Things that go bump in the night.

Another day of quiet routine, a walk to the shops, a walk around the park, but conscious of having more of a spring in my step. The wound continues to remain quiet, hardly any pain or discomfort. The latest round of surgery, although focused on attention to detail, seems to be leading to a general improvement. I think my body isn't having to keep that low level infection at bay now, and it leaves me feeling years younger than I really am, rather than years older!

We were out in the garden this afternoon, discussing the local garden birds with our neighbour Liz, when she asked if I heard a bump in the dark before dawn. I think I must have been sound asleep at the time - being more comfortable at night now means some of my sleeping spells are pretty deep. Also as it's the eve of Diwali, fireworks had been let off earlier. She pointed up to the roof above the bedroom I sleep in. There was an object projecting from the gutter. 

I checked this out from the attic window, and sure enough there was a flat grey piece of stone lodged there, about six inches long and two inches wide, with a rough surface and edges. It had the colour of our native Pennant sandstone. It landed with a noise loud enough for Liz to notice, but there was no sign of impact damage on fragile slates above, or a bang with a scraping noise if it then slid down the the roof. How very unusual! Where did it come from?

There are no Pennant sandstone surfaces on any of the buildings in our immediate neighbourhood. All back yard wall surfaces are concrete rendered, slate or brick. Some of the garden walls in the lane are Pennant however. Acid rain and frost does cause stone surfaces to flake. That can account for the kind of stone in the gutter. Nobody was about, or could be within throwing range of a gutter thirty feet up. Only a big gull or crow would be able to pick up and object and fly with it before dropping it, and they can be active just before first light. A loose flake of stone with a snail or two stuck to the inside could perhaps be dislodged by a big birds beak and carried away to remove the edible content, then dropped. It's the only explanation I can come up with.

Clare was a bit nervous about sending her song video files to the Carnival band website, as it meant having to sign up to the 'We Transfer' file sharing site. I sat with her while she followed the instruction sheet she printed off, but she completed the task without much more than encouraging noises from me. All, I hasten to add, because of the simplicity and ease of use of her Linux driven PC which never nags or distracts or confuses you at inopportune moments with messages irrelevant to the job in hand. Also the replacement solid state drive makes the device run faster than one ten years younger.