Sunday in the Park with Gaz

In all the excitement yesterday, in my discovery of the Nephilim, I forgot to mention, Mark, the wasp guy. He turned up just before 11, inspected the hive area, hit them with some white powder and, hey presto, no more wasps. I checked the lethalness on other garden life but he assured me, the stuff only killed wasps in the general area of the nest. So, all sorted, lickety split.

Something else I forgot to mention is the man who had to relearn to walk. He was knocked over by a car in Castle Street at the beginning of June, a few days before a planned holiday in Portugal. His wrist was broken in two places and he also suffered a couple of cracked ribs. As far as I’m aware, the car and driver were uninjured, which, as we know, is how it should be given the importance most people put on their cars.

In one final news catch-up, Denise returned from Essex yesterday, and I made her Swedish meatballs for dinner. She had a lovely time with Kay and the Gang but had to be back in order to meet up with Mike and Ellis, who came around today for a chat and lunch.

But, before they arrived, I had a rather unnerving experience in the park. Of course, I took the girls up at around 05:30. There was a lot of mist, rising from the Queen’s Bottom, which leant the sunrise a rather eerie appearance. Then, as I was walking passed our usual ball throwing bench, I noticed a man walking across the top of the rise.

He didn’t have a dog, he appeared to be in his 20’s, he wasn’t dressed for work, he wasn’t pulling a golf buggy, in fact, he looked completely out of place. He was walking with his head down, maybe lost in his thoughts or, perhaps, concerned about someone he’d just murdered.

A shiver ran through me as I continued walking along the avenue. That could have been because I was only wearing shorts and t-shirt and the morning had a slight chill in it, but the temperature didn’t stop me from furtively sneaking looks over my shoulder.

Then a small stone started jiggling around in my shoe. I stopped at a nearby bench and sat down to remove it. As I shook my shoe out, I glanced back down the avenue and there he was. Slowly walking towards me. I shivered again, wondering whether to walk on the grass or continue along the avenue.

I decided I was being very silly and continued along the avenue until I reached the all weather path. I looked back. He had gone. Was he ever there at all? Is it because we’ve been watching Katla? Okay, he wasn’t covered in ash but he may have been an evil changling.

On the return leg, I spotted another man, walking without dog or golf sticks though he didn’t look suspicious or eerie. The earlier chap, however, made me think I was in a Ruth Rendell mystery and I was either a witness, a victim or some extra who simply wanders across the screen with his dogs, a red herring, never to be seen again.

After a few hours spent recovering from my ordeal, Mike & Ellis came over for quite a lot of chatting on the terrace. When they arrived, I was in the office Skyping with Mirinda, but the dogs heard voices and immediately went to investigate. Obviously, Freya was pleased to see them. Emma, however, barked a bit then came back out to office to tell me there were strangers in the house. She took a while but, eventually, she allowed Mike to pat her.

Eventually, and even though it was the hottest part of the day…

…the four of us walked into town to have lunch at Bill’s. Which was lovely.

I haven’t seen Mike and Ellis for ages, so it was a lovely morning spent in chatter. They were particularly happy about their recent trip to Greece to meet Arlo, who was holidaying at a resort with his parents. I said how much I also enjoyed the trip via Instagram.

Ellis had to go to a friend’s birthday party so they needed to leave by 1pm which, coincidentally, was the exact same time that we returned to the house.

There was a bit of tomfoolery in the road with cameras – because of his impossibly long arms, Mike is very good at selfies – before they climbed into their car and, with waves aplenty, departed.

What a lovely day it was. Well, apart from the scary start and the ridiculously high temperature.