Yesterday I was carrying the yard waste bags out to the street and I noticed this ladybug (aka ladybird) on one of the discarded stems of the dusty miller (Senecio). I gently broke off that leaf and brought it back to the main plant in the garden, where the ladybug took refuge. I probably disturbed its winter hibernation by trimming away some of the foliage where it was concealed. Hopefully it will find a new retreat until spring comes.
I had to come home yesterday at lunch because our boiler has been leaking and we had a repair scheduled. It only started dripping last week, but by Sunday the leak was worse and I thought, "We can't go away to Spain with this thing dripping like that!" I called British Gas yesterday morning and got a repair window of noon to 6 p.m. I stayed here for the first part of the shift, and Dave relieved me around 1:30 p.m. so I could get back to work. Martin, the engineer, was here by mid-afternoon and our boiler is once again watertight.
It's always something.
Meanwhile, the roofers working on the house next door set up a picnic lunch in the street, right in front of our steps. I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone eat lunch in the street before. I wondered why they didn't use the parking space in front of the house (it's full of roofing supplies, I realized later) or the back garden (maybe too wet). Anyway, they didn't seem to mind.
On the way home in the evening I stopped on Finchley Road for a bubble tea (I get the taro milk with tapioca beads). When this place first opened several years ago it was quite swanky, but now it's looking a little downtrodden. I still like their stuffed bubble-tea toys, even though they are themselves bearing the stains of spilled bubble tea.
I guess when you work outdoors all the time you can't be too picky about where to spend your lunch break, as long as you can have a break at all and get something to eat.
ReplyDeleteThe ladybug photo is wonderful!
Heading home to wait for the boilerman... I bet Big Boss Woman was seething inside.
ReplyDeleteI would have sat on the front steps. Then again, I couldn’t get my legs into most of those positions and be comfortable. The dirty bubble tea animals would turn me off. Then again, bubble tea turns me off. Nice of the boiler to do what I did and get repaired before you leave.
ReplyDeleteSaving insects. I think you might be turning into a Boddhisattva, learning to save all sentient beings. Compassion for all living creatures. The photo of the picnickers is great as well.
ReplyDeleteI guess the roofers are foreign born. I like the way people from some countries just love to share their food with others, as I experience daily.
ReplyDeleteI like the picnic photo. It is not something I see everyday and wish was more common in my culture.
ReplyDeleteI see our crews of construction workers setting up impromptu lunch spots, all with homemade food, and sharing freely. But construction workers have always done this. When my brother was a brick layer, in the UK, they used to lunch on the site, make a fire in winter and toast their sandwiches on a shovel over it.
ReplyDeleteI like the same flavor of bubble tea - love it even more when it is frozen enough that the tapioca pearls are frozen too. I tried the coffee flavor - once. That was a no-go.
ReplyDeleteWhen you're a roofer you eat when and wherever you can!
ReplyDeleteAnd what is bubble tea? I'm seeing drinkable tea or bath beads ....
A street picnic with a tablecloth, no less - very sophisticated.
ReplyDeleteNice pictures. There is a gracious generosity with the street picnic. Here we seem on the verge of losing that.
ReplyDeleteWhen we got a new roof (two years ago?), at noon the workers would come down the ladders and get their lunches out of their vehicles and sit together, eating what they had brought. And then some of them would find a shady spot and lie down for a very brief nap. They worked so hard and I was always glad to see them get that little break in what was a very long day.
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