Walking the dog – 15 April 2022

A bit of freedom for Vixen.

In the morning, after breakfast and a cup of Jamie’s coffee from his posh Sage coffee machine, we went for a walk round the garden, a conducted tour, in fact. The garden covers half an acre. I don’t know how big that is, but it is a fair swathe of grass with a veg area purely for Jamie and lots of island areas of flowers that are Simonne’s area. Best of all, he has a greenhouse, a real glass glazed one, not a little plastic one like ours. Lots of potential there.

After the tour, Jamie drove us to a dog walking field where Vixen could run as far as she wanted without fear of meeting any other four legged friends (or enemies). We spent about an hour wandering round three fields of different shapes and sizes. Vixen may have been the reason we were there, but I was searching the trees and hedges for photo opportunities. Almost right away I saw a Bee Fly, but of course my camera was still in the bag, but my phone was handy and was sure I could grab a snap with it. Next time I’ll buy a mobile with a macro facility. Missed the Bee Fly, but at least I saw one.

What I did find was an almost totally brown Shield Bug and I did get two photos of it. There were apple trees in one of the field hedges and they were still holding their blossom and one of the Lensbaby shots of the blossom was in for PoD. With Vixen exhausted and my Lensbaby having captured a potential PoD, Jamie drove us back home for lunch.

After lunch the other three went to do some gentle work in the garden and I took my camera for a walk past the old church and down the hill to the dried up stream bed at the bottom. I turned right before the bridge over the stream bed and walked for about half a mile to another bridge over the same stream bed, crossed the bridge, turned left and found my way back to the house. I was passing between two fields. One with what looked like beans and the other with some form of corn or maize. The soil was interspersed with big chunks of flint.

By the time I got back, there was just enough time to have a beer in The Gallery before dinner.

PoD did indeed go to the apple blossom.

Tomorrow we’re off to Bury St Edmonds for lunch.