A slide show in the rain.

I have to decide whether to make a slide show out of my show of slides, or let it slide?

My jungle gym is certainly growing in numbers of options to descend from it at speed. The latest was obtained on an expedition to the Wild West (or the Wilds of Westville) where I had to effect an unlawful entry to get it.

You see, on my recent visit to a garden yet to be featured, on a stream edging on a nature reserve and with towering cliffs above, I noticed a dumped slide and ladder, and wondered why they were no longer set up for use. The owner said the kids had grown up, and he had been trying to get rid of them (slide and ladder, not kids) but nobody had come to collect. Did I want them?

I did, indeed, and managed to arrange with a friend with a delivery vehicle to help me fetch them. By the time I put the transport together the slide owner was holidaying in the Kruger National Park, but he said I should phone him when I got to his gate and he would open it from there using his phone.

The trip went well — but then there was no reply from his mobile! All that I could see of the vast property seemed devoid of human life.  I left several messages on the phone, but the gate continued to eye me in complacent non-opening mode.

Eventually I found a place where the high fence around the property had a small hole. By dint of lots of wiggling I got through and went to seek the caretaker-cum-guard. After much searching and yelling, I traced him, doing tasks unknown, deep in the forest.  I managed to convince him that I had been authorised to slide off with the slide, he opened the gate and loaded, and I slid off.

The best place to add it on was, unfortunately, where grows a prehistoric human-stabbing plant called a cycad. I have pruned it away sufficiently and only bled a little bit in the process. Lopping will have to be at regular intervals to avoid having wounded children around. There are enough opportunities for that to occur in other parts of the jungle gym, so augmenting them is not a good idea.

Finally, on Monday, we got the good rains we have been hoping for and the pool is up to optimum levels again. The process was happening while I was trying to install and take photos of the new slide, so it is only to be expected that the scene looks a bit washed out.

The slide show of slides:

The slide show in time-saving Gallery mode:
(Actually, I don’t know why I bothered with the YouTube?)

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© May 2018 Colonialist

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