More leylandii action

As suggested at reference 1, the leylandii performance continued yesterday, this time from the extension roof. Again with the full pole: saw left, long handle pruners centre, hook right.

Snap not improved by the summer sun dropping down to the right.

I was surprised how much easier it was to work from the roof; much easier than dancing about on the top of the ladder. I can see why builders like to work off scaffolds and platforms. I was, for example, able to get much cleaner cuts with the pole saw, having the thing under much better control.

And the saw has earned its keep. Well worth the £50 I paid for it, even for just this one outing.

The view out of the study this morning, with just a few strays which I could not reach yesterday. To be compared with the view at the top of reference 2.

PS 1: all this in parallel with bread batch No.755, which turned out very well with two good looking, large loaves. Excellent texture and taste: oven cold start is clearly the way forward.

PS 2: and while I remember, a couple of pieces about cocoa from the Financial Times at references 3 and 4. It seems that the government concerned, initially trying to help cocoa farmers by stabilising the price of their crop, ending up being greedy and pushing said farmers into cocoa trafficking, which takes much the same form as drug smuggling. Which serves to remind us that governments need to be careful when they meddle with the affairs of the man in the street: there are a lot of them and some of them are going to push back. From where I jump to migrants: there are a lot of people out there who want to migrate from bad parts of the world to good parts of the world, and you are not going to be able to stop anything like all of them. And you are not going to be able to stop all the criminals who are helping them on their way. All this quite apart from any humanitarian or staffing-up concerns that one might have.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/08/leylandii-action.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/01/frost.html.

Reference 3: Chocolate cartels: the rise of cocoa smuggling: Surging global prices have fuelled an illicit bean trade ‘like cocaine in Colombia’ - Susannah Savage, Financial Times - 2025.

Reference 4: Why rocketing cocoa prices are not benefiting West Africa’s farmers: Global boom fails to reach the industry’s heartlands, leaving ageing plantations vulnerable to disease and lack of investment  - Susannah Savage, Financial Times - 2025.