STACK NEWS ISSUE 3 - December 1999
It was one morning in early November when I was just starting my second coffee of the day sitting up in bed and watching the sun rise behind St Michael’s Mount, when my thoughts turned to Christmas. What is the last posting date to Australia this year? Shall we make our own cards again? Jayne was beginning ‘to surface’ so I posed the question - Do you think that we have enough news to fill another issue of Stack News? The ensuing bedroom brainstorm produced a scribbled list running onto four ‘post-it’s’ and so –welcome to issue three!
Eagle-eyed readers will have spotted the scaffolding in the photo of the front of our house. We thought it would look more festive as a snow scene but had to delve back to our last snowfall which was in December 1997.
We have now occupied our new bedroom, which includes a lounge area at the southern end complete with TV & hi-fi, plus the view over farmland to the sea. Still to be completed is the large built-in cupboard, but the dressing room is complete and boasts a built-in wardrobe with full length mirrored doors. The en-suite bathroom is decorated but lacks plumbing!
We’ve completed the lounge also. This involved removing partition walls to create one large room from three, before installing the underfloor heating and laying parquet floor tiles. It’s all decorated now, and has a new lighting system and a whole wall of bookshelves. Monty, our chinchilla has a new palace, and Jayne has almost finished making the curtains. To complete ‘the picture’ we’ve had a woodburning stove installed, so we are now fully qualified pyromaniacs! Which reminds me – earlier this year I forgot a candle I left burning in the garage. Some hours later I saw smoke coming from the roof! As we are some distance from the nearest fire station I decided to ‘have a go’ and after gingerly raising the roller door managed to extinguish the blaze with the garden hose. This was some excitement I could have done without! Fortunately the damage was fairly limited, although my wellies were badly injured. We also had problems this year with lightning that zapped ours phones twice, and ‘killed’ our modem.
A particularly sad event this year was the death of Mary, a lady whose four dogs Jayne had been walking for over a year, and who had become a good friend. Mary was a brave and determined lady who fought her illness to the last. Her dogs are now being cared for in their own apartment at the Cinnamon Trust sanctuary – they even have their own TV! (The Cinnamon Trust is a charity which organises volunteers to help people look after their pets when they become infirm or hospitalised).
Other animal events this year included cat sitting for Fuzzy whilst his lady owners were away from their Newlyn home, and ‘entertaining’ Bobby, a racing pigeon who decided to befriend us for a couple of weeks whilst he had rest from his travels. Jayne was hoping he would stay and bribed him with special pigeon food, but he still decided to go home.
Jayne has continued with her three days a week at Cornwall Wildlife Trust, which includes running their web site. This can be visited at http://www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk. Jayne also runs a web site for a local writer/publisher whose main interest is ‘Earth Mysteries’, and has just started her own ‘experimental’ site at http://www.dingdong.me.uk So why not check that out too.
By the time you read this I will have officially retired having finished working freelance for LWT in November. I’ve already been drawing my early retirement pension.
On the learning front the year’s major accolade goes to Jayne who passed her driving test (originally passing an automatic test some years ago, she took lessons on a manual in order to drive Eric – the Landrover – but still insists its only for emergencies).
Natural history activities have included a one-day beetle course, identifying moths caught in a light trap, and more field trips with local naturalist Dr Paul Gainey. I completed a second term of my astronomy course in preparation for the ‘main event’ - the solar eclipse. On the big day it was typical Cornish weather – cloudy. It did get dark though!
We have decided to celebrate the new millennium by getting our own dog(s), although probably not until late next year. They should keep us both busy!
That’s all for now, so best wishes for the festive season from
Roger & Jayne
