Off the leash – 14 July 2022

Scamp was going for coffee with the Witches. I was left on my own for a few hours.

Spent most of the morning writing a reply to two of Alex’s recent emails. I’d berated him for promising photos and delivering a description of what was in them, but not the photos themselves. He made up for that omission by sending me two emails worth of recent photos. Quite impressive photos too. Anyway, I used my time this morning wisely and sent him a few of my photos and the story of my week so far, which you, my readers already knew! That and a bit of jiggery pokery on Photoshop and Lightroom took up most of the morning. I did have a notion to do a bit of painting, but never quite got round to it. “Not getting round to it” is an art in itself I think.

While Scamp was out, a lady came to the door with a beautiful bouquet of flowers, addressed to both of us. I was quite taken aback and couldn’t guess who could have sent it. Then I though of Isobel and her run in the country. I left the bouquet for Scamp to unwrap, and sure enough the card with the flowers had a message from Isobel. A lovely surprise.

When Scamp had recovered from the surprise and arranged the flowers in two vases, I decided it was time for a walk, so I retraced my steps from yesterday and walked down to the shops by the long way through the long grass behind St Mo’s school. I found some interesting shapes in the seed heads of the Flag Irises that have now all gone over, but the PoD was a tiny little fly on a hogweed flowerhead. A really tiny thing that must have measured about 3mm long. While I was photographing the Iris seed heads, a cleg landed on my lens hood. Just to be sociable, I squashed it. The swelling on my wrist from yesterday’s attack has now disappeared although it was quite red this morning.

Watched the final episode of Slow Horses tonight. Sadly that’s it finished until season 2 arrives some time later this year. Although I’ve read all the books, I’ve still enjoyed the story of The Hub and Slough House. It’s not often a TV version of a book stays so close to the original.

No real plans for tomorrow, although we may get a chance to walk down to Broadwood Farm for a carvery lunch and a glass of something alcoholic.