show more responsibility for their own safety. Wearing visible clothing would help. I followed a barely visible cyclist the other day – he was wearing black shorts and a mutely multicoloured top that served as decent camouflage under branches/ leaves and their trees. If big things like cars are obliged to have running lights, during the day, perhaps, logically, it should be a requirement for smaller road users to do the same.
Turning out of Underhill is on a wing and a prayer, because you cannot see anything approaching from the right due to the tree cover. If approaching items are lit up, it makes a huge difference.
The rest of the day involved little. Just sitting around avoiding the heat. Though the thirsty plants are no longer so thirsty.
Or … little was what I thought … until about 22.30. Fleur has been poorly, unable to play in an important selection hockey match today. temperature/ sore chest / and cough. This also meant Rupert and Yoko chose not to visit. Wisely I think.
Lena and Timur and friends visited the Natural History and Science Miseums in london.
Anyway, around 22.30 Ali wondered if we still had the oxymeter because F’s chest was very sore. She is still Covid negative.
I dug the oximeter and some spare covid test kits out of my drawers… now now…which Dave came and collected.
Because he is a helpful chap, he replaced the battery in the squeaky fire alarm.
The link below describes the explosion and destruction of a big posh house a few miles away in Basildon. Yesterday evening.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10999727/Man-rushed-hospital-850-000-Berkshire-home-explodes.html
This explosion meant the fire brigade depleted water reserves in Streatley reservoir. This explains why Streatley residents had no water. But to compound matters, when the water company tried to reroute water to Streatley, they found at least one leak in the mains piping which meant they could not refill the reservoir which is buried somewhere under the golf course.
It is easy to magnify blame, but our water companies have recently received heavy criticism for poor maintenance.
Thames Water received a poor rating for leakage and a high rating for supply interruptions. I guess if you don’t repair your leaks, you don’t need to interrupt supply.
T keeps closing the external doors and I keep opening them. I’ve already taken 2 showers today, the last one was a cold one.
Some nasty little black insects are finding me tasty and their bloody squashed remains are tattooing me.
Thought for the Day
Leave a Reply