And a new one.
There was a wasps’ nest in our local letterbox. So apologies to those folk who felt we’d dallied a little in getting your book and membership orders out to you. I know this sounds a little like “the dog ate my homework” kind of excuse, but truth was our postie refused to collect from it until some young lady exterminator from Aberystwyth had sorted things with a big stick. I did, at one point, poke my endoscope camera down there to see them sitting there. The parcels that is not the wasps – they were too busy asking me if I’d mind awfully going away. Anyway, wasps relocated now and the packages have been delivered.
In an effort to sort my work-life balance so that it weighs almost completely on the side of life, my feet have barely touched the ground this summer. Jollys here, trips away there, pub crawls everywhere. And whilst I was out and about I took the opportunity to visit a few old friends. I don’t have many friends so what I really mean is telegraph poles. And it’s arguably my relationship with telegraph poles that leads to me having no friends in the first place. And the damned “e” key is sticking again on this laptop. And the “a” key.
Little gallery below for you to peruse. You might recognise the first picture – it featured as January in our 2024 calendar. I go this way to walk into the wilderness beyond “Soar y Mynydd” chapel. I keep hoping to be handed some stone tablets with words of wisdom carved on to them whilst I’m up there but so far, nothing. Next up was my favourite, and arguably the world’s best “B” road – the B5105. The lovely little run of vintage poles between Ruthin and Clawddnewydd are largely still there. Some hiding in trees to avoid the poling gangs who would brutally yank them up and replace with a tarry vanilla job. Not unlike that which you see in the next picture. A brand new pole. 9 metre Medium pole preserved in 2025 and, according to the Openreach rule book nailed next to it, was planted just 3 weeks before my visit. This one is at the beautifully named Burlingjobb in Powys. Finally, more wilderness walks – high up into the Radnor Hills, over the delightful but windy “Whimble” and on up to Black Mixen. The Radnors seem to have a monopoly on great names for their hills. Anyway this power pole is the last of the run before the cable to Black Mixen telecom tower goes underground. So windy here it requires 5 stay wires (only 4 visible in this pic). This path, incidentally, borders the Harley Dingle explosive and ammunition testing ground which makes for some interesting flashes and bangs some days as they test out the very latest in Royal Mail Postbox Wasp clearing ordnance.
