The mayor leaves a 'notice' in the letter box. An official heat emergency has been announced. High temperatures are expected from Monday of next week through to Saturday. The village hall will be open for anyone who wants to find somewhere air conditioned to sleep. Bottled water will be available in the village hall kitchen. The old folks home will make space available for any villagers over the age of 60 who would prefer to spend their nights there. Seems its unusually hot in NY and DC too.
The cleaning lady arrives at six to avoid the heat. Madame Bay considers her to be a 'girl' but she's a thin stylish lady in her fifties who looks after a chronically ill son who survived the same car crash that killed her husband. She is polite, courteous, hard working and strong willed. Her sheer strength of character makes her one of those people we're glad to have met on our journey through Europe. One of those uncomplaining 'pick yourself up, dust yourself down and deal with whatever life throws at you' adherents.
The PONs move out into the garden when they see the cleaning lady bring the hoover out of the cupboard. Both PONs are completely in agreement that the hoover is the devils disciple and should be avoided at all costs. Bob gives his sister a reassuring peck on the cheek. He does this every morning. She suffers the indignity in near silence.
From his desk Angus can look out of the window and just see the angelic duo at the gate. Bob is on his stump seat watching The Old Farmer replace a brake shoe on his 1983 Peugeot Estate. Sophie is looking back at the house willing Angus to get his shoes on and take her for a walk. As we head off The Old Farmer informs me that Americans don't buy estate cars .
Bob sits next to Angus on the concrete storm drain. We soak up the view. Sunflowers coming into bloom, fruit trees covered in netting to stop the sparrows making short shrift of the ripening pears. The donkey field covered in blue cornflowers. Sophie heads off in search of badger poo. Angus tells Bob that the amount of food needed to feed the world in the next 40 years is more than has ever been harvested in the whole of human history. Bob absorbs this information in sage silence. He gets an ear scrunch.
For a group of dour Presbyterians this seems to be a masterpiece of quiet and cheerful political messaging :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXlO8U0gkvY
8 comments:
I was shocked to read that Americans no longer buy (and manufacturers no longer sell) estate cars, which I understand are what we Americans refer to as "station wagons" - my father had a beautiful woodie station wagon that was the pride of the neighborhood when I was a kid. I checked and apparently station wagons actually are still sold in America, but the only remaining US manufacturer is Buick, which actually manufactures theirs in Germany and then exports to the US. Who knew? I enjoyed the clip from Fifth Avenue Presbyterian, which felt very timely even though it was posted in May. Also very New York - sometimes our current politics feel like a fist fight between the boroughs.
Well done the mayor for making sure the village is prepared. A heat emergency feels a long way off here in Aberdeen.
Cheers, Gail.
Guessing there is no one over sixty at the ROF that needs to stay at the rest home during the heat wave, and Angus and "The Font" are currently filling their freezer with frozen ice block food treats and carrots for Bob and Sophie. Enjoy the warm weather - it's cold and wet where we live!
The welcome greeting was good but what was very interesting was that the "up next" video was a TED Talk on "How to Spot a Liar," which was a surprise but I intend to watch later.
The harvest news is sobering. Precious agricultural land gets turned into housing, shopping centers and industrial zones. Will it be able to go back? Some people think we should just turn wild spaces into farms. Meanwhile, there are a bunch of calls for having more children, to balance out the aging population, out of fear that without enlarging the bottom of the population pyramid, there will be economic recession. I think there will just have to be a different measure of economic growth that doesn't rely on ever-greater consumption. Certainly young people are on board for doing right by the environment; it's the older generation (including my friends) who say they've earned it and want all the creature comforts at any cost (cost--not necessarily financial--they won't pay themselves).
That seems to be organised forward planning for your hot week ahead. We agree - stock up on iceblocks and have dips in the pool and you will be fine.
I am sure that there will be food and water wars in the future as the demand will surely stetch what the world can provide. Glad I will be too old to worry about 50 years in the future.
We hope everybody will be safe during this heatwave that has been affecting a lot of people and animals. Bob giving kisses to his sister is just too cute. Thanks for the share. Have a great day and drink plenty of water.
World of Animals
Glad there are resources for those who may need to escape the heat. Here in Canada we are also having heat warnings and extreme heat (at least in our part of the country).
Fifth Avenue Presbyterian is a lovely place. Thanks for the interesting video.
Hope you can stay relatively cool for the coming days.
One of our neighbors had a beautiful "woodie" station wagon when I was quite young. Being a sailor, he'd take the side panels off at the end of each summer and refinish them, like brightwork.
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