{"id":54804,"date":"2025-08-02T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/?p=54804"},"modified":"2025-08-06T08:07:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T07:07:42","slug":"a-week-by-the-window-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/?p=54804","title":{"rendered":"A Week by the Window, Working"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/windows-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/windows-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Man looking out of a train window as it speeds through the countryside.\" class=\"wp-image-54803\" style=\"width:429px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/windows-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/windows-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/windows-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/windows-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/windows-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">At least this window moves &#8230;<br>Photo: Karin Mora<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Mathematician and I are on holiday next week(1), which means we\u2019ve seven days to tie up all our current projects. This translates to earlier starts and later finishes, with a little time spent by the window, gazing out like house cats wondering what\u2019s outside.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My desk(2) sensibly faces a wall of white ingrain wallpaper so hideous I\u2019ve no choice but to look at my screen. (Thank you Hugo Erfuhrt, German pharmacist and, apparently, domestic sadist. The UK and Ireland sensibly said, \u201cNah, mate,\u201d to this chaos-braille decades ago. The Germans, of course, hold on.)<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Distractions averted, then. Or are they? Eyes aren\u2019t the only data hoovers attached to my face. As the hours pass faster than progress bars, I tune into the odds and sods of The Outside World. Here\u2019s a list of the mind-latching minutiae.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There\u2019s a Redstart nesting behind the downpipe near the entrance to our building(3). I hear its <i>cheep<\/i> and rhythmic <i>chook<\/i> \u2014 its warning \u2014 when I open the window. I see it perched on the corner of the building opposite, looking down at a tabby cat. The cat calmly strolls up a nearby garden path. The Redstart follows, flying onto a metal fence and hopping half its length till the moggy&#8217;s gone.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>One crow preens another on a nearby roof ridge. Family?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Down the street, an elderly lady with a crutch rifles through a box of gifted items left on a low wall. She takes nothing, moves the box aside, and sits.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Redstart again, flying up from balcony to balcony of the building opposite till it\u2019s perched on the top floor gutter by a window with a cat plushy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>One night, I look out and see a little lump of shadow move from the pavement to the underside of a small red car. A moment later it pops out onto the road \u2014 a hedgehog! \u2014 and scurries across. It walks beneath our window, then up our garden path. Adorable! What timing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Two deaf men stand outside after supper, speaking heatedly with their hands.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A man and a girl skip down the street, singing a song together.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Several streets away, seen between houses, two giant silver birches catch the setting sun. Their bark\u2019s a bright fuse beneath wind-blown leaves. Perched at the top of one, a crow.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A Eurasian Green Woodpecker, far from the woods, calls out from some place I can\u2019t see. What I <i>can <\/i>see is the Great Spotted Woodpecker clutching the wall of a building across the street, below the eaves. It hammers at the fa\u00e7ade. I wonder what it sounds like inside.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Heavy cloud sits to the north, but here the ground is golden. For how long?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>One pigeon lands in a tree above where another perches, the branches bending under its weight. I look away, turning back when I hear them both fly off. The leaves where they were are now white and drooping. What did I miss?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A wasp comes in one window, scouts, and leaves by another. The four flies in the room learn nothing.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A rescue helicopter crosses east to west. A loud necessity.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A man crosses the street so slowly he seems to be wading. When he reaches the other side, a woman begins to cross behind him. Together-apart they walk to a door ten metres down and enter, or are swallowed.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>And that, as they say, is that. Or those. I\u2019m sure I missed a myriad but needs must.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m always surprised how much can be seen on a doorstep.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(1) Holiday: A predetermined number of freely-assignable days in which you may pursue your \u2018work or die\u2019 agenda at a more leisurely pace. Excursions a possibility.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(2) <a href=\"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/?p=54796\" title=\"\">Last week<\/a>&#8216;s hot topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(3) I went outside to buy supplies. We\u2019re allowed to eat, you know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve a week indoors and a window through which to watch time pass. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":54803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[214,209,259,258],"class_list":{"0":"post-54804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cf","8":"tag-city-fables","9":"tag-leipzig","10":"tag-windows","11":"tag-work"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54804"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54814,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54804\/revisions\/54814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}