For most British people the mere mention of the month of November brings forth visions of cold grey days, a “nothing” sky stubbornly white and only the prospect of even shorter days on the run up to the only highlight of the winter, that annual festival of good cheer brightened by the consumption of biblical quantities of left over food and drink. I refer of course to the feast of Stephen, the saint upon whose day King Wenceslas, (actually Vaclav the Good, Duke of Bohemia) looked out and celebrated on the day after Christmas in Britain. And well he should have looked out because some dastardly soul assassinated him in the year 935 after which, because of his reputation for being a very very good duke, he became one of the very few people in the world to be crowned King posthumously. Some feat eh?
Anyway that’s enough pointless rambling for now.
About three years ago I bought two thermostatically controlled shower mixer taps because the temperature of the hot water fluctuated wildly due to the variation of pressure provided by the water pump that supplies the my house with water from my underground depot. Jumping in and out of the shower stream was never a thing that I enjoyed and I had determined to do something about it. Well the mixer in the small bathroom was easily changed over in about ten minutes, it being simply a swap of the old mixer for the new. The arrangement in the larger bathroom attached to my bedroom was a lot more difficult as will be explained, if you care to wade through my tedious explanation, even I am finding it boring and I haven’t got there yet!
Predictably, having one shower that performed well I took to using the small bathroom, I am just as susceptible to taking the easy way out as anyone else sometimes and the other mixer lay in the bottom of a drawer, unused and uncared for apart from my occasional caress of its beautifully formed, chrome plated brass body when opening the drawer looking for something else.
Well finally I fitted it and I kick myself for not being able to see how simple the setup could have been. Actually having got this far into the story I have decided not to explain the whole situation, I even took photographs of each and every step but I’m not going to go into all that detail now, it is just too boring for any but the keenest amateur plumber and I doubt there are many of those out there. I will just say that it is in, it is operational, including a new sixty five litre water heater to supply it, and I am thoroughly enjoying the use of it. Here is a photograph of the business end of it.
As you can see from the lower part of the picture it is a spa type bath with water jets and a shower included and it was that installation that made it difficult for me. I finally saw how easy it would be to install a completely separate and independent system with water being supplied by a different pipe. Okay, that’s it, onwards and upwards.
Or rather downwards, into the soil. November here in my part of the world is not so cold or grey and sometimes plants surprise me with their offerings. I have been enjoying the fruits of my strawberry plant since late August and it is still giving, two very enjoyable strawberries that I ate today with cream left over from another dish.
As you can see there is yet another one on the way, I am blessed.
This time of year causes the sun to make wonderful sunsets and to bathe the early evening in a wonderful golden light. It starts around the end of August or beginning of September and continues because what cloud we get tends to be broken thus allowing the rays to break through. Here is a sunset from a few days ago. I have not adjusted the colour, this is exactly as I, and the camera saw it.
That’s all for now, time for a glass of wine.
Well here I am playing catch-up again. Sometimes I read through what I’ve written a few months ago and it seems like it’s the same old stuff over and over again. Sometimes I think your lives must be much more interesting than mine, but then I’m the one living mine and it all seems so familiar that I wonder why anybody looks at my blog at all. A couple of the blogs that I follow seem to be written by action heroes, there is so much going on in their lives. Ah well, at least it’s peaceful in my corner of paradise.
You’ll no doubt be aware that I have a new dog to look after now. Wolfie is a big softy, he smells of urine most of the time and occasionally has a crap on my little patio by the porch but his most endearing habit so far is barking like a madman sometime between the hours of 01.30 and 03.30. It’s a strange thing but this barking always interrupts or initiates a dream, I never really remember what the dreams are about, they vary but it usually seems like twenty or thirty minutes has elapsed since his barking starts until I realise that the dream is not real and I should get out of bed and go to quieten him. In reality it is probably only a few seconds but it seems longer. I bought one of those electronic training aids to clip around his neck like a second collar, it has various settings and can deliver an electric shock, a buzzing vibration and a beep that sounds like a little motorbike. He ignores the beep, the electric shock doesn’t appear to have any effect on him whatsoever but the vibration works quite well so now I can just roll over in bed, reach out to the bedside table and press the button to give him a little vibrating surprise which seems to quieten him, at least for a while. Of course there is no point in just doing that without any associated training so we have little sessions during the the day so that he know who is doing it, why and what he should do to avoid getting another dose. I think I must be getting softer as I age because even though I have to go to these lengths to try to keep him quiet all the other dogs in the village are all barking like madmen too. I made him a kennel a few weeks ago, just a rough old thing, wouldn’t want to spoil him too much now would I? Here he is trying it out, I did actually catch him sleeping in it one day too…
… but most of the time he commandeers the settee…
The cats have had a fun time for the last couple of weeks too, they often bring small creatures they have killed, or are in the process of killing, usually they bring them first thing in the morning while I am still in bed. I don’t mind too much when a dead mouse is dropped on my bed but it does get annoying when it is still alive, shrieking fit to wake the dead and running around looking to hide under my pillow. Funny but they soon get bored with that game, the cats that is, and it is up to me to dispose of the poor little creature. However they never tire of playing with a cardboard box. I am not privy to the rules of the games, there seem to be three distinct games but they all involve one cat being in the box and the other one trying to usurp the position. One game uses subterfuge to entice the sitting tenant to vacate the box, the second uses surprise and shock to frighten the sitting tenant out and the third is just a violent frontal attack. The winner is the last one in the box when the other cat stalks off in a huff. Funnily thing though, I have three cats but they never gang up two against the sitting tenant, the third one always sits and watches and occasionally takes over the role of attacker.
The boxes that Hepsiburada.com deliver shoes in are just right for this game because if you duck down under the top flaps you can repel an attacker by jumping up at just the right moment.
I had yet another trip to Meis a few weeks ago so here are a few more photos.
The east bay from the top of the castle.
The courtyard of the museum
The courtyard again
A picture in the museum showing how built up the area around the harbour was before the Second World War.
And finally the harbour from the top of the castle.
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