Tub v Dog

Autumn began today. Since dawn we have had all the available kinds of weather, including scattered snow on the mountain. The autumn leaf guys were around overnight , pouring sacks of them into previously spotless doorways and alcoves along Salamanca Place. The wind which has been absent for about six months has blown up again.

I was just now putting the rubbish bins out. I left the heavy black plastic recycling tub on the top step while I took a bag down to the street. Winston was hanging around trying to help when I think the wind caught the bin and slid it down the three steps towards him. I heard the sound of heavy plastic on concrete, then Winston came around the corner going like a greyhound. He stopped at the very far corner of the front yard and looked back to see if the Tub Beast was still chasing him. I said "Come on - let's capture it!" and pretended to sneak up on it, then pounced. After a mighty battle I subdued the Beast, and held it towards Winston in triumph. He looked at it dubiously, then I lurched towards him as the Beast made a last bid for freedom. He took off again, and I eventually met him right around the far side of the house, after stowing the tub out of sight. Like Brave Sir Robin in Monty Python's Holy Grail, he "bravely ran away, away, bravely ran away".

Adrian next door + Me = George Formby

Adrian (8) from next door spent a lot of time hanging round at our place today. At one stage he was playing Marcus's ukelele, but it's tone was not to his liking, so he went home and fetched his. I was washing windows while all this was going on. We have a lot of windows and some of them are pretty inaccessible. While I stood a little bit further up a ladder than is generally advised, scrubbing, Adrian peeled off either Peter Gunn or the Baby Elephant Walk, and a few other ukelele standards. It has just occurred to me that in the old days George Formby played the ukelele and cleaned "winders" - in these days of specialisation it takes the two of us to cover his skill set.