The walk

Heavy rain during the night, very welcome. You could almost hear the trees and plants sighing with relief in the morning.

Our Sunday walk started off in dappled sunshine.

Blossom everywhere, petals from the horse chestnut candelabra floating  down like pink and white snowflakes.

The little Ouseburn, swollen and coffee-coloured, was rushing noisily.

The wild garlic was everywhere, crisply green and white.

Further upstream, all was calm.

This is the scene of yesterday's tragedy - Flossie's favourite ball rolled down a steep bank and was lost.

But today she found a replacement in the undergrowth, a nice new ball. It stayed clean for about 30 seconds.

And she was clearly very pleased with it. Tosca doesn't share Flossie's enthusiasm for a ball.

We met our friend Holly and her owner. Holly's coat is a colour that tells me just how mucky Flossie really is beneath that camouflaging black coat. They both love mud and water.

Holly is placid and plodding, but Flossie watches her like a hawk, because she's quick to snaffle a ball that rolls her way, but Holly obligingly hands it over.

We turned back for home, noting that the dreaded Japanese knotweed is taking over with indecent haste. Almost impossible to eradicate by digging, trials of a natural control of this invader are underway in parts of Britain.

It looks light and delicate now; in weeks it will have ugly, thick, mottled stems, and have smothered everything around it.

But there's cow parsley (Queen Anne's Lace) too.

Flossie is busy. A ball and a stick are easy to manage.

And this is why Flossie often smells faintly of garlic....

The last opportunity to swim in deep water.

Flossie likes to keep the Ouseburn free of plastic bottles. She's trying to get two in her mouth at once here, but alas, even enthusiasm and a big mouth won't do it.





She delivers the first, and returns for the second.

Such a sense of civic duty!

But there is thunder, drawing closer. The sky is darkening. We have to get home!

Flossie charges ahead, leaving wet footprints.

We take the steep short cut.

Little legs need a little break halfway up the slope.

Can we outrun the rain? No.

Flossie tries to persuade us to go back into the Dene. Weather-proof, that girl.

It's raining and blowing hard now. My shoes squelch, my clothes are soaked.

Tosca hates rain more than anything else.

And decides to make a run for it.

We reach home, wring ourselves out, get dried (them) and changed (me), and the sun comes out again.

A nice hide chew is what's needed after such a drama.

"What drama was that? No drama here." Cats are so sensible about weather.

British weather. You've got to love it.

Ready to burst

Darling buds of May.....

 Clematis (burgundy)

Clematis (white) 

With its own wildlife 

Or, in my case, fit to burst.

But I shall try not to, firstly because it wouldn't be pretty, but secondly, and chiefly, because it wouldn't be good for my new regime designed to deal with my scarily-high blood pressure.

But oh, the provocation!

Viewers. In pairs, with their visiting mum (his), then a few days later with her parents who live up the road and declare disbelievingly, in slightly accusing tones, that they hear that I've lived here for 30 years, but that they've never seen me before! 

Viewers who tell the estate agent that they have fallen in love with my house.

Viewers who then make an offer that isn't so much low as insulting.

Outrage is a good diluting medium for disappointment; I am outraged.

I tell the agent not to bother relaying idiot offers to me, but to refuse them himself. I have my blood pressure boiler to look after.

I breathe slowly, and go for a long walk through the park.

Nothing more is heard.

Lifelong learning

Things I learned today when seeing the GP practice nurse:

• Rush hour traffic has worsened markedly since I stopped work.
• The automatically-inflating cuff on the blood pressure machine strangles one's arm most painfully and could usefully double as a tourniquet. And being temperamental, had to be tried three times.
• My blood pressure is higher than it should be. Maybe because of the rush hour traffic, maybe because of selling a house, maybe because of the painful arm-strangling, maybe because it has never been anywhere near the 'normal' reading anyway. But most probably because I need to lose a couple of stones, a mission on which I embarked several days ago.
• The scales at the GP practice added 3 lbs. onto the weight recorded on my bathroom scales 40 minutes earlier. That was more painful than the arm cuff business.
• I have to see the doctor next week for results of blood tests, and I'm prepared to bet that I will be leaned on gently regarding medication. And I will most probably gently resist, trusting to eventual weight loss to improve matters. My doctor will sigh, but knows me well enough to give it a go my way.
• "These are very thin veins..."

Yes they are. And that was a very thick needle.....

Frozen

Today was the first class in our course: Archery for Beginners. In short:

• Patient teachers
• Great fun
• Harder than it looks
• I am the class duffer
• An open field on a Spring evening requires many more layers of deep-winter clothing than we had thought. A brazier and a hip flask might have been good too.

I am so cold, even though I've been home for a couple of hours now, that I can bear it no longer and am going to bed with a hot water bottle. I may have frostbite....

Here's a picture of one of our group, A, shooting her first arrow. By the end of the class, she had almost hit the tiny cross that marks the dead-centre of the target.

We go back for more next week, but this time we will be prepared for that biting wind off the fields. Where's my thermal vest?

Incriminating evidence

When George comes to stay with Lesley down the street, and her front door is left open, a certain law-abiding dog turns into a burglar, sidles in, and quietly liberates George's discarded chew.

She's not sure she wants it, but she won't let go.

Even when the need for an afternoon nap overtakes her.

I must swot up on the section of law that relates to harbouring a criminal.....

Phew!

'Lady', best toy ever, washed, line-dried, fluffed up in the dryer for 10 minutes, and returned to doting owner.....

What a relief.

Dog's washday

Amongst the many and varied joys in Flossie's life, there are occasional tragedies.

The weekly wash is one of them.