Loss of Ukraine and a new fence

I visited Ukraine four years ago, when Edwin persuaded me to go with him to see the Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv in 2017. We had a wonderful visit, staying in a fine hotel in the city centre and seeing a few of the sights, such as the home of Mikhail Bulgakov, author of The Master and Margarita. We went to a grand opera house for an opera by Rimsky-Korsakov called The Tale of Tsar Saltan, which contains the famous Flight of the Bumblebee. This was an afternoon performance in Russian, and attended by a number of school children who seemed to really enjoy the performance. We also went to a nightclub, enjoying a number of drinks, bursting at the seams with lively young people, but they took pity on me and offered me a seat. There were even trips to Chernobyl available, travelling to the site by ex-army vehicles, which would have been a good experience, but we lacked sufficient time for the excursion. The Ukrainians we me were without exception warm, lively, modern and welcoming, and it was a joy to visit their country. 

I continue working for a pharmaceutical company until the end of the month. We are in process of preparing for a clinical trial, due to start soon, and for which we will need to recruit patients willing to volunteer for said trial. Beside the UK, we had planned to recruit in two countries in Eastern Europe: Ukraine and Moldova. Suddenly, the consequences of war and invasion by Russia against a peaceful European country are rammed home as we have been forced to drop both countries from our recruitment strategy, as the walls of Europe are forcibly wrenched down by a brutal tyrant.

The new fence, before and after

The fence facing our rear window has been covered with a dense coat of ivy since we moved in twenty years ago. I occasionally cropped it with the hedge trimmers, like any hedging, but generally it was a solid green wall with birds popping in and out all day, and it caused us no trouble. Our neighbour has recently had two new fences put up. A few weeks ago, in an unusual move, she invited us round for coffee and happened to mention that her third fence, which is our border and our responsibility, was only held up by the ivy, and wobbled in the wind. She was concerned that it might fall down, and when I looked I agreed all the posts had rotted so we said we'd get it seen to, so yesterday, the men came round and replaced it . Ann loves her birds (along with her love of trees), so we did ask if they could preserve some of the ivy to allow it to grow again. Unfortunately, when they came to remove the old fence, all the roots of the ivy were actually on the neighbour's side, and came up in a big clump as they cleared the ground. So now we have to look out on a stark bright fence with no birds or greenery, rather than our beautiful shady green screen. We will have to visit a garden centre to buy some screening hedging and encourage it to grow.