As The Rules Change...

Coming out of lockdown will prove tougher than entering it- with every step accompanied by a debate on how far it's safe to go. For people like myself- who are naturally solitary- there'll be the need to adjust- and even more- the need to want to adjust- to being around people again. It doesn't take much for me to sink into a hermit mentality- with accompanying misanthropy- and I've now had two months of turning round and round in my nest- the way dogs do- and making it all comfy...

I was surprised at Dominic Cummings. Here's a very clever man who has gone out of his way to alienate the civil service- including the security services- and he seems to have thought he could flout his own government's rules on lockdown- and nobody would notice. But I suppose it's not unusual for the highly intellectual to be extraordinarily naïve. There are lots of different ways of being smart- and few people, if any, can master them all. 

I dreamed I was sitting on a narrow platform that was jutting out from a very high wall- and waving goodbye to some friends. I decided it was time to move, so I stepped across to where I thought there'd be steps or a ladder or something of the sort- only to find there was no way down. By now vertigo had set in. And then I thought, "I don't need to be dreaming this; lets dream something else." So I did. 

A Project For The Summer

I walked round the perimeter of our fields yesterday, something I can now do at leisure, without being tailed by three horses- and it's a wonder how much three horses can do- over a season- to adapt the environment to their own specifications. It's a good thing that our neighbour has tall wire mesh fences, because the fences on our side of the boundary have been demolished and trodden down, leaving nothing but  a permeable line of trees and brushwood. There's one place in particular where the horses have invaded the no-one's land between the two fences and turned it into a sort of stable. I applaud their industry, but I can't leave things as they are.

So, I have a project for the summer- which is to remake the fence.

A couple of years ago we asked Matthew to hedge the perimeter with hawthorn. That ploy failed because the rabbits who live in no-man's-land grubbed up and ate most of the saplings. I could get the job done professionally with stakes and wire but that would cost thousands.  So what I propose is to do is fill the gaps by making use of the huge stash of fallen timber I've collected over a couple of winters. I think I'll be able to weave branches in among the elements of fence and hedge that are still standing- and that once they're in place nature will take over and reinforce them with new growth- and the final effect will be both effective and pleasingly rustic...

Well, we'll see.