wonderfully far and high

...a star shone over Bristol, wonderfully far and high...

I had a very Useful day yesterday; the tandem that we do the school run on had shed its chain the day before, so I had to do a bit of repair and adjustment. Then I painted the woodwork on the Trav with linseed oil, to keep the weather out. And repaired a drainpipe on the porch, which had been left unrepaired by the useless clots who had come in to repair the damage wrought by the rainwater that had escaped from the broken drainpipe... and when I came out of Wild Goats with the flour for the breadmaking, there was a woman whose bicycle chain had fallen off the sprocket and jammed. So I fixed it. She was happy, and bought me a couple of samosas from Wild Goats as a thank you. And most annoyingly, I'd forgotten her name by the time I got home, because I am useless at remembering names unless I go out of my way to create a mnemonic. And I really want to be able to remember names, because I think it's rude not to.

But I really should be getting on with Big Projects.

Richard has disappeared into the desert. He is wandering around somewhere in Israel, for purposes which will doubtless become apparent in due course. I think that there may be Anglicans involved. It all makes me think of Sir Walter Scott's The Talisman, which has got a Crusader stumbling upon a secret Christian sect in chapels and tunnels carved out of the rock under the deserts of the Holy Land, and is totally barking. Like, several days into barking country, if you see what I mean. I'm sure that Richard's experience will differ radically from that of Sir Walter Scott. Well, I hope so.