Wednesday 16th September 2020 Day 176
6.45 I set my alarm last night to make sure I was up in time to take a heron photo but more importantly to shoo it away but of course I discover this morning that it hasn’t put in an appearance. Having lost several fish to his piercing beak, I will make sure I am on watch early every morning for a while.
9.30 I am going to meet Janet for a walk which is when I discover that I can’t find my car keys. I don’t need them for the walk, just to get back in the house. I leave the house unlocked, deciding to look for them later. It is lovely walking weather, warm with a slight cooling breeze today and Audrey is up for a lot of ball throwing.
When I get back to the house I do a few chores and boil my last few beetroot from the garden and make some passata out of the large pile of tomatoes that have all ripened at the same time in the greenhouse. I will look for the key in a bit, it can’t be far. The passata turns out to be very watery, I think maybe I should have scooped the flesh out of the tomatoes. Luckily I only made a smallish amount so they are not wasted and the end result will probably be better made into soup. I finish the ironing and casually start looking for the keys.
When I realise that they are not in any of the possible places, I start to get a little concerned as to what on earth I have done with them and start looking in silly places like the fridge, the rubbish bag and under the car but no luck. Ages later,
for some reason I know not what, desperation probably, I look in the clothes peg bag and there they are sitting on top of the pegs. I am very pleased to find them but puzzled as to how I managed to put them there.
14.30 I have decided to go and suss out a possible new kayaking stretch of water at Boreham St Bridge. I ask Audrey if she would like to come for the ride and of course she would, she is always up for anything. She is very dry and clean so I let her sit next to me on the front passenger seat for a change.
It is a pretty place, right next to the busy main road and in fact the water goes under the road. There are sheep grazing on one side of the river where there are big signs saying Private Land, fishing rights only and Keep Out. I have often wondered why the Private notices in this country are always so aggressive. Are most people who enjoy walking in the countryside really such a threat? The other side of the river is signposted as a footpath, I go and get Audrey from the car and we go for a short walk along the river bank. She is interested in a swan that swims by and in the sheep on the other side. Sadly I can’t see anywhere that would be easy to put a kayak in the water here but maybe when the water is a bit higher.
16.15 We return to the car, Audrey has a drink and I put
her back on the passenger seat. After we have been driving for about ten minutes there is an unpleasant smell assailing my nostrils. First of all I think it is coming in from outside, I turn to Audrey and realise to my horror that she has obviously been down the river bank and her legs are covered in the most foul smelling river mud. It reminds me of the day Yvonne and I got stuck in the mud on the Adur.
When we get home, I stick her legs, one at a time in a bucket of warm water and shampoo them down, she isn’t delighted with the idea but she lets me do it. Then the passenger seat has to be brushed off and shampooed. Now I remember that it wasn’t just for safety’s sake that she travels in the back on an old shower curtain.