Secede

The German billionaire is up and about at the crack of dawn. He passes us on a pristine green vintage Panhard tractor with dark blue wheel arches. It would seem that his latest hobby is restoring old tractors. Today he's wearing bright red dungarees, an ochre polo neck, and a blue and red striped bobble hat. The tractor/billionaire colour combo makes for a cheery start to the day.  'We shall soon be travelling to join a cruise that takes us to the South Pacific for sightseeing and recreation ' he tells me with a degree of fluency in English that I would find hard to match in German. He pauses before adding a staccato and heavily accented 'Bora Bora'. This slightly throws me ."That sounds very exciting" I  reply. The billionaire seems satisfied with this answer and heads off with a wave and a cheery ' Wiedersehen'.

At the storm drain dog and master stop to take in the view. There is a gap in the trees here that allows the wind to blow up from the valley in full force. This morning it's blowing ferociously in a way that shapes Sophie's hair into tufts. She seems oblivious to the wind and to what it's doing to her fur. This morning the tufty PONette and her companion discuss events on the Belarus frontier and Senator Cruzs view that Texas should secede.

After our chat at the storm drain it's off at high speed to the Holy Oak before a sharp right turn onto the path that take us back to The Rickety Old Farmhouse. From time to time my shaggy companion pauses to make sure I'm keeping up. We pass a field of red toadstools. I worry that Sophie might try to eat one but she ignores them. Perhaps there's something in her DNA that says red is a colour to be avoided. She certainly seems keen to eat just about everything else she finds in the long grass.

This mornings croissant light and fluffy but getting to be borderline stale. A 6.8/10.

This is alarming if you live in North Georgia :https://www.livescience.com/giant-spiders-invade-georgia