Tuesday 15th July 2025

Gales in high summer are not unknown, but are rare. So with high winds and a good chance of rain in the afternoon, if we were going to do anything, best do it in the morning.

After breakfast, I decided to go for a walk.

Although like with most forms of exercise, the hardest part was actually setting off down the road. I put my shoes on, then sat on the patio for quarter of an hour.

And in a new move, I only took my phone with me, no big camera with macro lens, as I (rightly) thought in the fresh breeze there would be few butterflies.

And rather than turn right out of the drive to the fields and Fleet House I turned left towards Station Road, and reaching there, I turned right to go to the top of the down, before striking out across the fields.

Looking south, there were clear blue skies, but to the north and west, there were serious clouds building, so little time to lose.

Along the track there were a few freshly emerged second brood Common Blues, and a few Wall were basking on the ground, but the reality was I don't get close to any of them, so no shots lost.

I am still not 100%, but I do push against it from time to time. I can remember when Mum and Dad came to visit me in Germany in 1995, when Mum was just 51, she had already embraced lack of movement, not being able to keep up with Dad and I, she sat down while we went off.

Am am 9 years older than that. I do sit down on occasion, but press on, mainly being driven by photography or the desire to see what's round the next bend, over the next hill.

I have not walked this way for about a year, I guess. It was good to see some of the plats still going strong, but the Common toadflax seems to have died out, sadly.

The wind began to gust, and I felt rain on my back, a few drops. So, when I reached the horse paddocks, I turned down the slope to Collingwood, then right again past the old midden, now overflowing with wild flowers after it was ploughed and seeded a few years back.

Then down the track to the end of our street, and back home.

The rain held off.

Jools and I got the parasol down, rather than let the wind blow it over. And we were oddly hungry, so I made burgers for an early lunch, and as it was very nearly midday when I dished up, we opened some mid-strength beer/cider.

Cheers.

Through the afternoon the wind blew, but there was no rain. If anything the wind dropped, but by then it was too late to get started with anything, or go anywhere.

I got some beef short ribs out of the freezer, cooked them low and long in the oven. Served them with Boston Beans, fresh Spanish corn and mashed taters, Precious.

It was, of course, a triumph.

No sport on TV, football or Le Tour, so I played the Soft Cell album I bought last week, and we were ecstatic dancing non-stop.