The House Husband

I went out and snapped a few photos of our red tulips this afternoon. Firstly because I like taking photos for the blog and secondly, because mum loves the colour red. It made me wonder what they looked like last year. So I hunted back through the blog to April 2010 and found a rather wishy washy shot of the same tulips. It’s here. Though, to be fair, we were away on the Isle of Wight this time last year and maybe the tulips were passed their best by the time we returned to them. Meanwhile, here’s the stunning 2011 collection.

The red tulips, glowing brightly in the afternoon light

We had a deliciously lay-about-Sunday today. Full of sitting in the garden (for a bit) watching 30 Rock (for a bit) and walking the poodles on Hankley (for a big bit).

Carmen was particularly pleased with this last bit as she was allowed off the lead. And boy, did she take advantage of it. She went mad. Running through the woods, across the stream, up the hill. Her coat was so astonished, it kept coming undone. It was wonderful to watch. She generally runs everywhere but this was somehow more of a liberation thing. Like she’d been in quarantine for too long and this was her first glimpse of freedom. She truly took full advantage of it. Day-z tried to keep up with her but it was frenetically difficult.

Mirinda was overjoyed because we saw (mostly heard) lots of skylarks. After the fire she thought they’d all died, never to return but it seems they have just moved. High up in the sky, showing off to attract a mate, we saw them. We even spotted one come down to land. This is a photograph of him looking a bit odd. Mind you, he was a long way from us, his head is turned away and this is a digital rather than optical zoom. He also blends in quite well with his surroundings.

Very tiny skylark from very far away

OK, it’s quite difficult to see so, here is the RSPB’s version of the same bird.

The skylark from the RSPB

The air, however, was full of the sounds of his call…and those of his competing friends. It was wonderful. It was also quite nice that there wasn’t many groups of humans wandering around.

The gorse has also started opening up and the faint smell of coconut is starting to appear. If you want to read some fascinating stuff about gorse, here’s a good link. This really is a wonderful time to be wandering around the Southern English countryside.

First gorse of spring on Hankley Common

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It was Mother’s Day in England today – the best day NOT to have Sunday lunch in a pub – so Happy Mother’s Day to both our mothers all the way over there in Australia. Because it’s celebrated on a different day in Australia, I’m sure you were only spoiled the usual amount rather than the extra special spoilage you get on Mother’s Day but still, WE thought of you with extra love.

Special Mother's Day tulips

John Terry, allegedly, had an affair with the ex-girlfriend of Wayne Bridge, his Chelsea & England team mate. It made the front page of all the national UK papers today. And, apparently, having an extra-marital affair will hamper your ability to play football for your country. Also, there are things called super injunctions. So, if you want to keep things out of the media, you get an injunction. If you want to keep that injunction out of the media you get a super injunction. This means, you not only can’t talk about something but you can’t talk about the thing that has stopped you talking about it either.

I heard an interview on Football Focus. Three ex-footballers were asked about John Terry’s future as English captain since his affair has come to light. All three, very grave and concerned, were convinced that Capello (the England manager), known for being strict and moral, would strip him of his captain’s armband and demote him to…well, not being captain, I guess. Of course, all three spoke of it all in just emotive terms.

And then, following them, came the sports writer from the Financial Times. I much prefer his level-headed approach. Basically, he said, these are professionals. They are paid to play football and to win. When they are on the pitch, that’s what they do. They have to in order to justify their wages. Capello, too, is paid a lot of money to get England to, and maybe win, the World Cup this year. It is up to him to gauge how the team will be affected by the news story but really, Capello would have to think hard about removing one of the best players in the team.

And then Chelsea went to Burnley this afternoon and Terry showed his worth on the pitch. He scored the goal that won Chelsea the game.

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Anyway, today the sun was glorious hot, though the wind was frigidly cold. The two evened out somewhat to make a lovely day, full of blue skies. It seemed the perfect day to go to Frensham for a walk across the sandy hills and through the spiky gorse.

All was lovely and peaceful (I didn’t let the noisy trail bike riders upset me to much). The gorse that lines the path that follows the bronze age barrows on the top of the ridge has been bent over by the snow and is now growing across the path. This can be quite painful in shorts as gorse is covered in prickles, but when the temperature is just above freezing, this is not really an issue. We just brushed on through.

We passed a chap who said that ‘they’ had made a big path through the heather because of the snow. I couldn’t work out what he meant so I just nodded and smiled and said something inane so he’d think I had. He walked off smiling so I can only guess it worked. I’m pretty sure he didn’t tell me who ‘they’ were.

We have two options when we reach the top of the ridge. We can go straight back down and then around the pond or we can continue on, through the conifer woods then sweep down behind the pond. We hadn’t been round the back for ages so I voted for this. I was soon regretting it as we wound up sloshing through semi-frozen puddles of mud, half of which adhered to the puppies. Still, it was a lovely and long walk.

Mirinda & Puppies at Frensham

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Tonight we went to the Yvonne Arnaud theatre and saw the new Alan Ayckbourn play, My Wonderful Day. It’s been a while since we went to the theatre together (I went to the opera in November and Mirinda went to the ballet a couple of weeks ago) and we always try to get to Ayckbourn’s latest as it always tours to Guildford.

Well, as usual, it was excellent. Maybe I’ll give it a proper write up tomorrow. It’s late and I’m half watching Match of the Day.