desenrascanço (and the geringonça)

 

 yesterday rain, lots of rain. the chickens, the sheep and the wild birds seemed stoical about it

in the afternoon (2pm) strong winds. horsemouth does hope it doesn't bring down the half-felled silver birch up on the common or that, if it falls, it doesn't take out the fence while the sheep are visiting (leading to a mass sheep escape and other horrors). the falling silver birch has already smashed a large  branch of a closer tree (horsemouth has cut the smaller branches off it but chain-sawing it up will have to wait for someone with those skills). 

it rained quite a bit (rainbows), horsemouth went out to make sure the cess pit wasn't flooded (or flooded any more than it had been by the swimming pool developing on top of it). he cut a little drainage channel with a spade to drain the water from the top of it away faster, he cut another one to divert the spring that seemed to have opened up in the banking above it away from it. 

here horsemouth was following desenrascanço - a portuguese problem solving strategy of' 'using something which you have next to you' to untangle yourself from the net of circumstances, with a smart, quick, and improvised solution. there's a lot of this in portugal, a product of the salazar years, the FMI years, and then, in answer to  EU austerity, the geringonça, the 'contraption' -  the lashed together government of the left. 

horsemouth went up onto the common to cut through some obstructions to the water flowing away downhill faster (downstream be damned - or at least flooded) through the drainage ditch deepened by his father round the foot of the hedge.  he'll take another look in the morning. he didn't make any specific journeys out up on the common for a walk (it was just raining too hard). 

he has added no more to his diary today (in part because the table he drew out to help clarify his thinking on insulation covered a two page spread). he did, however, listen to a podcast episode about notebooks . 

horsemouth is awake. he has his coffee. bbc weather says the day doesn't look too bad (and tomorrow even better). 

soon (end of the month - candlemass eve) it will be the anniversary of the source of all good things aka. brexit. it was the pivotal moment when we proud brits took back control of our borders and worked out how to fund the NHS properly (this is horsemouth being sarcastic in the light of subsequent events).  that went well. 

horsemouth was in porto (having a whale of a time) when the result of the referendum was announced. seldom has he felt more discouraged.  the deep state failed in its historic task of thwarting the democratic will of the 52% of people who voted by kicking the ball into touch and so brexit actually happened (to the extent that something so nebulous can actually happen).