Observations from a Hill

OK - here it is - another personal milestone in the short history of this little blog - post number five hundred. Whodathunkit? Certainly not me: I don't normally have the stamina for this kind of thing - amazing what a confluence of strange events can elicit. Pandemic plus retirement; an odd combination that is probably afforded to us once in a lifetime at best for a select band of the semi-fortunate. However, this has been an extremely rewarding activity and I'm glad to have started it and gratified that it has been shared by a number of readers across the world. Considering I'm the bloke who left writing his degree dissertation until three days before submission was due, I'm quietly pleased that I can now write at least something, however trivial, on a daily basis; and your reading my fractured and sometimes apparently random output is gratifying also and so I thank you. I will continue in like fashion as long as I'm able, as this has turned into the diary I alwa...

I've just finished reading "The Oxford Murders" by Guillermo Martínez, an Argentinian writer, who won the Planeta Prize for the book. An enjoyable read, weaving its plot around an apparent serial killer's machinations, woven into a mathematical underpinning based on logical series: specifically the Pythagorean Numbers. The fourth in the series is the tetrad or  τετρακτύς (Tetractys   in   Greek). This is an equilateral  triangle, consisting of four rows of vertices or points: one, two, three and four, which from the four numbers 0 (unity; a point: zero dimensions), 1 (one dimension - a line between two points), 2 (two dimensions - a triangular plane) and 3 (three dimensions - represented by a tetrahedron consisting of four points). The reason I mention any of this is a tad random. Whilst finishing the book this afternoon, I idly Googled the Tetrad for more background. Apparently a sacred (to some) series, it represented (amongst other things) the Four Elements of the...

First and soon to feature, to some degree, on British roads: autonomous vehicles; now an autonomous ship crossing the Atlantic in the historical wake of the original; The Mayflower, or to give it its full name " The  Mayflower  Autonomous Research Ship". It remains to be seen how well the experimental vessel performs, but I'd rather bet on this than the land-based offspring of the  technology. If I want to travel in a car or similar without driving it, I'll opt for the passenger seat - at least the Atlantic has plenty of room for manoeuvre - the M25? Forget it: it's nearly as bad as having an autonomous and out of control Prime Minister - give me The Mayflower anytime.

A bit of a contrast in the weather today: the wall-to-wall blue skies having been replaced by a somewhat greyer aspect. The couple of light showers of even lighter rain we've had won't touch the sides: the unseasonal weather of late has conspired to dry out practically everything in the garden. Still, we don't deal in manicured lawns and fancy roses, so it really hasn't been too bad: most of the stuff we've got growing here is pretty robust - we follow the maxim that if you plant something, it either thrives or dies - if it thrives, it's right for it's environment; if it dies then it's in the wrong place. Natural, really...

It is difficult to know where to begin in describing the current state of politics in this country: it almost feels like Trump USA before the Fall From Grace at the moment, and at least I hope the portents follow a similar trajectory - unfortunately the potential timeline to regime change will be somewhat protracted in comparison to our transatlantic brethren's. The only thing we can hope for is that Bozza is ousted by his own camp as being too much of a liability; politically and legally, to be the viable leader at the next parliamentary electoral outing. What or who that scenario would leave us with at the helm of the nation, God only knows: Michael Gove? Almost certainly he's the only faintly capable candidate amongst the throng of total inadequates that currently, feloniously, and mendaciously occupy our cabinet and comprise the sorriest of governments I can recall in my sixty-six years on this planet. Gove today in Parliament doubled down on the stonewall response to all...

I suspect that more than a few of us will quietly be enjoying schadenfreude at the PM's current pickle: his 'creature' has turned, obviously not happy at his treatment at the hands of the Johnson government. The old saying 'Be careful whom you upset on the way to the top...' springs to mind. Cummings may not be my favourite person of all time, but I like Johnson and has ilk still less; but his agency would seem to have facilitated both of the Johnson projects: Brexit and a landslide election - slighting him would seem to have been yet another tactical error on the PM's part. Anyone who has watched Wolf Hall (I've still to read the books myself) will know how critical friendships and alliances are to those close to the seat of power, and that the careful stewardship of those relationships is of vital importance to the central players: although these days rolling heads are metaphorical rather than physical - some might cry shame! Will Johnson be undone by his ...

  Yn Y Tŷ, Prynhawn. Another beautiful afternoon with unbroken azure skies and a marked increase in temperature. More stuff shifted from the studio, bagged variously for storage, charity shop or disposal. Start made on a drystone retaining wall to enclose a new seating area on the east side of the studio. Start made on reading a new-to-me novel, found while going through the studio stuff - tooth cracked while reading same: moral - don't grind your teeth, especially when they're none too sound in the first place - ironically though, a tooth I've never, ever had a problem with. Bugger.