It was beautiful at sunrise, but absolutely freezing with a hard frost in the night.
My wood shredder is up and working. Makes a satisfying early morning noise. But my fingers were frozen, and so I came in to warm up.
But not before I'd had an idea. My bamboo is nice and thick (for canes next year), and needs thinning, and cutting down somewhat before we have a wet snow. Bamboo with heavy wet snow on it gets pushed to the ground. And can break and flatten any structure in its path. The bamboo however, once the snow melts, returns back to upright again. I know this, because it flattened a pagoda I had spent weeks and weeks that summer in my garden.
I have just cut some bamboo right down to the ground, and pre-tested my idea a bit, which is self-explanatory (I hope in my painting for today).
If you can't beat them, then join them. This will face his kitchen door and window. He has Xmas decorations, then I will have Xmas decorations. No Xmas lights on my side however. Just a barrier of colour and shapes and tinsel and baubles, which will be added to, until no flashing lights reach my bedroom window...
It was me saying to myself this morning, I can't do a thing about these flashing lights yet again from my horrid neighbour, BUT the rebel stirred up inside me, and said YES YOU CAN!
(Did I ever tell you about a teacher who whacked my head several times with the side of a ruler when I was about 5 years old? I was still in infant school then, and I was in the class for children who were backwards. I sobbed all day, my head was banging in pain. I didn't have the speech then to tell my parents, I hadn't been taught how to speak then. I was powerless. The next day I crept into the woodwork room. We had real children's sized saws, hammers, and nails in those days. I sawed the back legs of the teacher's chair as far as I was able. Hid the saw back in my skirt, and returned it to the woodwork room.
And went back outside in the playground. The teacher rang the brass handbell and we all stood in line and filed into the classroom. Then she sat on the chair. One leg collapsed, and she fell...
No one in the classroom dared laugh, and neither did I. The other children in the class had no speech, or not much speech. So she couldn't prove anything. No one had seen me do it, so no one looked in my direction.
Now, if a spunky 5 year old can do this, what business have I saying to myself at 71 years old that I am powerless? ).
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