Take a bow

Half a century ago, whenever we went for a walk in the countryside, we’d count the number of species of butterfly observed out in the wild. Today, we’re lucky if we see more than one or two single specimens on a given jaunt. So imagine my delight when I saw loads of butterflies all in one place.

Alright, maybe this is cheating. Still, it brightened up the day a little.

I went for a job interview.

“Do you have experience as a barista?”

“Yes, of course, loads,” I lied.

“Can you make toasties and paninis?”

“Yes, I have plenty of experience in that field.”

“And how do you get on serving members of the public?”

“Oh, I’m very friendly and efficient, and I have a good eye for detail.”

“That’s all good to hear. And how are your knot tying skills?”

“Knot tying?”

“Yes.”

“Why would I need to tie knots?”

“We have a drawer full of short pieces of string from the second world war, handed down from grandparents to parents and now on to us. After all these years, those pieces of string are finally being put to good use.”

“OK.”

“When we wrap out cutlery in a napkin, we tie the whole thing up with a piece of string.”

“Oh, sounds good to me. Will a reef knot do?”

“That sounds perfect.”

And so it came to pass that someone (not really me, obviously) now has the job of lashing up knives and forks inside a paper napkin with surplus WW2 string.

I think it adds to the experience of having a snack at this particular café, especially for someone like me who has only just cut their finger nails, thereby adding to the challenge of untying a short length of old cord.

By the way, the flapjack was pretty good too.

Meanwhile, in Alaska, Liesel and friends spent a couple of days in Hope. Lots of hiking took place and, I suspect, plenty of chatting and laughing.

Anchorage is somewhere over there, on the other side of the water.

On a previous occasion, we all visited Hope in the family motor home. Klaus was driving and, just outside Hope, the van broke down. It turned out to be a fault with the motherboard: there was no way to override the computer that controls the vehicle. Luckily, Liesel and I had our tandem with us, so we cycled the final few miles into town, while Klaus waited for a mechanic, not easy out in the middle of nowhere.

On this occasion, Liesel and friends experienced no such trauma and they had a high old time in their rustic accommodation.

I went over to Cheadle Hulme to watch the children swimming, after which, I sat in their garden playing and enjoying the sunshine. Martha and William were looking forward to a visit to the local toyshop to buy some weaponry.

I told Martha that the rubber suckers at the end of the arrow are not only safer, but they’re so you can stick the arrows to your Daddy’s forehead.

After a period of very unSummerlike weather (yes, I just invented a word), the Sun came out and the temperature increased. Some might attribute this improvement to Liesel and her Mom bringing better weather with them from Anchorage. It was a relief to see them both emerge into Manchester Airport which, just 48 hours earlier, had had to cancel several flights due to a power cut. I was also pleased to see that their luggage, unlike mine, had not taken a short vacation on its own. The rest of the day was spent trying to stay awake.

We didn’t see much wildlife this week, except on TV, where we spent a short amount of time in Kenya.

That elephant was motionless for a couple of minutes, I was beginning to think it might be a cardboard cutout, but it did eventually wake up, twitch and wander off. Sadly, the woods and parks of Northenden and Wythenshawe are not inhabited by such exotic creatures. On Wednesday, more people joined the regular walk than usual, about 20 of us altogether, including a couple of folks new to me. So it’s a good job Boxx2Boxx have moved to bigger premises, we’d never have all got into the old site at the same time! I did however take pictures of some local flora, thinking, this’ll do.

And this week’s radio show was Give and Take, songs about giving time and love and taking me out drinking and that look off your face, or something. You can listen here, as always.