Not a lot of people know that I once stood as a Green Party candidate for a by-election in North Wales. I didn’t win. Nor did I come second. I don’t think third was what I was either. But I wasn’t last. And at the count the returning officer asked us all to say a few words to the gathered press and onlookers. This took me by surprise so I donned my soothsaying cloak of flabberghastion and defiantly declared that whilst they probably hadn’t voted for me today they would all be voting green one day. Talk about bold proclamation!
Anyway, it’s the soothsaying bit I’m trying to get to. I am in receipt of the photos you see below from two women correspondents. Both of whom move in high echelons. You know, meetings in boardrooms, with carafes of specially stilled water on oaken tables; white boards on the wall, minutes taken, the lot. If I had soothseen twenty years ago that one day they would be sending photos of telegraph poles to a strange man in Wales they would have laughed in my face.
And yet, here they are: Carter Wall, we have discussed before, is a mover and shaker in the supply of American energy. She is heavily into sustainable energy (me too in a saving-the-butt-ends-of-candles kind of way) and she lives at arguably the best address ever: Rattlesnake Gutter, Massachusetts. Carter was walking with her sister at Yarmouth Port on Cape Cod when they spotted the Heath Robinson splinted half-cocked pole replacement affair you see here. It was her sister, knowing of Carter’s history with this society, who suggested sending it to us. “Indeed, it’s an interesting conundrum for the pole-setter” she says, “a tight site with no room to set a new pole next to the old one as they usually do. Tough job.” Indeed.
Pippa, the sender of the other two pics is a former colleague of mine who must be surprised herself that not only does she remember me, but that she has developed herself an eye for poles. All the while supporting Tottenham Hotspur. You couldn’t make this stuff up. The dawn/dusk pole below is reminiscent of our very own February photo from the TPAS 2023 calendar. Now sold out, alas. Or should that be hooray? The second photo is taken through a train on St. Kitts. Alas, these last two came to me via social media and so suffered horribly from their compression algorithms. Without further ado, thank you Pippa and Carter:
