Taming the Monster

Well, Tor did show up yesterday, despite the rainy weather. We set him loose on the monstrous shrub next door, and he took care of the problem.

We went from this:

To this:

While I am normally a naturalistic gardner, preferring things growing somewhat wildly as opposed to super-manicured, that bush was getting way, way out of hand. We could barely even use the patio. We are so happy with Tor's trim job.

(Incidentally, I warned the neighbor's gardener we were going to cut it back to the fence, and he said it would be fine. It's apparently a notoriously vigorous plant. He says he trims the neighbor's side every two weeks.)

Tor also took care of some trimming elsewhere in the garden, and then I raked all the leaves from our walnut tree. Autumn clean-up: Check!

(Top photo: A leaf from our Japanese maple on a broken piece of garden pottery.)

Autumn Heath and Home Improvements

I took Olga to Hampstead Heath yesterday, where the autumn colors are starting to trend more toward brown. She and I weren't able to take a long walk last weekend, and she was bouncing off the walls yesterday morning, looking at me with expectant eyes. How could I say no?

But wait, you ask -- didn't I have French class yesterday morning? Well, yes, and I really did intend to go. I got dressed, ate breakfast, got my books together and walked to the tube station -- only to realize I'd forgotten my wallet, with my farecard in it. So there was nothing to do but walk back home, and by the time I did that, all enthusiasm for attending French (there wasn't much anyway) had subsided.

Taking Olga to the Heath seemed like a much better option.

And Olga agreed.

Meanwhile, this is going on in front of our house:

The water company came and dug up the street -- something about replacing a clamp on a leaking pipe or something like that. It doesn't really affect us much, but the work has blocked in the car of our upstairs neighbors. I hope they weren't planning to drive anywhere soon! Yesterday the labor crew came and filled in a lot of the hole, but there are still barricades and they say the work will be finished later this week.

Today we have a guy coming to trim the shrubbery in the back garden. It's more than we can handle, given our limited access to garden tools and ladders, and we haven't had it done since right after we moved in. This guy put a flyer through our letterbox several weeks ago offering his services as a tree trimmer, so we gave him a call. He barely speaks English -- he's Eastern European and looks so much like B-movie actor Tor Johnson that we call him "Tor," at least when he's not around. (He goes by Nick.) Anyway, it's supposed to be rainy this morning so he may not show, but I hope he does. We definitely need to whip things into shape in the garden. One of the neighbor's climbing rose bushes is tumbling over the patio fence like a tentacled B-movie monster, and Tor Johnson is just the man to defeat it.

The Bergdahl Report

Yesterday I finished Season 2 of the Serial podcast, this one about Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier captured and held for five years by the Taliban after walking off his Army post in Afghanistan. On its face, it seems like a happy story -- a rare case of a U.S. captive being brought back alive from extremists in the Middle East. I remember when Bergdahl's recovery was announced by the White House. I was surprised we'd gotten him back.

But the story quickly got politicized, with critics of President Obama arguing over the prisoner swap that led to Bergdahl's release, and the circumstances of his initial disappearance. (I wrote sympathetically about him back then, too.) Bergdahl -- who apparently intended his disappearance as a protest against what he saw as dangerous Army leadership -- was labeled a deserter, maybe even a traitor, and there's still controversy about what should happen to him now that he's been brought back to the United States. He's due to be court-martialed for desertion.

I guess it makes sense to put him through some sort of judicial process, in order to sort out the circumstances of the case. But it seems to me that the guy has been punished enough. I mean, holy cow, five years in a series of dark hidey-holes in Pakistan? That surpasses any humane punishment the U.S. could inflict. I hope if he is found guilty of a crime, his sentence is suspended or he's given time served. He's done his time, don't you think?

It seems that people with a military background are particularly fierce about punishing Bergdahl. Some argue that he led to the deaths of other soldiers, though the Serial reporters could never really substantiate that charge. I have no military experience, nor does anyone in my family, so maybe that's why I tend to lean toward leniency. I just think, enough is enough. Let him move on with his life.

(Photo: Wimbledon, last weekend.)

Turkish in Shoreditch

Dave and I went to dinner last night with an old friend from New York -- a guy I know from the Zendo I used to attend. (If this sounds familiar it's because I went to dinner with a different Zendo friend about a month ago. So much to keep track of, I know.) Anyway, Jesse is in London for a computer programming conference and his partner Jennifer came along too, so I got to meet her. She's the author of the recently published "Seinfeldia," which looks pretty darn interesting for those of us who have lingering fascinations with marble rye, big salads and puffy shirts, but I haven't read it yet.

They're staying at an Air B-and-B near Brick Lane, and as we walked to dinner we found this wild piece of street art, which I couldn't resist.

We walked until we found a restaurant that looked good -- a Turkish place, in this case -- and settled in for some lively conversation about the election. I think Jesse was a little over it, actually, but it's such fertile ground for discussion we couldn't steer clear. (Sorry, Jesse!) In retrospect I wish I'd learned more about Jennifer's books (she did one about The Mary Tyler Moore Show too). I'm sure we could have bonded over classic TV.

Anyway, it was a fun evening despite the mortifying politics! At least we were all mortified in the same direction.

Speaking of mortification, I've been meaning to complain that our London retailers started their Christmas marketing right after Halloween. Is this happening in the states, too? The following Saturday, Nov. 5, I went to coffee with a friend before my French class and was shocked to find Christmas decals in the cafe windows and carols playing in the background. It's just wrong, people. In the states we have the barrier of Thanksgiving, which sort of kicks off the Christmas retailing season -- but here there is no such barrier so it begins absurdly early! I couldn't even begin to think about Christmas at the beginning of November.

Garden Cam

Time to check in on the garden cam! We've had it sitting out a couple of weeks, and here are some of the 900-plus photos we captured. (Yes, I know, the time and date are totally incorrect. I need to reset them.)

Hello, curious squirrel on a rainy day!

And hello, sneaky nocturnal fox.

Here I am, in my snazzy Missoni bathrobe, feeding the squirrels and birds in the backyard saucer. I bought that bathrobe with a birthday check from my dad when I lived in New York. Best bathrobe I ever owned.

Here are the pigeons that swoop in as soon as I step away, along with the big boss crows that try their best to hog all the food. (The vast majority of our garden cam pictures are of pigeons.)

Someone's random black cat made a pass through the garden, no doubt looking for all those pigeons and squirrels. It's looking toward the house, where Olga was probably going ballistic.

The magpies, quite snooty, prefer to keep their backs to the camera.

But the pigeons have no such pride.

Oh, hello again!

The Hangnail

I took Olga to the vet yesterday morning before work. As I mentioned, she tore one of her dew claws Sunday while chasing her Kong toy. The claw bled a little, protruded from her leg at a weird angle and caused her enough pain that she would quiver while lying next to us on the couch.

The vet took one look at it and said, "That will have to come off." So I left Olga with him for the day, and he sedated her, removed the cracked claw (not the entire digit -- just the nail, which will grow back in time) and put a sort of bootie on her foot to protect the wound. He also gave her a round of antibiotics.

That sounds like a lot of drama for what's essentially a hangnail, but hey -- Olga is a dramatic dog!

When Dave picked her up yesterday afternoon, she was still a bit groggy from the sedative. She slept yesterday evening. This morning we'll remove the bootie and she should be good to go, though we cancelled her dog walk today so she could take it easy.

Meanwhile, on the political front, I find myself still wrestling to process last week's election. I've backed away from certain posts on Facebook and tried to limit my news intake to the essentials.

The reality of the situation hits me in waves. One minute I'll think, "Well, let's just see what happens. Don't jump to conclusions. Maybe this won't be so terrible." I'm trying to approach things with a Zen mind of openness. And then I'll wonder how a Democracy can function when voters are uninformed (or misinformed), in a society where news outlets that strive for objectivity (particularly newspapers) are dwindling in a bad business climate of shrinking ad revenue.

And I marvel at the degree of incivility Americans have come to tolerate in our society -- most notably from the new commander in chief. We used to demand respectability and basic politesse from our candidates. How did we get to this place, and where will it lead us?

It's all so surreal.

For the sake of diversion, Dave and I have been watching "The Crown" on Netflix, the new series about the first years of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. Did you know up to 12,000 people died from air pollution in London in a 1952 event known as "The Great Smog"? Let's hear it for modern clean-air legislation. Take note, Donald Trump!

(Photo: A car Olga and I found on our morning walk last Friday. I haven't seen it before or since.)

Richmond Park

A few more photos from my walk Sunday through Wimbledon and Richmond. Above, a Wimbledon pub -- appropriately named, considering the local sport of note.

My mission for the day was to go to Richmond Park. It's the largest of the eight so-called Royal Parks, and includes forests, nature reserves and wildlife conservation areas as well as a golf course, hiking and biking trails and other activities.

It's best known for its herds of deer. This group was just hanging out in a field, grazing and wandering. People were getting pretty close to them -- closer than I felt comfortable getting, because they are wild animals, after all, with big antlers -- but the deer seemed accustomed to the attention.

After seeing the park, I walked through the town of Richmond, which sits on the Thames just south of Kew Gardens. There's a pretty park on bluffs overlooking the river, where I found some poor woman's bank debit card lying on the ground. I called the bank using the number on the card and asked them what I should do -- they told me to cut up the card and they'd cancel it and send the owner a replacement. So hopefully I kept someone from being defrauded.

Here's a view of the river from one of the bridges in town.

I was going to stay in Richmond for lunch, but despite the fact that it was about 2 p.m. and I'd hoofed it 7.5 miles, I wasn't that hungry. So I just took the tube home and ate there. All in all, a good, long walk on a beautiful (and rare, for this time of year) sunny day!

We're having a little drama at home this morning -- a few days ago Olga injured the dew claw on her left front foot while chasing her Kong toy. Last night it bled a little and now she seems to be in pain, so I'm taking her to the vet today. I think she may have a little infection going. I'll give you an update tomorrow!