Thursday 1st October 2020 Dat 191
7.00 I have ‘Pinch punched first day of the month’ Worry but I don’t think she saw the fun in it and started licking herself vigorously as if I had just tainted her with something nasty. Well we can’t pinch punch people so have to do the best we can.
October seems to have arrived very suddenly this year. So odd that the year seems to be whizzing by so quickly even though we have all come to a bit of a full stop.
9.00 According to BBC weather, today is going to be the last decent day before a whole lot of rain, although we seem to have had enough rain in the night to last us a while, I didn’t even know it was raining until I was on the phone and told it
was. It was dark outside and as I opened the window to look, a swarm of crane flies flew in and I spent the next twenty minutes performing some kind of strange ballet while I tried to grab at them to put them out again. The pond is full to the brim and the rain somehow seems to have promoted another whole growth of duckweed on the surface since yesterday, I think I am going to have to concede defeat with that one.
I seem to have made two arrangements to walk today, which is fine and Audrey won’t be complaining, that’s for sure.
10.30 Sarah and I meet at St Bartholomew’s church Heathfield for a walk through the woods and around the lake, these are the woods I got lost in the first time and oddly this afternoon Wendy and I are going to attempt another walk from Maresfield where we got so horribly lost a few weeks ago that we thought we would never see the light of day again. I am going to take some chalk and mark trees, we certainly won’t be asking Audrey to show us the way again, she didn’t seem to have a clue last time.
We meet a few dogs, among them a Boston terrier and a little black poodle who Audrey has a good play with and later by the lake a cocker spaniel proudly carrying a stick which Audrey rather rudely pinches from her and runs off, I swear she was laughing. We walk back to the car park under a tunnel of sinewy branches that straddle the path.
14.00 I meet Wendy in Maresfield recreation ground. Audrey can’t quite believe we are going for a second walk. This time I am armed with chalk to put arrows on trees. Wendy has turned up with bits of red string, not quite sure why but also a downloaded compass, why on earth didn’t we think of that last time, even us hopeless pair can manage a compass.
As it turns out, however careful we think we have been and left suitable arrows and bits of string tied round sticks and left on the path, we still manage to get lost, we also lose the dog for about fifteen minutes in the middle of a dense part of the wood and I shout myself hoarse until she comes back looking very sheepish. Out comes the compass, we know we have to head north to get back to the car park and feel very pleased with ourselves when it actually works…. Now the orienteering world is our oyster.