Tuesday 20th September 2016

Second day of my planned week off, and I am preparing to log in again. It must mean that I love my job. Or something. Or it could be just that my boss asked very nicely.

Whatever the reason, I am up at half five with it being just about still night. Te cats are happy, and Jools is taking the opportunity to go into work early to catch up.

Jools leaves and so leaves me with an empty coffee pot and the thought of never getting to the point when I could actually take some time off. At least the weather was helping, in total disregard to whatever the weatherman said about warm September days, it was raining heavily outside. So it was nice to sit at the table and ehar the rain pouring outside, doing the garden good. Or at least that what I was thinking.

I checked the internet speed; 12 mbs, which meant that something like Netflix should be possible now, although upload speed had yet to improve.

So I began work, and battled to put of fires. I was losing the will to live to be honest.

Lunchtime came and went, and just when it seems that all would always go wrong, the planets aligned, and just before a meeting I called, it was green lights all across the board. So, we had the meeting, agreed the outcomes. I wrote the minutes and that was that. I set my out of mail message and switched the computer off. So the week off, now shortened to three days, could no begin.

To celebrate, I went for a walk.

I had it in mind to go to Kingsdown to look for the Long Tailed Blues, late in the afternoon with the sun now out, it what ambitious. Some might say foolhardy. I put on my walking shoes, grabbed my camera and locked the door.

What was clear, even walking across the fields was that the rain had made the ground soft, but still the fields looked dry. I lived in hope of seeing other butterflies, especially at the copse, but apart from a couple of Large Whites, there was little life on the wing. And no blues.

Past the pig's copse, where the piglets are now huge, and apparently hungry. I looked in and they made a healf harted attempt to turn the ground over, but they looked pretty well fed as it was. I walked on.

Down the Dip, also known as Norway Drove, past where there should have been lots of chickens scrabbling around in the undergrowth of Fleet House, but there was no sound. Maybe the fox has called again. There were sheep in the paddock, and pretty warm looking sheep too, sheltering under the trees out of the sun, as their fleeces had grown well over summer. They eyed me with suspicion, and with good reasn as I knew the taste of mint sauce, and they knew it.

Down at the bottom of the dip there was a mud bath. Not just a mud bath, but a pond covering the track, and the avoiding path so overgrown there was no way past. I thought about it for a moment and turned for home. I told myself i would do more tomorrow, even believing it myself.

I made a pint of squash once home, sat in the shade of the living room and listened on catch up to Radcliffe and Maconie as they interviewed Yello because they have a new album out, and are preparing for their first ever live dates! To top it off, it seems that Boris Blank and Dieter Meier share a house together, in their late 60s. Can you imagine that? Anyway, the apir are wonderful, and have great Swiss-German accents, and thew record, Toy, sounds wonderful. Here is the lead single, Limbo:

The afternoon ends and the sun drops low in the sky to the west. We have leftover aubergine and pasta salad, so no cooking for me to do, just remember to get the food out of the fridge an hour before eating, to allow the flavours to be released. And this time I used fresh basil as well as the flavoured cottage cheese. Another triumph for Jelltex it has to be said.

We watched the second episode of I Robot, still not sure, but it kept us quiet.

Then Norwich were playing Everton in the League Cup, a place we never win, so imagine the pleasant surprise when City ran out 2-0 winners, and so the beginning of what feels like a cup run.

It is now getting dark by seven, and fully dark before eight. The year surges on, and although it may still feel like summer during the day, night comes all to soon now, but it does mean more time sitting out on the patio, at least whilst it is warm enough.