Birchington in the Sun

Another lovely sunny day for Dad's second guided Bluebell walk in Challock Forest. Again, it's just Haggis and I, as Meggie would never be able to keep up. The bluebells are fully out now and gorgeous, and there are dozens of walkers including a 10 or so little children, some of whom I remember from previous walks. In the bright warm sunshine the woods are a-heaving with humans all come to see the bluebells.

Our route this time takes us down past one of the Friends of Kingswood ponds, where some of the kiddies, under less tight control than you might say was appropriate, manage to get stuck in the mud, losing wellies and shoes when pulled out, to much cheering and banter from the adults not-so-encumbered. We dogs choose to be the picture of decorum and mud-avoidingness, and return to the car in pretty much pristine state.

Home and lunched, Dad is off on a mission. It's "Drive It" day and in honour of this he wants to take the old project car to Birchington. He's not been able to raise any response from the Birchington twinning committee, so it's a solo effort, the plan being to trundle the car round town stopping to take pics where ever he feels like it. I've not been in her yet, as she has mint condition but old, bright red seat covering fabric which is not easy to get hold of (she's from 1961 remember), but my time will come one day when I really am clean.

Dad reports that the old grl fires up first turn and never misses a beat all day. he gets pics at the Birchington "city limits" signs, on the sea-front road, and outside the Sea View pub (the latter is great, because the old black and white pics on the cover of the current La Chapelle d'Armentieres magazine of her being originally delivered have the Sea View in the background.

Marv'lous !

Deefer

The same size

It's great to meet dogs the same sort of size, build, speed and keenness to play ball as myself. makes for a nice exciting walk for me, and lest everyone else chill out while we all get exhausted. So it was this morning when, chasing my own tennis ball thrown by Dad I spotted, out of the corner of my eye, red and white English bull terrier Poppy in hot pursuit of her own ball, chucked by her owner. I chased over and immediately we were having a great game. She was 2 years old and just a little faster than me, but not enough that I'd give up.

Had to go have a lie down after that, but not for long. We came upon a black, shaggy JR cross Yorkie called Ruby. Same furious running game for the next 15 minutes. And finally, young mother-and-daughter white JR's Daisy and Miley. It was all go this morning.

It was a very tired, dew-soaked, tongue-lolling Deefski who staggered home for a rest. Dad's off to the allotment to finish his (Autumn!) digging, and Mum is off round Diamond's to help paint a room. A chance for a girl to recover.

Deefer

Still not really ready

The skies are blue, there's no wind, and the temperatures are up to the early 20's. Mum's been at home all day working on an OU essay - usual story - mad panic across the last 48 hours, so she's taken time off in lieu (TOIL) and is sitting out on the terrace all day, in the sunshine with the lap top. That's good for us, as we have all day access to the garden, but we don't get very far with our requests to be made a fuss of, so we're delighted when Dad comes home and suggests a walk in the forest, to go look at the bluebells.

To be honest, they are not really ready, and could do with 2 more weeks of fine weather to get them at their best, but it's a nice walk in the forest anyway, and we can dawdle at Meg-speed as we are not leading any members of the public this time. So, that's me tiny in the big sinuous track, and back-lit in a rather handsome way, Mr H "stacked" with darker bluebells in the background, and Meggie with her nose down in the clump, whiffing the heady scent.

Stamp Man, by the way, sis come out of hospital, to every one's relief and is now back home. Meanwhile, in the Home for the Bewildered work on the building itself seems to be done, and the Geordie "roofers" are now car-park constructors, kerp layers, and pruners of the outside of Dad's beech hedge (yay! result!).

They are soon to erect the final fence round the outside of their car park (and thereby erect a new fence for the outside of this garden. Can't be bad! Looks like they may be able to spare a young ash tree, too, which is growing technically outside our property, but also now outside their new fence - technically a no-man's land ash.

Nearly the weekend

Deefer

Pud Lady

Off down to Hastings today for lunch with the Pud Lady, and a good scout around her garden. This, though, is not a Saturday and there are other guests, so there's no pud, but a smorgasbord of other edibles created by Mum and Sue. Sadly for us, the guests are all either non-dog people, or they are wise dog people, so there's no snack-age forthcoming. I am reduced to nicking some goats cheese out of a bag which Mum left too close to the dog-shelf. This I am now regretting, but not extracting much sympathy for.

The good news is that the Stamp Man may be coming out of hospital tomorrow after a protracted stay. You may remember that Dad was down there weeks back painting out his old room, which is now equipped by a servo-assisted bed, a get-in-and-out-of-bed aid and other modern medical-style services. All are holding their breaths to see if he actually comes out.

Meanwhile, at the allotment, the asparagus bed is finally producing harvest - today the first ever spears (2 of them). These beds were first planted 3 years ago, so have been allowed to grow and consolidate, but this year we're allowed to cut a few spears to eat

Deefer

(A bit too early for) Bluebells

The first walk of the Friends of Kings Wood Guided Walks fixture list, and Dad's leading, so Haggis and I can come along. Meggie, unfortunately, has to be left behind as she'd never keep up on this 2 mile hike, and the public would not necessarily understand why we had to go so slowly. We salve our consciences by giving her a pet and a dog treat, but she's not 100% convinced! Mum's with her, though, so I expect she snuck a few treats as soon as our backs are turned.

It's a good week too early for the bluebells really, so there is some colour but nothing like the blue blanket that will be there in 1 or 2 weeks time. No way of predicting that though, so when they go to print in their walks programme last October, it's a bit of a gamble. In previous years we've booked May and been too late, and booked April and been either spot on or way, way too early.

No matter, such aesthetic concerns are human-specific. A walk in the woods to Haggis and I, is a treasured treat even without bluebells. It's warm and sunny and there's about a dozen people. We even spot a small group of fallow deer including a white-phase buck. Too far away to be worth chasing, but the humans get a good long look through binoculars.

Deefer

Great Timing

Didn't Dad do well with his timing on getting all those seeds and plants into the allotments over Easter. It was warm and dry following on from the cold snap, and the soil was crumbly. He got loads of stuff in over the break, from seeds of parsnip, carrot, chard, beans, beetroot, peas and salsify, along with the seed potatoes and the onion sets

It's rained the "warm refreshing" ever since - a couple of hefty thunderstorms over Tuesday and Weds evenings, and then goodly quantities of rain through yesterday and the day before. The seeds, plants (and weeds) alike will be rocketting up through the soil.

Meanwhile, talking of timing, we are all, pleased to report that the old 2CV electrics are now fixed and she is good to go. We can thoroughly reccommend the gentleman genius at Square Deal Autos in Chislet Business Park - me I don't understand all that stuff around negative pulsing and feild windings as I'm only a dog (and I'm not convinced Dad wasn't just nodding sagely to please the old guy) but we both could cope with the more basic mechanicals - "The metal fan has sliced through this wire and the short circuit has melted the voltage regulator".

So now she's fixed and good-to-go. Only 400cc, so it's 40 mph max along the flat, level Thanet Way dual-carriageway, but in the ups and downs around Blean she's barrelling over the pots and ruts and touching 50 on the down-slopes. She's a car for the lanes, and "bowling along" rather than the motorways, that's for sure.

Take away tonight. Have a good weekend
Deefer

Why - Aye! Champion!

Out back of us, work on the Home for the Bewildered nears completion. Our beloved "Geordie Roofers", with their Bob Marley music (No Woman no Cry with a Geordie accent! Bizarre) have long since finished the roof and moved indoors, so we hear them nothing like as much now.

Today, though, they are laying out gardens and paths and getting ready to build the brick wheelie-bin store just beyond our back fence, so we hear them again, especially when one driving a fork lift to move pallets of bricks around must have nearly got into harm's way, as there were.... ahem.... voices raised in anguish.

At one stage Dad wanders down there to have a nosey over the fence and calls across "Hi, How's it Going?" "Why Aye - Champion!" comes back the rich Geordie accent "Loovely Weather Right Enough!". I have to say, that we (ignorant Kentish) people are calling them "Geordies" - they are probably nothing of the sort - I know that there is fierce rivalry and jealous guarding of such tribal handles - you probably have to be from a specific part of Newcastle (Byker or Walker for example) to earn it, and these guys might well be from South Shields or Sunderland. Mind you, they probably call us all "Southerners" or "Cockneys".

Dad has a day off, for a meeting of the Village of the Year judges (and it might be something to do with his Birthday (Happy Birthday, Dad), and takes advantage of the chilling opportunity, to fit in his due 24-hour blood pressure test. He has to wear all day a box of tricks at his belt, and over his shoulder to the sleeve on his arm, an air pipe. Every 20 minutes the box beeps, then pumps up the sleeve, taking its readings, clicking a few times as it all deflates. At 11pm it will change over to night mode (hourly), and at 08:30 tomorrow he must hand it back in to have the readings downloaded and analysed. No winding Dad up today.

As if
Deefski