Speedy mussels and dogs

Awake after only 3h sleep, After Mr Dodsworths telephone call at 9am, the rest of the morning was occupied with catching up with correspondence accumulated over the weekend.

During my lunchtime break, I cleaned the front and back sides of the small marine aquarium, as well as rigorously brushing the barnacles on the mussel shell, to remove the encroaching algae. My vigorous activity in the tank had also dislodged some of the small mussels affixed to some dead bryozoan stems. I did not think much of the matter until half an hour later, when I noticed two flecks slowly dragging themselves across the inner front side of the tank.

Two mussels were in a migratory mode, using their foot to pull themselves across the surface. Most amazing was that the shell appreared to he held to the glass tank side, that is, the shells were not dangling from the foot. How this was achieved I could not discern. Their velocity was easily one shell length per 5 to 10 seconds, which at 4mm equates to 24mm per minute or 1.4m per hour, a respectable velocity for an organism usually considered immobile.

One mussel has since decided to stay on the front wall of the tank, the other had migrated out of view.

The afternoon spent on research for a German company until Mr D. Hutchings called for the keys to the house next door.

With no keys deposited with us at this time, I invited Mr Hutchings in for an afternoon beverage. Because he is trained and interested in culinary matters, we revisited the attempt to crystallize flower petals in sugar, previously attempted with the large and thick petals of the Magnolia tree at the end of our close. This time I used Rose petals whilst catching up on Mr Hutching's news. They were almost solidified after an hour of coating with sugar crystals, far speedier than the previous attempts!

The evening was shattered by the loud rotary chop-chop-chop of a helicopter hovering directly over our house. I immediately ran back in to get video and sound recorders to capture sights and sound. After a good 10 minutes, the helicopter finally departed in a graceful curve. The Milton Chat online suggested that this had been part of a police action to capture a man with a knife, who had also been in the local One-Stop store.

With the gaggle of neighbours growing in discussion of the helicopter's flight, Mr Cooper arrived with their black friendly dog, Ollie. Suddenly, there was the sound of an angry growl and Badger, the otherwise sedate and elderly neighbour's small terrier breed, came rocketing down the drive aiming and attacking the much larger interloper. Fortunately, intervention was swift and Badger removed in disgrace.

My evening was spent in idle familiarisation with submitting and publishing the book designed and tested yesterday to Amazon. The book is currently in review for 24h with Amazon, a standard procedure.