Scorcio! Scorcio! Scorcio maximo, maximo! My goodness, it’s been hot, hot, hot. The countryside around and about is a crispy tinderbox and we’ve been “enjoying” hot sunny days with temperatures into the mid-30s and not a cloud in the sky. The weather people say we “might” get a spot of rain this coming week and it will be cooler but they also say the drought (officially declared on Friday) may well last until October. (I’m not sure how they know that but it is certainly out of the ordinary for the British to be begging for rain).
During the hot weather we’ve tended to take our afternoon walks at Everdon Stubbs woods rather than our “go-to” walk around the Edgcote estate. The Edgcote walk has the benefit of a handy place in which Daisy can have a dip in the river but otherwise it is almost entirely in the blazing sunshine. Everdon woods is shaded and, if there is a bit of breeze, it can be tolerably pleasant. This picture shows one of my favourite views from the woods across the adjacent countryside. Normally, those fields are lush and green – everything has been burnt to a frazzle.
And, in further weather-related news – the Thames Water region is set to introduce a hosepipe ban and restrictions on non-essential use of water. Not a bad idea in the current circumstances yet you may be surprised to learn that there has been a bit of a customer backlash. It turns out that the nine water boards leak about 2.4 billion litres of water every day. Just look at that figure again – 2.4 billion litres of water every day! And the Thames region is the worst, apparently – they lose more than 600 million litres of water every day through leaks, 24% of their total supply. 24%. Every day. No wonder we have a water shortage.
It’s not all bad news though. Over the past two years the chief executives of the water boards have received £24.3 million in salaries and bonuses. On top of that they pay out about £2 billion a year in dividends to their shareholders. And, they dump raw sewerage into the rivers and sea more than 1,000 times every day.
Just to repeat: they lose about a quarter of their supply through leaks, they dump raw sewerage into rivers and the sea, they pay their chief executives millions and their shareholders billions. It seems to me there is something wrong with this arrangement. No? I’ve got an idea – no dividends to shareholders, no bonuses for CEOs and no CEO salary larger than, say, the Prime Minister’s, until the leaks are fixed. That was the whole point of privatisation – it was only the private sector which could afford to invest in and maintain the infrastructure of the water system. Yep, that’s gone well.
Apart from the heat, we are “back to normal” at Penelope’s Playchute Palace, or whatever passes as “normal” these days. We said “good-bye” to Ben, Brex-Anna and Max on Thursday after a marvellous two-and a-bit weeks as they flew home to LA. We had an absolutely terrific time with them and it all flew past too quickly. I wrote about Paris and the Space Museum last time. This week’s excursions were more local but equally enjoyable.
On Sunday we all trotted across to Compton Verney for a Colourscape installation. Nope, I’d never heard of such a thing either. Penny found it when looking for things Max and the others might enjoy and it was terrific. It is essentially large inflatable spaces of different colours which create a colourful labyrinth through which one wanders. At the heart of the structure were a couple of musicians creating “wacky” music – the whole experience took me right back to my youth in the psychedelic 60s. It was blisteringly hot inside and a half-hour wander was quite sufficient for most of us – the kids would have stayed inside forever, I guess but we eventually persuaded them to come out and we then had a splendid picnic near the lake. Absolutely lovely day out.
After lunch Ben, Brex-Anna and Max departed in the campervan and took off for two days’ camping in Dorset where they met up with a friend of Ben’s from his days at IBM. I have to confess, we were a bit intrigued to see how Max would cope but apparently he loved it and they not only survived but seemed to have a good time.
They came back on Tuesday afternoon and we all convened at ours for a few games of hide and seek, much running around chasing and/or being chased by Daisy and a family photo opportunity prior to a fabulous family feast at the Crown Inn in Weston. Organising this crowd for a family photo was somewhat akin to herding cats but eventually we got everyone more or less in the right place. Our instruction to Daisy to “sit” and look pretty didn’t really work, as you can see. I’ve included a second photo which captures the moment Daisy took off chasing Jessie around the lawn just before the camera clicked. Hey ho.
And so, on Thursday, we came to the grand departure. Ben, Brex-Anna and Max’s flight was at a very reasonable time – 1.00 pm from Heathrow. While we were driving down the motorway we were able to watch, on the flight tracker app, Nick, Lucy and Annabelle departing for a couple of weeks in New England visiting family. So, at one point in the afternoon two of our three sons were in the air, somewhere west of Ireland. Thankfully, they all came down safely at their respective landing spots, BB&M to spend the next few days getting over their jetlag and getting Max ready for his first day at school on Monday and NL&A ready to start their holiday alongside rivers, lakes and streams in New Hampshire and Vermont. Lovely!
Penny and I will, meantime, hunker down somewhere cool and try to keep our mad dog out of the midday sun.
And finally, I’ve no idea why I found this amusing:
And finally, finally Happy Birthday this week to my splendid brother Sandy who is somewhat younger than I am and also to my neice, Dr Amanda Stragnell who is considerably younger than I am.
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, be careful, wear a f**king facemask in crowded places and keep your distance. And keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg