“Shall we stop for a bit?” asked one of the boys. “Yes, good thinking, we’ve been riding for ages.” “Such a good place here, and right by the nice village pond.” So, the two of them got off, and put their bikes down, then walked down to the pond.
“This is great, isn’t it,” grinned one of them. “Should we have a little paddle?” “We could, although it looks a bit deep, or at least a bit uncomfortable.” “Okay, let’s walk a little further.”
“Now look at this, this is fab!” “Gosh, this tree is ancient, isn’t it?” “It’s called a weeping willow tree, I think.” “Well, it looks like the Whomping Willow in Harry Potter’s Hogwarts school grounds.” “I do like that idea of that – a magical tree…” “… although that could be pretty dangerous.” The two of them grinned for a bit, then said together: “we’ll ride again.”
The two boys had just left that rather nice woman, who had said that she would be happy to see them some time in the future. “Fun, eh,” grinned one of the boys. “Oh yes, that huge house was amazing.” “It’s called The Old Hall.” “That’s right.” She had laughed a lot, since she said her name is Ms Hall. “Still, we need to get moving now,” as the two boys started to pedal more quickly.
Then they continued to bike by the little lane. “Look just over there. There’s two lovely cows who are munching in the long grass.” “But that’s not where they stay normally, surely?”
The two of them slowed down to see what was going on. “Oh look, that farmer is just there, he’s going to herd them back where they are supposed to be.” “Well, I’m saying, phew.” “Quite right.”
“Is this all for me?” she thought, as she opened the car door, and looked up and around. It was huge. She grabbed her phone and several pages of notes, then got out, closing and locking the door. “Habit,” she muttered to herself.”
The key was hidden under a big bush near the main door as the solicitor had said on email. She held it up for a moment, then poked the key in the lock.
It was dark inside, since all the windows had been bricked up. Still there was a large torch somewhere. But then she saw two young boys on their bikes appear.
“Hello,” said one of them. “Do you need some help?” “We can see it’s dark, but we’ve our front lights on our bikes and easy to remove them.”
She grinned back and said, “you’ll be handy, and you two will be my new friends!”
now this is a super scarlet ship and she’s massive and marvellous, she’s sleek and swift in the seas. there are many major operations on this fine vessel. so what’s next? shall we see?
it was a dangerous mission this time. the crew were clever as always, as the waves were lashing and moaning, but she was able to aid, for all, such a splendid, superb scarlet ship.
It’s so, so dry. Look at the grass, it’s brown. It’s dying or dead. Ridiculous! Actually it’s not just ridiculous, it’s rather worrying. I have never known a summer as scorching as this. Although 1976 was pretty similar. Gosh, that was a long time ago.
The worrying thing now though is this. It’s El Niño effect. And that is going to be brutal. It’s already beginning. There is drought, wildfires and heat waves too. Then on the other side there will be torrential rain with floods.
Now we need to think. Crops, livestock and infrastructure will reduce food production and disrupt markets. As supply falls, prices rise and food becomes less affordable. When combined with existing pressures such as conflict these climate shocks can quickly increase hunger.
so brace, brace and brace many things will be required let us keep alert