Utilising the last day of Daniel’s half term school holiday to get his help with work on the riverside gardens, myself also moving the dove cote cages and helping Pete to remove some stumps as the builders finish the chimney stack and work on Daniel’s room and the news is full of miners’ news, defections, expulsions and angst as well as heavy censorship concealing more deaths in South Africa
Another good night and Diana woke early this morning in case Daniel had to go to school. In fact, the school timetable showed that half term holiday ends at 8.00pm this evening and this date was obviously intended for the notice of the boarders. Down to breakfast of toast and fruit juice. Another fine and sunny day and even the breeze was light and mild. A quick look at today’s paper and then out with Della to feed the doves and ducks. No eggs today, although the ducks seem to have finished their moult and will need their wings trimming soon. A chat to Pete, the gardener, who is removing stumps today. I help him to set up Bill’s winch and we make short work of a persistent stump that yielded to the strength of the winch. I then spent this morning disassembling the cage that had been used for a acclimatising the doves to the ‘lean-to’ dovecote, and reassembling it to do the same job for the pole-cote. By lunch, I had worked out how to do it and affixed the two sides and, immediately after, I stapled on the rest of the netting and completed the job.
Then the rest of the day felling more tree branches from the invading ash and sycamore trees; stripping the leafy foliage and trimming the rest for firewood. Later, Daniel helped me move a dozen planks and timbers from the area we had exposed behind Bill’s shed. Then to tend the birds and clear up before dark. The builders had taken advantage of the weather to finish off the chimney stack brickwork and punch the door hole through Daniel’s bedroom wall, now that the link building timbers are in place. The plasterer was also busy finishing off another room downstairs and putting up the hall coving. The decorator was supposed to come today, but didn’t turn up, but the fireplace is now here. Tea of rolls and a pot of teas with Daniel as Diana took Debbie to her swimming class. Di also kept an appointment this morning with the slimming clinic and hopes to reduce her weight from 11st 3lbs to 10 stone over the next month or so. Later this evening I watched the TV news and then took the children to see Kimbolton Castle’s firework display, where the Rev. Lancaster excelled himself as usual with the pyrotechnics. My back stood today’s activity reasonably well. I have decided to give it reasonable exercise, as pure rest does not seem to heal it. The main news today was divided between half a dozen items. In Northern Ireland, the Unionists are pressing the UK government for a veto on the Anglo/Irish talks outcome, as the Loyalists obviously feel that a deal is in the making. Several defence matters came to a head as Britain and the US reach an outline deal on the SDI; and also NATO backed the Reagan stance ahead of next month’s Geneva talks with the Russians. In the UK coal industry, the coal board and the three mining unions have agreed a new procedure to be used in the consideration of pit closures and in the latest ballot the 550 miners of the Lancashire colliery, Agecroft, have voted to break away from the NUM. In Scotland, after the recent results of Industrial Tribunals and the ACAS conciliation talks between the NCB and NUM, twenty miners are to be reinstated and more are expected to follow. Seven more blacks die in South African rioting, but the press reporting is now severely restricted by censorship and effects of the state of emergency on information transfer in the process. The barometer is dropping and the long dry and settled spell looks like ending with the month of November. I phoned my Dad today and told him of my completed arrangements for the pole-cote and I hope that he can bring over the new doves before the weather breaks. The firework display featured both a helicopter and a man whose arms and legs moved which Debbie thought was very funny.