The nice site of a Heron wading on our river this morning before breakfast and then off to Diddington, Southoe and Little Paxton to deliver my FOCUS newsletters to outlying houses. Sometime varnishing The Lady and repairing mooring posts by the river to good effect before coming in, tired, to wade through local papers for press cuttings The last swimming session for our daughters and friends this summer. 500 victims are missing in the Mexican floods as Hurricane Gilbert precipitates torrential rain, but Texas is spared. The party conference season is underway with Poll Tax the big issue and Israel struggle to put down a PLO and Islamic Fundamentalist uprising in occupied Palestine
As I awoke and was drinking my tea this morning, I saw a Heron wading by the river bank opposite. This was a common sight years ago and, for that reason, I had incorporated it into my coat of arms. This last few weeks, I had on occasion seen it fly by, but it is nice to see it fishing at least which speaks volumes for the river qualities, fish stocks and breeding success of the birds at Paxton Pits Heronry. Was on time to breakfast this morning, for a change, but I had not had a very good night’s sleep. After breakfast, I drove off to Diddington with my FOCUS newsletters to deliver and achieved this aim. Then on to the outliers of Southoe and Little Paxton as well and found Mr Holman at home so as to get rid of the last batch of leaflets. Home then, and let Diana go to deliver hers whilst I stayed in and looked after the girls. The family had invited Amy and Katherine round for the last weekend’s swimming before the cover goes on for the winter. Di was back late and tired and, with Daniel arrived home and little time to cook tea, we decided to go to the Little Chef for lunch.
Poor staffing levels delayed us slightly, but I tipped our waitress who had tried hard nevertheless. This afternoon, I wanted a break from a desk full of paperwork and so I did some odd jobs outside by the river. I first sanded and then varnished where I had put in new glass windows into The Lady. Then I put the caps on four mooring posts by the river – a task broken off some time ago and only now resumed. This was quite tiring and so I rested half way through, made a pot of tea, and saw the Opening Ceremony at the Seoul, Korea, Olympic Games. Di Took Della to Caxton this afternoon for her Friend, Cary’s birthday party and she enjoyed it. Debbie, Amy and Helen Thurston played with the boys from number 39 and went swimming off and on. After tea, I went down and mended my landing stage, downstream of the slipway, which was a good job well done! Came in tired but relaxed at dusk and just wrote up my diary for a while before going through the local papers for cuttings. The news tonight is of 500 missing in Mexico as floods follow the Hurricane Gilbert which caused flash flooding after torrential rain even though it is weakening. Over the border in Texas, the population were relieved at being spared the worst of the storms. An uprising of the combined PLO and Islamic fundamentalists in occupied Palestine is proving difficult for the Israelis to put down. The Scottish Labour Party have decided against a boycott of Poll Tax payments, wanting to stay within the law. David Owen’s continuing SDP rump has its conference this weekend and called for a united opposition to Thatcher’s Conservative government. A Tory MP, Biggs-Davison, has died and leaves his very safe Essex constituency up for grabs to competing Tory Young Turks. Later this evening, I enjoyed watching and listening to the last night of the Proms on TV.