Under pressure

The more the year goes on, the more stuff gets dropped onto the terrace from the branches of the tree in Clive’s Corner. And the more stuff that gets dropped, the more the terrace looks unappealing. It’s pretty obvious, when it gets to this stage that the Karcher needs to get busy.

Before the Karcher

Before I could get stuck into it, though, I had to high tail it over the gym for my morning constitutional.

During my Talking Newspaper session last week I read out a piece about the footpath that goes from the park to the Six Bells was going to be closed off while Virgin Media bury some fibre optics. They were not there on Monday but today the story was very different.

Footway? Really?

This meant a slightly longer walk as I had to go up and around via the main road. Not that it made a lot of difference but the alley is more pleasant than the main road. And then the same was repeated on the way back as I didn’t go shopping. Instead I had a Wednesday Skype with mum before hitting the terrace.

And what a difference a bit of high pressure water makes. The dogs, naturally, cowered inside while I managed to not just wash the terrace but also most of myself as well. Given it was easily the hottest day of the year (felt like at least 50 degrees) this was a good thing.

After the Karcher feat. the Karcher

After lunch (a very odd sauteed pork mince and eggs I invented in order to mop up leftovers) we headed to the park for a bit of exhausting ball chasing. I see the stile and new tree are starting to become part of the general landscape now.

We met a few dogs then headed for home. Actually Emma decided quite early on that she’d had enough. She always picks up her ball then walks us all home but it’s usually just before we return to the path. Today she stopped just beyond Squirrel Tree. It was really very hot.

Because it was so hot, I naturally decided to cut the grass. Fortunately it didn’t take long and I managed to survive…though it did mean an early shower.

Apart from a bit of housework, that was about it for today.

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This morning I woke to the awful news that the Grenfell Tower block in North Kensington had burst into flames. The television images were extraordinary as the flames engulfed the building in mere seconds. There’ll be a lot of post-mortems and plenty of blame throwing over the next few days but I’d just like to say how wonderful the feeling of community has been. There were something like 600 people in the block and people in the local area couldn’t do enough to help them.

People offered bedrooms, clothes, food, anything they could. It was amazing. It follows on from the help that was immediately forthcoming after the London Bridge attack last week.

Also the Fire Brigade was (and continues to be) amazing. My hat goes off to all of them. Especially, the Commissioner, Dany Cotton.

We are very fortunate to be part of a society that actually cares about each other. Humans can be amazing sometimes.