A cloudy start to the day. The sun lights up the contrails which have formed a golden # sign in the sky.
The Autan wind starts to blow. The wisteria branches over the front door jiggle as the storm builds. It's dark enough for the whipsawing stems to trigger the sensors on the security lights. Although it's late morning The Rickety Old Farmhouse is lit up like a municipal building on New Years Eve. The lights refuse to go off.
Angus gets a ladder and a pair of long handled shears. He clambers up the ladder and lops away at the wisteria. A young farmer in his white van passes along the lane, sees me and reverses back. He gets out and shouts out '' Are you alright ? ". Angus turns around and replies that all is well. The answer is clearly lost in the wind. The young farmer repeats the question very slowly. Are - you - al - right ? Angus mutters under his breath, clambers down the ladder, smiles, walks to the gate and reassures the young man that everything is just fine. The young farmer says nothing but looks at me as if to say " If everything's just fine why are you out in a storm cutting your wisteria with the whole of the front of the house floodlit ? "
When I'm back on top of the ladder the German billionaire and his house guests head off down the lane in a convoy of six identical white Volkswagen Beetle convertibles. They don't see me. The billionaire, dressed completely in vehicle matching white, stands in the passenger seat of his car and waves everyone on.
With the wisteria chopped the security lights finally turn off. Angus and the PONs have a lengthy game of throw the disembowled Panda.
This video is beautiful : http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/rare-white-moose-sweden-video-spd/
8 comments:
Hope your storm passes by quickly.
Apologies for having a jolly good laugh about the wisteria incident. That moose is stunning.
Maybe the German billionaire has the same genetic mutation as the white moose?
(Your story about the wisteria, the lights and the young farmer had me laughing out loud and spattering my muesli across the breakfast table. Bertie looked a little surprised.)
Cheers! Gail.
Considering all the other things that go on in your village, chopping floodlit wisteria in a storm seems tame.
If a movie had a scene with a convoy of white convertible Beetles, led by a white-clad billionaire standing in his vehicle, reviews would call the scene over the top. And well-lit pruning in a tempest is considered odd?
Hari OM
Have to admit I joined the giggle club with the images of wisteria and wind and concerned young farmers... (sadly that vid will not play for me, but the article was interesting.) YAM xx
But how else would you know when you've cut enough Wisteria down? It's only when the security lights go off that you know you've done a good job !
Stunning film of the white Moose, and the white clad billionaire and the white Beetles raised a smile here too.
I see you have a scattering of fallen leaves across the grass. Late summer is all about us on the coast of Northern California. Such nice pictures of Bob and Sophie today and the golden octothorpe.
What an incredible moose.
Why is it, whenever you have to perform an-out-of-character job, seems there are always witnesses.
Post a Comment