Friday 14th August 2020 Day 143
7.15 I am checking the pond from the bathroom window upstairs, for signs of distress amongst the fish. They’re certainly all milling around the end of the stream including the large blue and orange carp. I use the binos that I keep in the bathroom to watch out for opportunist herons sitting in the trees down the garden and to watch the buzzards and the flights of geese. It’s not that the pond is that far away from the house but the binoculars enable me to see more closely if they are in distress and this morning thank goodness they don’t seem to be. I will still give them a good spraying of water from the hose, just to make sure.
It is degrees cooler today, in the early twenties and last night, although still quite humid, was much better for sleeping.
9.30 We meet up with my friend with the two smaller dogs, for the first time in a while and the dogs all greet each other and run off into the undergrowth amongst the trees together. I am sure Audrey would like a playmate but I’m afraid she’ll have to put up with the human variety, namely me!
It is quite a grey looking day today, low cloud of the kind that you descend into at Gatwick when you’ve just got back from wall to wall sunshine and feel like getting on the next plane out again but it is ok because it is plenty warm enough and occasionally you can detect a bit of damp in the air but rain is what we desperately need and still haven’t had.
10.45 I’m off to East Grinstead, forty minutes away, to get my hair cut for the second time since lockdown. This time I am getting rid of the ‘long lockdown locks’ that I just had trimmed last time and get a bit of shape put back in. It is more relaxed this time and my hairdresser is wearing a mask but not in full PPE.
13.00 Home for a bite of lunch and off to get food for the animals from the barn up the road. Audrey comes with me for the ride as she would take a poor view of me coming home and going straight out again and when I come back to the car laden with dog, cat and fish food, she gets a doggie treat shaped like a sausage. Query: Why does it have to be shaped like the food humans eat and why do so many vegetarian foods look like meat products and proudly state that we would not be able to tell the difference? Surely vegetarians are trying to get away from the whole idea of dead animals?
16.00 The hoped for rain still hasn’t materialised and I have a feeling it may well be another dry night so it’s going to be out with the watering can again shortly. All the gladioli I planted a month or two back are showing signs of flowering and one of them is actually in flower it’s quite a pathetic specimen though, certainly wouldn’t do for Dame Edna.