Compost bin

Emptying time again, seemingly after a two year gap. See reference 1.

Made a start on day one, with the back of the wooden front covered with an impressive array of green slugs and small wood louse. Removal involving, as before, the spike of the trusty knife, described as army surplus, illustrated at reference 1. Front reasonably fragile with lots of rot in what had been some treated timber from the roof of our garden shed. Black staining the result of years of roofing felt sitting on top. Or had they economised on treatment on the grounds that being covered by the felt, the roof timber did not need to be treated?

Back of front

Failed to get the front off again in one piece at the start of day two, so propped up for repairs later. Note the yellow fish box right, given top billing at reference 2.

Reject compost

Compost generally in good condition, well rotted down. Lots of roots from neighbouring trees and bushes. Various half rotted books, mainly in French, rejected. Various bones, a left over from our more seriously meat eating days, rejected. The odd cork, curiously rot resistant, rejected as BH has a marked aversion to them in her flower beds. Oddly, although the compost was mainly rather damp and dark brown, there was a scattering of light, dry patches, rather as if something had been nesting there - although it was hard to see how any four legged animal could have made it down to the depths without leaving traces on the surface.

Barrow

One of the dozen or so barrows of compost removed, not sieved but scattered as it was across various favoured spots in the back garden.

A favoured spot

The ivy will soon grow back over the compost - which just slows it down a but. It then seemed a good opportunity for the proper burial of a couple more long un-read books. Better than being dumped in a family skip after our demise, their likely fate otherwise.

Art books

I selected a couple of art books from my father's collection, probably more or less un-looked at for more than half a century now. Leonardo and Donatello. Printed in the middle of the second world war, a reminder that even that war was not that total - and I remember reading that the Germans were a good less total than we were: Hitler did not forget that at the time he came to power Germany had a strong left wing, a big working class contingent which needed to be appeased. Paper tiger though it had proved to be. I imagine the clipping, from a magazine called 'Illustrated - July 29 1944', perhaps the sort of thing used in a dentist's waiting room, that is to say my father's or his brother in law's waiting room, had been saved for the picture of a cat playing with a near dead mouse on the other side - but one can never be too sure about these things. Two of the dozen or so such books on the shelf, published by the Phaidon mentioned in connection with Las Vegas at reference 3. For the magazine, see reference 4.

Cortana seems to have decided to focus on the coarse, grey cloth of the binding, leaving the printed word a bit fuzzy. I had expected better.

Visible mend

The patched front. Luckily I still had some of the very same tarred shed timber left in the garage. Note the end of the balancing beam left, to be redeployed in time for Monday's small visitor.

Job done

At the end of day two, job done for another year. Perhaps just the one year on this occasion, as I did not get right to the back. And whenever that next occasion is, the front panel is going to need replacing. The thin tongue and grooved planks are already in a bad way and the connecting battens of two by two are not in much better case, despite appearances.

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/search?q=chb.

Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/02/gutting-fish-in-dublin.html.

Reference 3: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/03/fortean-times.html.

Reference 4: http://www.vintagebritishstyle.com/illustrated.htm.