I come downstairs, open the curtains and put on a light. There waiting for me is a tail waving vision of loveliness.The days getting longer, dawn arriving earlier, Sophie ready for the off.
Dog and owner start on their new hobby of recording the local wild flowers. Sophie is keen to sniff the verges but shows zero interest in the wild flowers. This morning she's focused on finding some badger poop.
Angus stoops down on one knee to photograph some wild gentians when the new mayor appears out of nowhere. ' Are you alright M'Ongoose ?' he asks as he sees me kneeling and leaning slightly to one side in the grass.
I explain what I'm doing. He looks at me in that ' He's really quite harmless' way that the villagers do. He walks quickly away making sure not to look back. Sophie ignores him.
Two minutes later the old mayor appears. He too is somewhat surprised at the sight of Angus attempting to take a close up photo of a wild flower in a grass verge. The old mayor is reassured that all is well. Sophie also ignores him.
The man with anger management issues passes on his way to work in his white Nissan Qashqai. He stops and gets out to inquire after my well being. Sophie does not like the man with anger management issues and turns into a howling sociopathic dervish . 'Does she bite ?' he asks. ' Not yet' I reply while holding her harness. As soon as he's gone she calms down.
I explain what's happened on our morning walk to 'The Font' . The suggestion of learning Hittite is repeated.
Angus's TinTin quiff is beginning to be a problem. 'The Font' suggests this as a haircut solution. I think not - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK7_VSpTyVY
And a god daughter in Florida sends this cautionary tale : https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/france-fighter-jet-ejection-scli-intl/index.html
Face masks and pet placemats ? :
https://www.swagright.com/
10 comments:
I can completely relate to the guy who bailed out from his surprise flight.
I'm thinking the blue flowers are actually some sort of speedwell and the pink one a ragged robin. The third one ??? a wild strawberry (really not sure) and the fourth looks like (but not exactly) a white campion. But my wild flower books only cover Britain and Northern Europe. Will be interested to hear others' views!
Cheers, Gail.
It was nice of people to stop to make sure you were all right.
Highly amused by the continued use of the wide-angle lens. The villagers undoubtedly consider "wildflowers" as "weeds." Things one sprays with herbicide.
Why am I not surprised the man with anger management issues drives a Qashqai. But I would have guessed black.
The Flowbee looks a bit like the Font's Karcher window cleaning tool. Maybe an attachment for that would do the job?
I almost heaved my coffee when I saw the swag. I wish there were an "unsee" button.
Agree with Gail - the first one is a speedwell and my guesses would be the same for the others. My wildflower book is currently boxed up along with most of the rest of my books for the period of our house renovations - now stalled until goodness knows when. For all the resources of the internet, I still find the books give much better wildflower identification than websites.
If you balk at Hittite and the DIY jobs still seem unappealing, you could stave them off with the wonderful History of the English Language podcast series. I was slightly disconcerted at first to find it narrated by an American professor, but then why shouldn't it be? And I've already learned how the divergence between US English and British English spelling came about - in an episode about Indo European. If you're very lucky, you might find the rudiments of Hittite. Later episodes include the history of playing cards and the printing press and how these influenced English. Thoroughly recommended! https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/episodes/
Amazing how dogs can detect people with anger management issues.
Hari OM
The village cares - even anger man; that's got to be a positive, right? YAM xx
Spookily I've just been listening to episode 9 - Who Were the Indo-Europeans - and Hittite popped up!
It is amusing that they are all concerned with your new hobby.
Thank you Angus for a most enjoyable morning! A good laugh is always appreciated. It is nice the villagers were concerned and that Sophie is an astute judge of character.
I love that the neighbours checked to make sure you were ok. Would never happen here even if it was really just cause they are being noisy.
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