D.O.P.-T. (yesterday)

The fence has been taken down around the replacement for the pool in the park. Two big buildings, one decorated with a mural, and a children's play structure can be seen in the back. I don't know whether the pool itself is ready; the problem always was that they couldn't find lifeguards to work for the pittance they offered, so I imagine we will continue to have a pool that's never actually open. Great pity, because families continue to move in around the park and I'm sure all the kids would love to use it. I would have loved to swim laps in the old pool. They have at least tried to make it fun: keeping up the sea-life theme that the park has always had, there's a red octopus on a rock outside the buildings. Children were already clambering on it when I first saw it. A couple of days later, there was no one so I took the dog to have a look, and discovered the octopus is wearing footwear, a different kind on each tentacle. And there's an alligator beside it, with a peg leg and footwear. The dog sniffed the footwear, but was fascinated by the mulch around the new plantings.

D.O.P.-T.

The dog barked repeatedly out my front window in the early hours as I was trying to write. I closed the door to my room and the housemate appears to have slept through it, but I hate to think what the neighbours thought; finally I held the dog's collar and pulled out the brick and let the window fall closed, so it was a hot night. This time I managed to see what the issue was: two or three small stripey tails clustered on the tree where it rises above the porch eaves. The bandits have been bringing their kids over to enjoy our porch.