I wonder if he is the same one who came around here earlier in the year.
This time he didn’t stop for food and he didn’t stop to have a play around, he was just sitting down in the field. As soon as he heard me he was off, but this time I had the camera ready.
Mind you, he’ll need to be good. The hunting season has started already and I hate hunters. They are the scum of the earth. It’s no joke being woken up at 07:30 in the morning by the sound of a shotgun blast. If I had my way I would arm the wildlife and set them after the hunters – see how they like it.
I keep on telling Rhys – the American Constitution has been misinterpreted for years. What it actually says is that “Every American Shall Have The Right To Arm Bears”. That’s much more like it.
Meanwhile, here’s a pic of where I got up to yesterday with the pointing. I’ve done half of that row now. Today I did another quarter and I finished off by gouging out the loose sand for the final panel at that level.
Once I’ve pointed that I’ll have to stop as I will have run out of ladder. The other half of this one is the piece that is transformed into the roof ladder and Terry has that which he is using on someone’s roof.
But that’s not too much of a worry – In another 2 weeks I shall be in Canada living the Life of Reilly and before then there is something really important that I need to attend to which requires my absence from here for a day or two. It’s all go, isn’t it? So it’s not really worth starting on more if I’m not able to finish it off. When I come back it will be mid-November (gulp) and I’ll be ready for more encouragement from Ms Stephenson.
In other news, the other day Bill lent me a book on French railways, published by the SNCF. One section talks about viaducts but as you might imagine, in any publication by the SNCF about viaducts, the Viaduc des Fades is conspicuous by its absence, despite it being the highest railway bridge in the world when it was built, being currently the second-highest, and being the highest railway bridge in France, as well as being built using pioneering techniques. Knowing the French like I do and with all of their national pride, it’s hard to understand why they don’t talk about it. Probably because they are ashamed about their handling of the viaduct and don’t want to call attention to themselves.
But his book does talk about the 141R class of locomotives, the type that passed through Montlucon in the summer. I’ll extract some notes.
But here’s a puzzle for you. What is the significance of the 141? And why are some other locomotives of the 130 class, or maybe the 250 class? Or even the 031 class?
It suddenly struck me the other week when I was writing about it – can you remember?
