Thursday 28th July 2016

Another day, another dollar.

Somehow we have nearly reached the end of another month, and we are still going strong. Well, almost.

Thursday was pretty much the same as Wednesday, which was the same as Tuesday, really. Wake up, drink coffee, put out rubbish, say goodbye to Jools, have another coffee and breakfast, switch on laptop, work, have lunch, work some more, ignore the cats, have more coffee, eat ice cream on the patio in the warm sunshine.

As you see, your typical day working from home.

Once the working day was over, I put on my walking boots grabbed my camera and went for a leg stretcher, just for a while.

This is the period between when the wheat has ripened but has not yet dried out enough to be harvested. So, the fields are gilded and shimmer in the warm sunshine.

Inbetween the paths and hedgerows are getting so overgrown so that walking along them becomes difficult. Looking back towards the centre of the village, it is bathed in sunshine, but all bar the church tower is hidden behind mature trees, gently swaying in the breeze.

There are birds on the wing in abundance, and insects too, but at the butterfly glade there are just Small Heaths and Red Admirals to be seen, no Common Blues nor Brown Arguses, more's the pity. Maybe there will be a second brood soon? Yes, looking at my butterfly book, I see the second brood should be due anytime soon.

In the pig's copse, the piglets, though not really piglets anymore, are nosing around in the dirt looking for food, too busy in their task to look at me walking past. As I approach the cope, a line of horses with riders go past, we all smile and wish each other a good morning; how pleasant.

I walk down the dip to the gate to the big field to snap the muddy area and to say hello to the sheep in the small paddock on the other side of the trach. They have forgotten me from last time when I fed them some fresh grass. But one curious ewe comes over to sniff my finger and takes a mouthful of fresh grass. But she is not impressed and doesn't take a second; happy to sniff my fingers and tug away at the short turf in their paddock.

I walk home, puffing in the warm sunshine as I walked back up the dip, then back along over the fields.

After feeding the cats I prepare the aubergine for dinner, and begin to slice them, egg and breadcrumb them. Before I have finished, Jools comes home and helps me finish so I can get cooking and have it all ready.

I had made the pasta before breakfast, added lots of Parmesan cheese and ground pepper too, so it would all be infused with great flavours by the time dinner time came round.

We feast on pasta salad and freshly pan friend aubergine, washed down with most of a bottle of red. It is wonderful, even if I say so myself. There is then TOTP to follow, all Bow Wow Wow, the Fun Boy Three and Bananarama, Depeche Mode, Julio Iglesias, Haircut 100, the Associates, Adrian Gurvitz and Tight Fit. And I can remember it being screened back in 82, and those painful interviews conducted by Simon (Master) Bates.

Anyway, a railway documentary to follow that, and outside darkness had already fallen.

Time for bed.