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Yes ! it really is me emerging from my literary hibernation . I had been meaning to get round to it , but something always seemed more urgent . The words were buzzing around in my head , never loud enough to prompt action ; until now ! Perhaps I had just run out of all the things that needed doing around the house ; and thus excuses . So here I go.
Value : “ the regard that something is held to deserve : the importance , worth or usefulness of something “. This is clearly an individual thing ,relative to circumstances and varying in time and space .
For the traveller in the desert , that bottle of water cannot be valued ; it could be the difference between life an death. It was beginning to feel that way at home , ok that is a bit of an exaggeration ! Our house is not connected to mains water , relying solely on our own supplies . The principal one is a 130 m deep bore hole , and that just stopped pumping anything but sand. No panic , we have a standby 15m deep well in the woods , and that was ( and is ) half full .
So water restored enough to clear out all the fine silt throughout the house plumbing . The four in line filters had removed the sand . But then that pump supply couldn’t maintain a minimum pressure . It would seem that whereas it had been good enough for watering the garden , the starting pressure was too low for the upstairs facilities. Not a catastrophe , I have yet another pump which takes water from the pool , originally to fight potential fires ; but connected to the house provided enough for all except potable use. Well at least for the next 200 days … if we are careful.
To eke out the volume ; the pool had its winter cover put back, we showered in a plastic basin , and use that water to flush the loos . Our off site laundry service does more and live in guests discouraged . Fortunately we have no holiday rentals this year. …Oh and AC units proved enough to water the pots , at least when it is hot and humid.
A lowering of the pool revealed the principal cause of our discomfort . A pipe had sprung a leak hidden within the wall , but now clearly visible . We would never had known this without lowering the water level by using the pool for our house supply ; in normal use the pool has an automatic refill. Consequential actions are :
- Repair pipe , and pool lining .
- Meter main water demands .
- Change pump in the well in the woods so that it provides proper alternative supply
- Install a level controller so that the borehole stops before the sand in the bottom .
- Provide a large tank to settle out and silt and sand
- Provide another large tank as a buffer volume to even out demand on the bore hole .
- Install a separate feed to all the toilets from our recycled water , thus permanently reducing water demand on the borehole.
- Limit garden planting to that than can be sustained by the now reduced recycled water volume .
- Continue to capture the condensation water from the AC units .
Phew , no wonder I have had no time for artistic pursuits .
So back to that Penny Black . This was apparently the first adhesive stamp issued in Britain , in 1840 . An envelope with just such a stamp , fetched £ 2 million in auction . To some person with what looks like infinite wealth , it was considered to have that value . To the desert traveller , and most people in the world , it is valueless.
The author’s partner collects stamps ; no not that Penny Black , but first day commemorative covers issued by The Post Office . Her collection spans many decades , and with an increasingly varied range of subjects , from Black Adder , Pepper Pig and now of course King Charles III. Reflecting a modern monarch his subjects include the Commonwealth , diversity and sustainability . Stamps valuable to her and other numismatics .
Gazing into my collectors eyes across the table at our 55th wedding anniversary celebration , I was reminded of what true value is ; family and friends
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