A late entry

An entry prompted by the washing line antics of reference 1.

One of the options for the troublesome washing line, was to replace it. The idea being to simply lift it out of its socket in its foundation concrete block and pop a new one in. Assuming that is, that the new pole is not too big for the old socket. Too small one can usually cope with; too big, more tricky.

And at least once, I have dug such concrete blocks out of the ground and replaced them, but I am not sure that I am up for that now. A rather small example of the genre is to be found at reference 2.

On this occasion, a first step was to see if the pole could be moved in its socket. I remembered that I had a chain wrench - and dug it out to find it was more toy than wrench. I thought I had a real one - or at least more real than the one snapped above, complete with handle extension to give me a bit more leverage. But all I achieved was tearing a bit of paint off the base of the pole without shifting it. I could have deployed one of my Stillsons, but decided that getting the pole out was likely to proved fatal for the pole, which seemed a bit drastic. Not quite at that point yet.

Moving on, past the odd trolley in town, a visit to the Screwfix whitebeam.

And the blackberries blocking the entrance to the garage adjacent.

And so to another interesting plant in the instant garden in Manor Green Road.

Google Images (GI) started off quite well, opting for Persicaria polymorpha and Arundo donax 'Variegata' above.

But then there was the matter of the label, illegible in my snap, but the first two words were probably 'Arundo donax'. GI had a valiant attempt at the third word, explaining exactly why he first opted for 'Macrophylla' and then back to 'Variegata'. I thought he was clearly wrong both times: he was trying too hard on the information available to him and he would have done better to have said 'don't know'. Gemini falls into the same trap from time to time.

PS: I find this afternoon that I could pay a lot more than I expected for a real chain wrench, despite the handle looking a bit short for heavy lifting. But the credit card didn't even twitch. I must be losing my taste for spending serious money on such things.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/08/washing-line-middle-game.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/07/a-familiar-object.html.

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