Reference church!

Here’s a cheeky robin, unsuccessfully trying to hide behind the chain on the floating table.

Peek-a-boo

Though today started off quite dull, the afternoon was gorgeous. The sky was blue, the temperature cold, the sun was big. A perfect winter’s day.

In the afternoon (Mirinda had a guitar lesson in the morning) we took the dogs to Hankley. We timed it well as we enjoyed the fantastic afternoon light as the sun descended. Though, had we been a mere ten minutes earlier, we would have witnessed a Montgolfier landing very close!

Montgolfier at Hankley

When we first spotted it, the balloon was still quite full but the closer we drew, the flatter it became. Until eventually, the passengers were starting to fold it up. Fortunately Carmen didn’t know what it was because she totally hates Montgolfiers ever since that big scary one tried to attack her in East Worldham.

As we sauntered passed, the pilot (I assume) was trying to tell the ground crew where they were. Eventually he just climbed the big hill onto the ridge where they picked him up.

Pilot and basket

Actually we saw more people at Hankley today than we’ve ever seen. I think a lot of them had just waited around as the Montgolfier landed and was packed away.

There was a pair of horse riders, sitting in their saddles, watching. When they left and climbed the hill they actually galloped. We see a lot of riders walking but I think this is the first time I’ve seen them gallop. It was quite exciting though at a great distance.

When we reached the wooded area of the ridge, a whole army of soldiers was sitting around being instructed (apparently if they see a church in the distance, they must not say “Oh, look, there’s a church.” Rather they must yell out “Reference church!“. I don’t know why. Mirinda thinks it saves someone blowing up the church.), their faces painted, their firearms looking lethal. It was all a bit intimidating until one of the soldiers started making a fuss over the girls. They were all pretty young and we figured they were maybe cadets from a local school.

We managed to get by them all unscathed and made our way back to Sidney. Somewhere in the last bit, Carmen hurt her back leg. I couldn’t find anything in her paw and there was nothing obvious on the leg itself so I have assume she’s just twisted it or something. We’ll see how she is on Monday and take her to the vet if there’s no improvement.

Here’s Barry again. One day, I swear I’m going to take an in focus photograph of a blue tit!

Barry on the floating table