I slept really well and awoke in daylight. I flexed and fed us both and contemplated the day ahead. You may have noticed that I am quite good at contemplating a day to come.
Lying around was not going to be of much use, so H and I went walkies at Castle Meadows and down to the river. It was a cool day with cloud cover. The clouds decided that they were saturated and released spits and spots which soon became drips and drops.
But we persevered through the damp and only got slightly wet.
As we wandered along, I spied a hefty, distant, brown creature of magnificent proportions. He was not the little white variety of which Tommy Steele used to sing. I decided he needed avoiding… lonely as he was, all on his own, for some reason or other.
We walked on, crossing a parallel, but empty field. Empty except for buttercups, dandelions and their clocks.
We sauntered down to the tow path and along to the next gate. An approaching lady warned me of a dead bunny in the meadow, further along. This was not good news – for the bunny at least.
I spotted it in the distance and clipped H onto the lead. I didn’t want to find that I was confronted by a dog with a rabbit clenched in her jaws. H expressed some interest in the little corpse and a minor rebellion took place as we walked past it and through the tightly fitting gate into the field beyond.
There, I got chatting to a nice lady about guinea pigs and grass, as you do. I had not noticed H slip back and squeeze under the gate, very determined, on a bunny hunt. She found it. She picked it up. She saw me watching. She heard me warning her. Our eyes met. She had a few fleeting mutinous thoughts. Then she dropped bunny and ambled nonchalantly up the slope towards me.
What a clever, obedient dog.
I made a rhubarb crumble on my return, for later in the day. Eleanor does not like rhubarb so it had been hanging around a while.
Then we went off to the Five Little Pogs for lunch. Such is its popularity since Jay Rayner, that Ali can’t book a table for 6 on any Saturday evening before August. But we enjoyed a lovely meal in a busy setting. They tried to stick us on bar stools again, but I demurred, pointing out that I had booked restaurant seating. We were soon sorted out.
However, observation of a family of three nearby, suggested a good idea. The young lad with them hinted of disability, just from his demeanour. Then I noticed a sunflower lanyard ‘carelessly’ draped over his mother’s handbag . I immediately appreciated the logic in that and that it would be a good idea to do the same, to signal that T has problems . His return from the loo, going in completely the wrong direction, confirmed the sense of this.
News from Ukraine – our refugees in Lviv have been quite poorly. Ali said it sounds like Covid, but they are not so sure. Elena suffered the most and has lost a lot of weight and is only just beginning to eat again. Luckily her mother has been with them and has not fallen ill, yet. Missiles flew over her parents’ home, the ones that hit Kyiv when the UN were there. Timur’s best friend’s grandparent’s home in Kharkiv has been destroyed. Luckily, they were in the shelter.
Once Elena is stronger they will travel here. So they say. Ali is sorting out cleaning work for her with her friends. Their cleaner is pregnant and Elena ( book keeper/ accountant) is happy to take on anything. But I read about refugees, faced with the intransigence of the UK visa scheme who are preferring to travel to other countries. Who can blame them?
Poxy, two-faced, racist, sexist set up that we have here. Governed by a load of thick, dishonest, nepotistic lying idiots who bray like donkeys in the HOC. If they are not too busy watching pornography. So there!
Thought for the Day
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