I spent my morning hauling rocks off the mountain and building a tortoise-proof barrier. I am quite proud of my engineering prowess, although it remains to be seen if those cunning reptiles have been completely thwarted. Their slow demeanor belies an ancient guile that should never be underestimated1.
[1] This was Shredders undoing. I will not make the same mistake.
This is for their own good. I know lines like that get bandied about quite often (especially these days, where autocratic decisions are enforced by truncheon and jail time), but in this case it really is. We took the cover off our pool this morning. The shelled ones like to come down off the hillside and party on the cowling, suddenly removing this device may lead to a mass drowning event… which I am keen to avoid.
Which, for some reason reminds me of a philosophical thought experiment. (It goes something like this) We are happy to swim in the ocean, even though there undoubtedly dead bodies floating in it, but we are reluctant to swim in a pool with a dead body floating in it. Somewhere in our mind there is a volume of water to dead body ratio that we find acceptable.
All of this means that the tortoises can no longer find their way into my back garden… which is sad because I find their presence calming and zen-like. I thought about building a more complicated version of my border-wall so that I could channel them away from the pool and still enjoy their grazing, but aesthetically (and maybe practically) I couldn’t really make it work. Turns out building a wall has (unintended) consequences. Who would have thought?
In other news, we are getting our new German Shepherd puppy soon. Technically available on Christmas day, but hopefully slightly sooner. Christmas day seems like a poor choice to add a land piranha into the mix. Besides we are planning a Delta-Omicron super spreader event for that day.
Wait… *clears throat nervously* what is the peep-limit that can gather indoors and weigh up the potential risks of their own actions and then make a grown up semi-informed decision about whether to toast baby Jesus en-masse with Moroccan style lamb and Gin and tonics?
I mean it will likely change before then anyway. Its always changing. We are definitely not seeing anyone, ever, don’t send anyone to check. We are compliant serfs.
My sister and her two boys were here for the week. I was a good uncle and took my nephew snorkeling for his birthday…
This is a good low tide spot, calm, enclosed and there is quite a diverse range of aquatic life for a skillset that can’t really get you further down than just below the surface. The water was a chilly 13C (55F)… which is pretty much right on the cusp of my lower limit before I need a wet-suit. The waters off the Cape where the cold Benguela current churns into the warm Aghulhus current tend to vary chaotically, just the week before it was five degrees warmer and so much more pleasant.
Picked up a starfish off the bottom at about 3mtrs for the boys to experience. A juvenile octopus got away from me though. I think I would have quite liked going snorkeling for my tenth birthday. Vaguely I wonder what I did to mark my first decade… can’t remember that far back. Probably nothing. Eighties parenting was… way less involved.
Go Darke 