The House Husband

Another Talking Newspaper today, so it was off early to pick up the papers and start my editing. Since I was there on my own for the first hour, I thought I’d get a photo of the studio.

Where I sometimes 'work'

I sit in the right front, where the smaller bit of paper is while the engineer sits to my right, in front of all the equipment. The engineer has two chairs and uses the far one as a table. The three readers sit the other side of the desk. It’s very cosy though today it was quite cold because I hadn’t turned the heaters on. But that wasn’t my only mistake.

When we make a mistake (a stumble or just plain stuff it up) we are supposed to say ‘sorry’ and then go back to the beginning of the sentence. This gives the engineer something to edit out which retains the smooth flow of the recording. We have to keep picking up some of the readers on it because they just stumble and repeat the word. For this reason, quite a few stumbles remain in the recording, which is a shame.

Having been an actor, I’m quite used to saying ‘sorry’ and going back to the beginning of the sentence, so I don’t usually have any problem with it. Also because I was once an actor, my language sometimes leaves a lot to be desired.

Each time I go into the studio I go through a mental check-list, the final point is not to swear. It’s a mantra: “I must not swear. I must not swear.” Apart from the average age of my fellow volunteers, I’m also acutely aware that most of them are active church goers who might not be used to a course Australian who grew up in Sydney’s western suburbs.

I also write my own sports report which I scribble out before going in to record. My handwriting, at the best of times, is pretty abysmal, but when I’m in a hurry, it looks a little like drunk Sanskrit seen through ink blots. Normally this is fine but today, for some reason, I kept stumbling. Three times I stumbled, each time saying ‘Sorry’ and going back to the start of the sentence like the good boy I am. At one stage I said “I can’t read my own writing!” which had the others chuckling.

The fourth time I stumbled was on the word ‘control’ which I thought said ‘coumjhuy’ or something like that. Of course, I stopped. I blame the frustration with my continual lack of coherent penmanship but I said “shit“! I then quickly said sorry about thirty times. Sue, the engineer, laughing incredulously, took note of the position of the recording and I continued, finishing without any more hiccoughs.

Afterwards, we all had a jolly good laugh at my stumbling and I once more apologised for swearing. Sue then asked if I’d like to keep it in the recording. The others thought this hilarious. Sue then explained herself, saying she meant the bit about my inability to read my own writing not me saying shit.

Rough as guts, Gaz, strikes again, I’m afraid. Still, Sue will edit my foul mouth out of the recording and just leave my observations on my own failings. So, hopefully, all will be well. As long as she does!

Anyway, after getting home, the sun was shining so we popped up to the park. While the sun didn’t last and we were eventually drizzled on by a sudden spring-like shower, we saw quite a few other dogs and their owners.

We met up with Leonard, the big white dog. The one the poodles demur to. Here he is with a woman who’s not his owner. He was actually quite interested in her four dogs. He’s generally pretty sedate but he was acting quite playful today. The girls, of course, ignored him.

Leonard, the big white dog

They didn’t ignore a little chocolate brown King Charles spaniel that stopped in front of them and laid down for them to have a good sniff. They were so intent on sniffing and picking on him that they failed to notice he had a mate who had been checking out the woods. The first they knew was when a streak of black and brown came pouncing onto them. It was hilarious. The spaniels’ owner and I burst out laughing as the poodles scattered under the now even numbers. They really are pathetic.

I saw (and heard) lots of birds but they were either too far away or I had to put the camera away because of the rain. I did manage to get the robin again, still yapping away.

I know you're watching me but I just don't care

Driven on by my success with the gong, today I pulled up the surplus bricks alongside the wonder path. It was more of an effort than it would normally be but I persevered and now have a lovely pile of bricks down the side of the house.

Of course, the removal left a long trench, devoid of dirt, at the edge of the path so I transferred a load of compost and dirt and filled it up. My wrist was a bit ache-y but I’m convinced it only did me good. Tomorrow I’m going to attempt a bit of weeding.

The weather has been quite grey so my bird photography was a bit off while walking up the park. I did get a crow coming in to land but the ones of it flying were all pretty blurred. Tomorrow I’m going to walk up to one of the ponds and see what I can find up there.

A perfect landing

I’m not sure why the sound file was not working properly yesterday. I tested it here and it works fine. I think it might be a buffer problem.

Tonight Dawn unfortunately accompanied me to see a production at The Mill. I say ‘unfortunately’ because it turned out to be an amateur production. I should say that she enjoyed it, so I don’t feel too bad about it.

Earlier in the day, I had to make myself scarce as we had another viewing. After an early start giving the place a good clean, I hitched up the poodles and took to the park for an hour.

Due to all the rain we’ve had recently, the park is quite squishy and muddy. The poodles are keener on the hard path so we took the big circle around the park. As the sun was shining bright (when we started) I took my camera and telephoto lens, trying to get some more birds in flight.

Almost a great photo of a crow in flight

It was very odd because although the air was full of bird song, there were actually very few birds in it. Clearly they were all in the trees having a big gas-bag between themselves. Possibly telling each other that there’s always plenty of food at our place. Still, I managed a few, including a rather nice magpie, which I blipped and a few which I didn’t.

I also spotted this little chap sitting high up in a tree, just waiting for me to snap his photo. Needless to say he was keeping his beady eyes firmly on the poodles even though he was about 20 feet up.

Mr Precarious Perch, the Squirrel

Not quite so well hidden was this wonderful Alsation that lay down as soon as he/she saw the poodles, wanting to make friends. They, as usual, wanted nothing to do with such nonsense.

Someone else's dog wanting to play with ours

Back at the house, there was no evidence that anyone had looked at the house and we sat down to lunch.

In the afternoon I took myself off to Guildford on a shopping expedition, something I rarely do. Nicktor had told me that a new branch of my favourite shop (TK Maxx) had opened in Guildford and he wasn’t wrong. Over three floors, it’s a bargain shoppers dream come true. I managed to get two pairs of trousers and two long sleeved t-shirts for (just) under £60. Of course, I realise the edicts of this house are that for every new t-shirt, an old one must go and this will happen tomorrow. Promise.

Dawn met me at the Yvonne Arnaud and we popped into the Britannia for a lovely salad for dinner before heading over to the theatre.

Passion is a one act musical by Stephen Sondheim (and James Lapine), which is why I wanted to see it. Last week I found out that it has just finished a short season at the Donmar Warehouse on the West End, which is a real pity. This wasn’t that production.

Sondheim wrote Passion in 1994 and it’s an interesting story based (very loosely) on an autobiographical novel called Fosca, set during the Italian Wars of Unification in the late 1800s. That makes it sound very dull (or very exciting) but it actually centres around a young soldier and his discovery that beauty is not skin deep and we have to look beneath the skin to find true love. It’s about passion.

Let me say at the outset that it is typically Sondheim in that there’s not really any ‘tunes’ that you come out singing (although we both came out humming a short refrain of about 16 notes that seemed to have been repeated throughout the piece) and it’s nearly all sung with minimal talk. Sondheim also needs certain types of voices (think Bernadette Peters and her ilk) to truly sing him well.

I was fully prepared to give Passion a proper review here until I realised it was an amateur production. In which case, I really don’t think it’s fair to be too honest. The cast all worked as hard as they could and, I think, really enjoyed themselves. In an amateur production, these things count for a lot. Also they entertained Dawn so it wasn’t a completely wasted effort. Oh, and the other 30 odd people in the theatre.

What I will say is that the girl who played Clara (Lauren Morris) was fantastic. A wonderful voice and an actor of great poise and natural talent. I could have listened to and watched her all night. if by some strange twist of fate, she gets to read this, I’d like to say thank you for a delightful performance.

Of the rest, I’ll just say that the guy playing the doctor reminded me of Nigel – the same size, the same voice, the same level of acting skill and the woman playing Fosca should really know not to wear black and white lacy knickers under her white Victorian nightdress. I blame the director for this, although it’s surely pretty obvious. Dawn, who tends not to notice the bad things, even commented on it. The only thing I’ll add to that is BIG WHITE PANTS, Jenny Moon – buy them, wear them!

I was quite impressed by the orchestra. Sondheim isn’t easy to play but they managed very well. I should mention the sterling job of the percussionist (Jon Stock) who was held up by a fallen tree and, running really, really late, rushed in and gave a jolly good series of drum rolls throughout the show.

One more thing – Passion doesn’t really have any humour in it (which annoys me) but the one or two joke lines were delivered extremely well by the guy playing the cook. Either that or we were desperate for a laugh.

I’ll just finish with a lovely picture of the Avenue of Trees…just for balance.

Winter along the Avenue of Trees

There wasn’t a lot of action around the feeder today. Actually, there probably was but the fog made it difficult to see any action. I did manage a couple of shots though. To start with, here’s a cheeky blue tit.

Blue tit on feeder

So, first thing this morning (after Mirinda had left for work) we had a slow waddle down to the vet so Carmen could have her operation. She gave me a long, sad, backward glance as the nurse took her down the long corridor. Nothing like the wanton abandon she exhibits at the kennels.

Day-z, on the other hand, wasn’t in the slightest bit bothered and happily trotted back home with me where we discovered that someone had forgotten to take her indispensable little friend. (Most people call them iPhones.) I was about to text her when she texted me first. I told her to miss a train and I’d bring it up to the station.

Once more hitching Day-z up, I walked to the station. She was perfectly happy going for her second walk of the day until we reached the A31. The traffic started freaking her out so I had to pick her up for the last bit up the hill. She was also a bit freaked by all the people on the platform. It’s tough being so small. We waved goodbye to a now relieved Mirinda and walked home.

We passed a few people who asked where Carmen was. It appears that while I’m invisible, my poodles are not. Probably something to do with being cute.

In the afternoon we went for yet another walk. This time we took a long stroll around the park, stopping off at the totem pole for a short rest.

Getting a kiss

And then, finally, home.

Later in the afternoon we heard from the vet who operated on Carmen. All went well and she was just coming out of the anaesthetic. He told me the procedure he’d performed on her back leg and, quite frankly, it sounded horrendous but he assured me she would be fine. She has to be kept off it for a bit but should be right as rain in a relatively short time.

Normally when I sit at my desk, Day-z curls up behind me on the office chair – there’s just enough room for us both – but today, for some reason, she decided to hop up onto the desk and then lie on the window sill. She has never done this before. Maybe she was hoping to spot Carmen.

She was quite happy to lie there for a while until we had a sudden, very sharp shower of rain (which washed away a lot of the brick dust). The rain against the window made her jump up with fright.

It's raining!

Poor Day-z. It’s going to be a lonely old night for her so I’m going to let her sleep with me. Fingers crossed she doesn’t have any little ‘accidents’ in the night.

And, just to finish, here’s Mr Grumpy Gold-Finch giving me the eye.

Do you mind?

What an absolutely stunning day we had in Farnham today. The weather was perfect. The park looked perfect. It was all pretty much perfect.

Looking across the park

After shopping and then discussing the ghastly thing that is Yahoo 7 with Mum & Dad, I started my day’s work.

Back when I varnished the window sill in the stairwell, some of the stain managed to attack the gloss paint on the edge of the window. When I tried to remove it with a damp cloth (as instructed by the can) all I managed to do was strip away some of the gloss paint. It made little difference to the stain, which decided it liked the taste of the white paint. Strange but I guess that teaches me not to use masking tape.

Armed with sandpaper, I attacked the stain, stripping back the gloss paint in process. This time it was on purpose. It was then just a quick sand soap clean and thorough dry before giving it a quick coat of primer. An hour later, I finished it off with a coat of gloss. Six hours later I was able to close the window as it seems to be dry. This time I used masking tape and was very, very careful. Apart from the smell of paint, it looks much better.

The dogs had an appointment at the vet today. The second part of their usual yearly shots. Today it was to be the kennel cough spray up the nose, which they hate. For the first time since we’ve been visiting the vet up the road, the receptionist knew who I was without asking me and looking at her computer first. I was stunned.

The vet called us in and the poodles were (unusually) very well behaved. I don’t mean that they’re naughty or nasty but they do jump around a lot when the other one is on the examination table. Before giving her the spray, the vet looked Carmen over (Carmen is always first).

I mentioned that she had a strange scab on her neck. The vet looked at it and shook her head. She proclaimed that it requires a two week course of antibiotics to clear up any infection and regular salt water bathing. The kennel cough spray would have to wait. She told me that if they are administered together, they cancel each other out!

I wonder how they found that out. Did a dog have its kennel cough spray then take some antibiotics then go into a kennel and contract kennel cough?

So, after our (sort of) wasted trip to the vet, I rewarded the girls with a lovely walk right around the park where they managed to ignore every dog we saw while engaging in fox waste retrieval virtually every five minutes. They were wearing their coats so no need for a bath. Although this is not always a guarantee. As I was explaining to Mirinda on the weekend, Carmen still manages to get it on her front legs and neck sometimes. Rotten dog.

Back at home I returned to my garden work. A couple of weeks ago we bought some cyclamens to put in pots. Last weekend we bought some lovely roses which we don’t really want to put in the ground, given we’re trying to sell the house. Because of this, the roses get first dibs on the pots that were lined up for the cyclamens. So the cyclamens had to be planted.

I read up about their requirements and (hopefully) the new bed by the holly bush should be ideal. I spent a lovely hour preparing the soil and planting them in their new homes while good old Radio 4 kept me company. They looked very pretty in the afternoon light when I’d finished.

New cyclamens

Now for something I really have to share with as many people as I possibly can. My friend Lynden is in a Liva Tone shots ad. It’s all over Facebook…well, not really all over, more just among his friends. One of his relatives put it up on Youtube. I thought it only right and proper that I did the same here. It made me laugh a lot. You can view it below.

He reckons his Shakespearean career is now in tatters. Oh, Ross, what has happened to you?

Before I talk about my extremely stressful day, I really must answer my mum’s comment. Dubstep is a type of music. According to Wikipedia it is a ‘genre of electronic dance music that originated in south London, England. Its overall sound has been described as “tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals”.’ So now you know. I’m pretty sure you’d describe it as ‘noise’.

But, back to today. I’m not sure whether I’ve described how the Talking Newspaper day is organised so I’m going to. If it’s not news then skip this bit.

Because we read the papers for three different areas each Thursday, there are three shifts of readers, engineer and presenter. I really like Farnham because it’s the first one. It means I’m home nice and early and can get things done around the house that require the attention. My least favourite is the Alton papers because it’s last and I’m not home until 6pm. Mind you, what I generally do is complete any tasks before I leave. In the middle is Haslemere which gives me a bit of time either side.

So, basically, I have it pretty much sussed. I have my rostered times and days and go to the newspaper office, pick up the papers and then on to the studio. It’s always worked perfectly. I used the past tense deliberately.

Today I turned up at the newspaper office and asked for the papers only to be told that “David has already collected them.” This was odd. I asked a few times just to make sure it was the Haslemere papers and she told me same thing each time. I walked out of the office, a frown almost furrowing my brow.

I was undecided how to proceed. If I’d written down the wrong edition on the calendar then I could check at home on the master roster however, I could also check by walking to the studio (I was about halfway betwixt the two). My biggest fear was that if I had the time wrong then I might actually be down for the Alton slot. Or, worse still, there could have been changes that I didn’t know about. I dithered for a bit, drinking my Starbucks outside the Royal Mail exchange before deciding the best option was to walk to the studio and find out what the devil was going on.

And it was hot today! Even walking the dogs in the park this morning was warmer than it’s been for a while. This is quite annoying when it’s actually cold enough to put the central heating on at night. not that I do but I see that others would. Actually the walk was deeply embarrassing.

Sometimes, Day-z thinks she’s a dog. Rather than a bitch, I mean. I have no idea why or where she discovered this strange belief. She will hump her sister. Which really annoys Carmen. Particularly when she’s asleep. Which is most of the time.

The strangest thing is I have no idea where she found out how to do it. I mean they have never had sex with other dogs (I’m 99% certain) or, to my knowledge, actually noticed dogs having sex. Still, Day-z quite often manages to simulate it with her sister.

Generally, these displays of odd sisterly behaviour are confined to the house (and sometimes garden) but today, to my absolute horror, she did it in the park. And there were people everywhere. I was mortified! Though I’m pretty sure no-one realised they were both female, as I hurried them off into Badger’s Wood.

Anyway, that’s by the by. I wound up at the studio to find David happily cutting up the Haslemere papers smiling but confused when I turned up. I smiled back and grabbed the roster. No, I was right. I was slotted down for the Haslemere edition and his name was nowhere to be seen. And it was like a light bulb going off over his head.

He had made a swap with the presenter for the Alton paper but had written down Haslemere instead. Given there wasn’t much I could do, I volunteered to take his Alton and left him to his scissoring. I picked the papers up on the way back home.

This had seriously eaten into my time so I spent the hour I had cutting up the papers on the dining table before heading out again.

To cut this overly long story much shorter…I presented the Alton paper and didn’t manage to get home until 6pm, all my jobs neglected. I could have worked till dawn, slaving away or I could take the sensible option and not go to work tomorrow. I was sensible.

One good thing was the wonderful afternoon light as I walked home. This is the park bench just as you enter off Bear Lane.

Afternoon light in Farnham Park

And to be entirely fair, it’s not like I didn’t do anything today. I organised for a real estate agent to come over on Tuesday, I discussed the replacement of the side fence with our neighbour then purchased the panels to rebuild it, I rang up and corrected an order from the bird food place we use because they’d forgotten something and I walked the dogs.

Well, what a miserable day…and what a lovely evening. We’ve had torrential rain for most of it but now (at 9pm) there isn’t a cloud in the sky.

There was one break at about 3pm when the sun came out and did it’s best to dry everything so, figuring it may last a bit, I took the poodles up to the park. What a busy day it was up there!

As we wandered by the football pitch, a full on game of football was under-way. As we walked by, the yellow side scored a fantastic goal (a swift pass from the left wing, the goalie had it covered when, out of no-where, a head appeared, sending the ball smashing into the back of the net). There was even a (very) small crowd watching from the sidelines.

As we neared the castle, the thwack of leather on willow announced that another game of cricket was being played out on the Farnham pitch – presumably using the Duckworth-Lewis method of scoring since they wouldn’t have managed many overs in the morning.

On the grass in front of the cricket pitch, around 50 cars were parked, belonging to the audience for As You Like It, the yearly Shakespeare in the castle grounds which was performing today. Hopefully it didn’t start until the rain stopped as it was an open air production.

And then, to cap all of this frenetic activity, a group of kids (about 20) were playing rounders just up from the playground, squealing every time someone hit a ball and ran around the evenly spaced sticks.

We quite often see a lot of people but this was like nothing we’ve ever seen before – a riot of activity. It was as if these groups had suddenly sprung up out of the ground the instant the rain stopped. Even the number of dog walkers was greater than normal. All very strange…but reasonable.

Because of the weather, I spent most of the day sorting out a few things on the computer. I also put some photos of New York on the site. You can find them here.

I did manage to get a shot of our lovely and very successful Lavatera though (during a brief lull in the weather).

Our magnificent Lavatera

I also managed to talk to Mirinda who isn’t that keen on Hong Kong.

[with apologies to Gerald Durrell]

It was an odd day of heavy showers and brilliant sunshine; just perfect for housework. However, in terms of dog walking, timing was crucial.

Like Henri Charrière, counting waves, I roughly worked out the optimum time to harness the girls up and head for the park. We avoided getting wet and enjoyed a lovely sun drenched walk. Naturally we were careful to time the walk in order to get home before the next downpour – we made it by five minutes.

Given we were on a rather tight schedule, we decided to walk the length of the Avenue of Trees, admire the castle then back via Badgers Wood. At the beginning of the Avenue, is a small wood where the dogs always hurtle towards in the vague hope of finding something to chase (I assume) and today was no different. They flew like puppies and were gone within seconds.

As I kept walking – they always come out further down and meet me – I noticed a ginger cat, lying by a bench, soaking up the rays of the sun. It happened to be in the exact spot where the girls emerged from the wood. And so it was that to guide it, Carmen came belting out, running mere inches from the cat.

Clearly the cat had heard her coming and had pricked up its ears and lifted its head just as Carmen burst out of the undergrowth. It was on its feet instantly, looking left and right, weighing up its choices. Then, suddenly it leapt away, into the gap that Carmen had just vacated.

Meanwhile, Carmen had slammed on her brakes and was staring at the place the cat had just recently vacated. She looked around, wondering whether she had been hallucinating, deciding she hadn’t and raced back into the woods after the cat. I whistled and waited.

There were no screeches or hissing or barking and, eventually, Carmen burst out again, racing towards me, tail wagging like an outboard motor turned up to full. She reached me and jumped up, as if she’d won first prize at Crufts. I patted her and smiled, bemused as Day-z wandered out of the woods, having missed all the fun of the chase.

A few dogs crossed our path on the way to the castle and each time, the poodles barked then immediately backed off as the dogs stared them down. They are so anti-social!

Just before the castle, they spotted a squirrel sitting in the middle of the Avenue. They raced towards it, the squirrel watching them intently until the last moment when it dashed up a tree which was very close. Normally the poodles will run straight by any tree where a squirrel has taken shelter and end up at another one, staring up and wagging their tails, terribly pleased with their stupidity.

Today, however, they stopped at the right tree and just stood and watched as the squirrel climbed higher. As it went from branch to branch, the moved around the base of the tree, looking up, following its progress intently.

I stood and watched as they watched. I then noticed a movement further down the hill and watched a young deer emerge from the nettles. It stood, completely exposed, looking left and right, seemingly unsure of what to do. I slowly reached for the camera but it was a wake up to such privacy invasion and started running towards a large copse of trees.

Carmen somehow spotted the movement and was off. It was the funniest thing watching this tiny black dog hell bent on running down a deer. I’m not sure if she thought too much about the impossibility of her prey but it wasn’t slowing her up and she vanished into the trees scant seconds behind the deer.

Day-z suddenly realised her sister was gone. She looked left and right, confused. I pointed towards the trees and she was off in an effort to bring up reinforcement from the rear.

Now, I have no idea what went on in the copse of trees but I can say that a deer and two small poodles went in but only the poodles came back out. They were very puffed, tongues lolling, breathing like sprinters at the end of 100 metres.

The walk back was pretty peaceful until a whippet ran across Carmen’s path in Badgers Wood. She was too dazed to do anything…or perhaps she was just too exhausted to go for yet another run after a quarry she’d never catch. She just watched as it disappeared further into the woods.

We made it home and the heavens opened once more.

We’ve discussed getting another dog. Actually Mirinda has discussed it while I’ve said we’re not getting another dog. Anyway, when this subject does come up, we have more or less decided to get a cockerpoo rather than a labradoodle because the latter is a bit big. Today I saw a cockerpoo and it was enormous! Actually Carmen & Day-z chased it around the woods and it acted like a scared rabbit although it was 100 times bigger than the poodles.

Carmen seems to have forgotten her week of staying on the lead, though she did give me a brief look of fatalistic resignation just before I unfastened her from it at which point her tail went back up and wagged vigorously. She then took off into the woods, chasing the aforementioned giant dog.

The owners thought it was a great jape. Laughing and encouraging our two. They told me their cockerpoo was only a puppy and wondered what mine were, thinking they were the smaller variety of cockerpoo. They were astounded when I said they were actually poodles with very bad hair.

On the way back from our walk, I remembered mum saying how our new playground was somewhat lacking in things to actually play on so I snapped a shot that may help to alleviate this misconception.

The new Farnham Park playground

Indeed, the ultimate test will come in two weeks time when Rafi will be paying us a visit. We’re hoping the playground will be open by then. The promise is that it will be open before Easter (which doesn’t really mean anything) so my fingers are crossed. I’m hoping there’ll be a clown.

The local kids can’t wait. I’ve heard a fair few beseeching their parents for a go on the slide and the swings only to be disappointed when told it isn’t open yet. There’ll no doubt be a waiting list for each of the rides when it finally does open.

Apart from the excitement of shopping and walking the dogs, my day has mostly been spent, once more redistributing bluebells. The morning started a bit drizzly but the rain has held off (although the sky has been decidedly dodgy) so, rather than stripping the wallpaper again, I took out the kneeler and set to digging out then bedding down the multitude of bulbs that have infected the bed we don’t want them in.

The last lot I transplanted seem to have taken their move quite well so I’m holding out a little more hope for this second lot. Not having my grandmother’s green thumb means this is an amazing feat of amateurish good fortune!

So much for my stepping stones and extra upright. At the totem pole today we found out what the additions are. A bench. I assume it is for anyone wishing to sit and contemplate the totem pole. Or the castle if you were to sit the other way.

Bench and totem pole in Farnham Park

It is very low to the ground and the seat is just a solid piece of wood. All round, quite uncomfortable, I’d have thought. I didn’t try it out though Day-z did walk on it. Carmen clearly wanted to but she is still on her lead so I had to disappoint her.

Speaking of our little patient…she went to see the nurse today to check for any signs of infection and she was given a clean bill of health! Actually, she is completely back to normal now as Mirinda noticed when she arrived home tonight. There’s no way (except for the big ugly scar) you’d think she’d had an operation on Tuesday. Still, I have to keep her on her lead when out walking until next Saturday! That’s the date for the stitches to come out.

Something else in the park that caught our attention were these two guys sitting in the sky. The contraptions they were flying in appeared to be kitchen chairs with an engine underneath and a fan behind them. Attached to the back of the chair were parachutes. They made an awful racket and flew in out of the sun, so the photo is not that good.

Tow guys in the sky

They were also quite a distance away and getting further as I fumbled for the camera. I was surprised that Carmen didn’t react though, given her strong feelings for Montgolfiers.