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.
Cukurbagli's Blog 
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