gncxx and Ronson8 - the neighbour is away at the moment, so I very much doubt the washing machine is in use (unless it has a
really long spin cycle - of, say, a week!).
stuneville - with the neighbour away, I can't check the house internals, but when he comes back I'll have a chat with him.
Two updates to bring you - first, yesterday: quite windy, and the pole didn't so much as tremble.
Well, OK — it
did move back and forth just a little, but I had to be standing right underneath it to see it. I went round and took some pictures, which I posted in a comment at my blog -
http://www.bobkingsley.co.uk/blog/?p=209#comment-54814
- they show that the pole is hollow, and that the wire running down it doesn't go into the house but just dangles down.
Today: as I opened the conservatory blinds at 08:45 onto a cloudless sky with a low sun fully ablaze and only light breezes blowing, the pole was oscillating, much like last Tuesday.
I watched for a couple of minutes, looked away while I put the kettle on in the kitchen, and when I looked again a crow was sitting on top of the now-stationary pole. It took off, and the pole's reaction to the action was to oscillate a little.
The oscillations, rather than dying down soon after as the energy dissipated, continued for a while longer and grew a little in intensity. I went to make my first cup of tea, and by the time I came back to the window at about 09:00, it had stopped.
I wasn't in a position to rush round to the house for a close-up observation on this occasion, but if it does it again during the day I'll try to do so.
Applying Occam's Razor, my rational side is becoming more convinced now that it's probably something to do with the movement of the surrounding air after all - although I'm having trouble reconciling the observation that today's light breezes appear to have induced more oscillatory movement than yesterday's stronger winds could manage. It seems topsy-turvy to me. Logic - and, indeed, unless I'm mistaken, the laws of physics - dictate that more energy input is required to produce more energetic output.
What does the panel think?