Monday 5th June 2017

Whitsun Monday (Denmark)

I say this because I was expecting a busy day, but a quick glance at my contacts list on Skype revealed just one of them actually in work I had a few things to do. But Monday, yeah?

A week at home, something I needed more than I can tell you. Travel to Oostende, then when Tony arrived, there was getting out and about doing stuff (not that I had a problem with that), and then up to London for two days before catching the train to Scotland, coming back home for two days then off to Denmark. And inbetween out orchid chasing, if just for half a day. I mean, it sounds like I am complaining, and maybe I am, but what I need is a week at home, doing work, laying around with the cats, listening to the radio and the so such.

What this means is, as usual, is that we get up, chat whilst drinking coffee and then Jools leaves, and I am on my own, or alone with the cats who clearly see me as a soft touch when it comes to getting anything. Molly knows that if nothing else, laying on my computer keyboard will result in some action being taken. And for a quiet life, some food being provided will usually follow.

Most of my morning is spent trying to find out if my phone had actually been found. Because it was a holiday in Denmark, I don't even get to speak to the office at the airport, but am assured by the office in Esbjerg that a message will be sent and I would get a call later that day. I don't of course, and resolve to call again the next morning, if not I would have to call IT and order a new phone. I have to send mails out to everyone telling them not to bother calling, and explaining my accident prone Friday morning.

I have breakfast, but by ten I am hungry again, so decide on early lunch, and by the time I am doine with faffing around it is half past, but I sit down to toasted cheesy bread with smoked salmon and scrambled free range eggs And tea. I know fizz would have been better, but before 11?

The day continues in much the same way, me trying to tie the loose ends up on the project, no one to scream at as to why work had not been done, so sending an increasingly angry stream of mails at my minions, in the end arranging a meeting on Friday to fond out why the jobs had not been done.

Come late afternoon, it is time to go for a walk. It is sunny but breezy, but if I was lucky might see something, and anyway, as I always say "a walk is never wasted"!

It had been a while, what with holiday, travel with work and hosting a visitor from foreign lands, it must have been 5 weeks since I last strode across the fields, past the pig's copse to the dip.

It was a sunny afternoon, but breezy, so not many butterflies to snap. But nature has been busy, crops have sprung up and are waiting to ripen, hedges are full of blossom that will turn to fruit come autumn. I walk over the fields with the wind behind me, but even then it was cool. The way the light played over the fields of ripening barley and beans all lined up in neat rows was great.

At the pig's copse, there was no sign, I guess sleeping of breakfast somewhere in the shadows. I have no food to give them anyway, so I walk by. I walk to the top of the dip, look down at the mud still collected down there, and decide that this was far enough.

I walk back, chase a Common Blue around the copse for a while, but he is spooked and won't settle for me. I do get a Small Tortoiseshell on the path over the fields, too windy for the poor thing to fly away, so I snap him and walk back home.

The afternoon fades easily, I write, listen to music. There's not even much to prepare for dinner as we're having fish cake baps. Oh yes, we know how to live. They only require 20 minutes cooking so I can do them when Jools comes home.