Skunks, sunshine (or lack of) and gardens.

Yesterday I received a text message from my daughter. "Matthew is a skunk!?" So it began. This is not a nice thing for a mother to say about her son. Reading on, I discovered that this was really an appeal for help in making a skunk costume for the school play. Well, not really an appeal for help. More of an appeal for me to make the thing. 

The school had relied on the children informing the parents about costume requirements and deadlines, instead of sending out a letter. The latter might have avoided confusion as Matthew had told his mother he needed the costume for Friday but by the time she collected him at the end of yesterday afternoon, the deadline had moved forward to today. Fortunately I had already had some thoughts about the costume and had almost concocted a tail out of black and white wool by the time my daughter contacted me again with a panicky, "Eek!!! We need the costume for tomorrow!" So, at about 8.30 last night I was sewing white stripes onto a black t-shirt and attaching the aforementioned tail onto a pair of black trousers. It is on the cards that I might get to see the performance next week. 

This morning I did my Wednesday thing of running down the Donkey Line, local bridal path, to Uppermill to buy fish from the Wednesday market there. I ran past the remains of the old mill which burnt down while we were away. Here is a link to video footage of the blaze. It's amazing! You go away for a couple of months and come back to find a local landmark reduced to charred rubble! 

For as long as I can remember there has been talk of plans to turn to the old mill building into accommodation, as has been done successfully in many places around here. A couple of years ago they fenced it all off and closed the assumed right of way, where people had walked for thirsty or forty years. Local anarchy soon opened up the right of way and nobody was prosecuted, to my knowledge anyway. And now we just walk or, as in my case this morning, run past piles of old stones and blackened timber. I wonder how longer that will remain there. 

 It was a lovely morning when I went out to run. The sun was shining and the sky was mostly blue. So I had plans to tidy up the wilderness that has replaced the front garden. By the time I had showered and had a late breakfast, the cloud had moved back in again. I managed to get out there and restore order into that chaos but there were occasional rainy interludes. 

And finally, here's a link to information about an interesting project by an ambitious and talented young lady.