Wednesday 8th July Day 106

7.30   No bright sunlight today, gloomy, grey and raining, the only good thing is that there won’t be any need to water the pots tonight.

9.30  What a morning, I just can’t get myself motivated at all, I’ve done the wandering aimlessly from window to window.  I have taken a cup of tea back to bed – Fatal!  Sat in bed and looked up all the rubbish news as I do and finally the incentive arrives when I remember that Audrey and I are going on an adventure in new woods today.

11.30  We were supposed to have gone by now, I’ve done what I need to around the house but I have also had a very long video call and a couple of other phone calls.  Also during my painting of the front door yesterday, Worry, who was sitting on the front door step, suddenly got spooked by something and in her efforts to rush past me, managed somehow to run right against my paintbrush and now has a green stripe down her side which I need to make another effort to clean off this morning as she wasn’t having any of it last night.

I have been thinking about leisure activities and the fact that now you can book to visit National Trust and other places of interest and then I thought of somewhere I have long wanted to visit and the thought of visiting it now actually made me laugh out loud.

The place I was thinking about is Blarney castle, Northern Ireland!  We should surely spare a thought for the owners of this famous castle and the many pilgrims who go there to kiss the Blarney stone in order to become eloquent in their speech. 400,000 people visit the tower every year, queueing for hours for the privilege of leaning over a parapet to kiss the stone. That is 400,000 people who pay around £8.00 a head (do the Math) as they say!  In April the kissing of the Blarney stone was closed for good and it has only now occurred to me that this must be the most germ ridden exercise in the world, not only kissed by millions but also, legend would have it, peed on by the locals,  I just might strike that off my list of wanna do’s.

13.30  Finally we are off for our walk in the woods behind St, Bartholomew’s church.  It’s only raining a bit but we’re not bothered.  There’s a one-way system in these woods at present, walk down on the left, circle round and return on the right.  Unfortunately, they didn’t take me into account with their simple plan.  I have a quite extraordinary ability to get myself lost, no sense of direction whatsoever.  Off we went to the left and down a very steep and wide track, Audrey in her element with all the new smells.  After a while we came to a pretty lake, we carried on down the track and on and on; we came upon a magnificent tree with a bench in front of it. I really would have thought by now that we would be starting to turn right for the circle back, there were tracks leading off everywhere.  Eventually I felt sure we were on the correct route home and approaching the lake when I found myself once again by the tree and bench, no one around to ask , I might as well have been in Hampton court maze but by some fluke an hour later we emerged once again by the lake and found our way back to the car.  At least one dog was very tired and happy, not so sure about her companion.