Mechanical failures

Orion was striding across the southern sky just before 6am this morning, out hunting with his little dog Procyon.

Later in the morning, Anthony, Gabriel and I assembled the new exercise bike, to check all parts were present and correct... which they weren't. One plastic part had had a hole punched in the wrong place, so a replacement will be sent. Worcester is only 4-5 miles from Mucknell, and it's pretty flat, so I'll probably be on a proper bike occasionally. An exercise bike could be symbolic of the Benedictine vow of stability (assuming we've tightened the bolts sufficiently), or to my mind the whichever circle of Purgatory!

Then in the afternoon, we took the new strimmers to Mucknell, to start clearing the grass and thistle and dock around the new trees. After two minutes, the fancy green cord on the wheely one broke, and we'd brought no spares - duh! After 20 minutes, the cord on the hand-held got twisted inside and a grommet came out. So all in all, not very successful. There are places in Devon where one can buy and learn how to use scythes, and Roger Deakin described his scythe lovingly in 'Notes from Walnut Tree Farm'. I can't help thinking a scythe would be a better option, for the planet too.

And finally, the man came to look at the boiler in the coach house, and find out why it was tripping the electrics; the electrician said the problem was 'in that area'. Except that he couldn't find anything wrong with the boiler or controls. The heating is back on and everything seems to be working OK now, and the power outage will have to remain a mystery.