22 March 2025 (Saturday) - Darcie, Dog Club, Backache

I spent much of the night listening for sounds of littlun, but I didn’t hear a thing from her. What little sleep I did have was rather restless. I woke in a cold sweat shortly after midnight following a nightmare in which littlun had decided that she wanted to play “Squid Game”. As she’s only three we played a non-lethal version in which every time she stuffed up, grandad got an electric shock. And after waking up at half past five following another nightmare in which the theme tune to her favourite You-Tube video had been re-written to “It’s Steve and Maggie – squawking like a bast”, and somehow I’d got the blame.

 

I gave up trying to sleep and made toast. As I peered into the Internet I saw two friends had birthdays today. One was a colleague who was forty today. Forty? I would have guessed late twenties. And another was a chap with whom I went to school so I know how old he is… even though he has always seemed about twenty years older than me.

I munzed and wordled, and then woke the girls and the dogs.

 

It took a little longer than usual to get ready this morning, Darcie doesn’t go as quick as she might, but we were soon all on our way to Repton. Dog Club was rather busy this morning; loads of dogs; loads of mayhem. Littlun loved it and spent quite a bit of time playing ball with Roo (one of the larger dogs). Roo loved it; as did littlun. It was only a shame that some of the bigger dogs crashed into me during their chase game which rather put my back out.

 

We came home via the bakery down the road. We usually have a bun with our coffee on a Saturday morning but we’d forgotten to get any today. So I popped into the local bakery. This place is usually a disappointment, but I thought we might give it another chance, and sadly it will be a while before we go back.

It is places like this that give me absolutely no confidence in on-line reviews. Scoring very well on TripAdvisor the reviews seem to be describing a different place. The cream slices we had today were stale with rather foul chemicals in place of cream, and were exactly what we’ve had before from there, but people on-line can’t speak highly enough about them. I’m reminded of an author friend of mine who has been given five-star reviews for some of his books by people who openly admit they’ve not read them.

 

With yukky buns scoffed littlun ran riot. The dogs all sat with me, and I fell asleep in front of “Toobs” (as littlun called You-Tube). I was fast asleep for over an hour. I woke in time to say goodbye to “er indoors ^TM” and “Darcie WaaWaa ^TM” who were off to a lambing event at the school farm in Tenterden.

I tried to do a little tidying-up but my back wasn’t having any of it, so I sat on my bum and watched more “Squid Game 2” on Netflix. I could remember the first season being a tad slow to get going; the second season has effectively wasted the first two episodes, but it eventually perked up.

 

The girls returned and wreaked havoc before littlun was returned to her home. I watched more “Squid Game 2” then fell asleep again.

It wasn’t long before “er indoors ^TM” returned, and hot on her heels came Chris, Sarah and Steve. We had a rather good evening on the infinity table. A game of “Game of Life”, a game of “Sorry”, a game of “Ticket to Ride”… a rather good evening.

 

Today’s step count has come in at about ten thousand steps less than the average for the last week…

My back hurt when I got up this morning and it has been giving me gyp all day.

21 March 2025 (Friday) - Another Cancelled Appointment

Treacle had rather spread out last night; I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to reclaim any bed space; finally giving up and getting up at half past six. I had a look in the garden; something had again been splashing in the little pond.

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. I had an email from geocaching HQ. There’s to be a geo-picnic in June in Lydd. I put that in the diary. I’d missed a geo-meet-up last night; there has been a little get-together in Frittenden. Geocaching HQ openly admit that their messaging and notification system doesn’t work with complete reliability which is why whenever I organise a meet-up I advertise it far and wide so no one misses out. Sadly in this respect (as in many others) I am in a minority.

And I saw that a friend was having a birthday today. Fifty years ago me and Dougal were best of mates. I last saw him in the flesh twenty years ago…

 

I munzed and wordled and then popped round to B&Q. Usually I avoid that place like the plague, but I needed a cover for the small pond. A trellis would be ideal but it wouldn’t easily fit in the car so I went to B&Q, got one and carried it home. Compared to previous visits this was rather good.

 

I then took the dogs up to the woods. As I drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. If you listened to what he said, he sounded rather impressive… until you realised that what he was saying bore little (if any) relation to reality. He was adamant that at the end of this government’s term the average household will be paying three hundred quid a year less for leccie and gas. However when presented with the fact that the average household is currently paying a hundred and fifty quid a year more than this time last year, he all but stuck his fingers in his ears and shouted “la-la-la-I’m-not-listening”.

We got to the woods. Again there were only three other cars in the car park. We had a good walk. Despite an empty car park there were quite a few young ladies jogging round in tight spandex. Some of them might as well have run round in the nip for all that they were keeping secret.

As we walked I had a phone call from the dentist cancelling today’s appointment.

 

We came home. I made us a cuppa then went down to the dentist to reschedule. I made an appointment for next week, and I made a point of telling them that this appointment is set in stone. They asked what I meant by that. I told them that over the years they have cancelled more appointments than they have kept, and I don’t want this one cancelling.

As I walked out I heard the receptionist telling her mate that they are receptionists, not punchbags. I shall find another dentist; I’ve not been happy with this one for years.

 

I drove round to Bybrook Barn to get water lilies, comets, compost and rockery plants. They had compost and rockery plants, but no lilies and the fish weren’t for sale. Apparently it is too early in the season for anything pond-related…

I went round to Dobbies where there was an incredibly helpful chap. They had a range of lilies; which colour would I like? And whilst they didn’t have any comets they had a lot of small goldfish. The chap said he’d scoop up a large net-full and hand pick the ones I liked. Dobbies aren’t cheap, but they are helpful.

 

I got the water lily and goldfish into the small pond, then sawed the trellis to shape. When the saw went through my thumb there wasn’t *that* much blood really. And then I painted the trellis. I hate painting trellis; it takes an absolute age. I then shifted some of the old garden ornaments to the end of the garden; I had this sudden stroke of genius (I have those from time to time) that they might add to the rockery.

I did plan to pot the last of the violas I bought on Wednesday and the alpines I bought today, but by the time I was in a position to do that my back was playing up and it was four o’clock. I tidied up and made up both a cuppa. I shall pot the plants over the weekend.

 

“er indoors ^TM” set off to fetch “Darcie WaaWaa ^TM” who was coming up for a little sleepover. We had a game of “doll kiss chase” then littlun and Treacle had a great game chasing around the living room. We all scoffed far too much pizza, and littlun went to bed amazingly early.

I suspect she will be up before midnight, but we shall see…

 

20 March 2025 (Thursday) - Holiday Day Four

I woke feeling full of energy and raring to go – at three o’clock. I dozed on and off for the rest of the night and finally nodded off just as “er indoors ^TM”’s alarm went off at seven.

I voomed straight into the garden and had a look at the ponds. The big one is clearing; something has been splashing in the little one. Three fish vanished from that pond last year. I shall have to think about building some sort of cover for it.

 

I made toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet. Much of Kent was seemingly up in arms about the closure of one of the county’s oldest pubs. I did wonder just how many of those crying crocodile tears had ever been into the place; let alone spent any money in there.

 

I took the dogs to the woods. As we drove the Defence Minister was being interviewed on the radio, and he made a point of not answering a single question that was put to him.

We got to Kings Wood; the car park was all but empty with only three other cars there. We started our walk and saw a herd of deer within minutes. Not ten seconds behind them came a jogger and his dog. I commented on the deer; the jogger wasn’t having any of it. He was adamant that I was mistaken. There had been no deer – if there had been his dog would have been after them like a shot. I smiled sweetly.

We saw more deer later in our walk as well…

At about the half-way point (the furthest point at which a car or van can get into the woods) we met a group of half a dozen people in Forestry England clothing with three Forestry England pick-up trucks. One of them had a trailer attached to it inside which about a dozen dead deer were hanging. The Forestry England people fussed the dogs and we got talking. I commented how we’d seen deer today, and this year we’d seen deer more often than we didn’t. “And that’s the problem” one of the Forestry England people commented. Apparently the rate at which we saw deer in previous years was about right; maybe once every two months. It would seem that last year and this year they’ve been breeding like things possessed and are having to be culled. I was reminded of Bob from the snake club who was a gamekeeper in the Challock area twenty years ago. He said that he was under orders to shoot one deer a day every day to keep the numbers in check.

 

With walk walked we came home. Yesterday we saw loads of people in the woods. There was hardly anyone there today. With “er indoors ^TM” having an office day I made myself a cuppa, munzed and wordled, and had a look in the garden.

The plan for today was to sort the larger of the gravelled areas, and that’s what I did. I painted up the old jug part of the water feature, then painted the wood bits I’d sanded yesterday. I varnished the jug, heaved out the old garden ornaments and heaved in the new. Put the old planter into place, filled it with compost and planted those violas I’d bought yesterday. There was a minor hiccup in that I thought I’d bought nine violas; I’d actually got twenty. Did I ever mention I’ve got a degree in maths?

I had a spot of lunch (yesterday’s leftovers) then spent an hour or so painting gnomes before running round with the watering can and then doing the “feeding the fish” ritual.

I took a few photos of today’s efforts. Far from being a week off work; I’m working harder than ever. And I’ve a list of things as long as my arm to do tomorrow.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up pork chops which we scoffed whilst watching more “Throw Down”. Painting gnomes isn’t entirely unlike what the potters do in that show.

I’m supposedly having a week’s holiday from work this week. I’ve not stopped.

19 March 2025 (Wednesday) - Gardening

I ached again this morning when I got up. This really sucks. Yesterday all I did was walk the dogs, mow the lawn, an hour’s light gardening and took Bailey to the dentist and I’m all in the next day.

I made toast and had a look at Facebook as I do. Friends were complaining about the government’s cuts to the welfare system. I’m not saying that the system was perfect; it probably needed an overhaul. But as a life-long leftie it bothers me that the Labour party only seem to stand up for their values when they are not in a position to do anything about that for which they claim to stand.

And I saw an advert for cable ties. You can buy them for pennies from a hardware shop to tie things with. Or you can buy them as a fashion accessory for hundreds of pounds. Your choice.

 

I munzed and wordled, then loaded the dogs into the car and we went up to the woods for a walk. We’d had reports of one of my geocaches being missing; it was. We replaced it as we went round the woods on our walk. There were quite a few people about today. As we went so the dogs ran up to another dog which immediately kicked off. I whistled and my three ran straight back to me. As we walked off I could hear that dog’s owners having a heated argument about why their dog can’t come when called like my dogs did. When my hounds come when called it is rather impressive.

 

We came home. The two smallest dogs had a bath. They’d both rolled in different disgusting things. And once bathed I sorted us both a cuppa then got on with my plans for the day. I hung out the washing.. and had to pause that to gather up an epic crop of dog turds. I then disassembled the pond’s pressure filter for the annual replacement of the ultra-violet light bulb. I eventually got it all apart (it took some doing), and got the old bulb out (that took some doing too). It was at that point that I found that the new replacement bulb was broken. Ho hum…

I phoned the aquatic shops to see if they had the right model of replacement bulb. In a perfect world they would make these filters with one-size-sits-all light bulbs, but they come in a range of shapes and sizes and wattages. No one at Bybrook Barn would answer the phone, but the nice people at Dobbies said they had a bulb that would fit.

I went to Dobbies. It’s never my first choice of places to go. They ain’t cheap, and there’s not one customer in a hundred in there looking where they are going, and the place has an amazingly laxative effect on the dogs. But I wasn’t taking the dogs. It was the only place with the bulb I wanted… and I could just shove the blundering customers out of the way.

Whilst I was at it I got a job lot of violas; six for a fiver in Bybrook Barn, in an amazing display of competitive pricing Dobbies were knocking them out as seven quid for nine. I never got round to using them today, but (in theory) I will use them tomorrow.

 

By then it was lunch time. I had a cold cross bun and a cuppa then cracked on in the garden again. I got that new bulb into the pressure filter, and whilst I was at it I replaced the input nozzle that had sprung a leak late last year. I ran out the pressure filter hose, and once it was connected I sparked it up; I didn’t want the muck that had over-wintered in the filter to go back into the pond. Instead that went onto the monkey-puzzle tree. It seems to like fish filter muck.

With the pond woken for the year I ran out the pressure-washer and had a blat at some of the old garden ornaments. They didn’t really clean up any good. Yesterday I said that they wouldn’t, didn’t I? The jug from the water feature didn’t come up too bad though… I shall paint it up and keep an eye out for something to replace it.

I sparked up the little pond; the cascade in that doesn’t really do much other than act as a reservoir for muck, so I removed it. I pruned the plants in both ponds, and made us both a cuppa and skibbits (as “Darcie WaaWaa ^TM” refers to biscuits) and then there was a knock on the door.

The sander I’d ordered from Amazon had arrived. I had been thinking of replacing the water feature and the planter I built last year, but that would be expense and effort. I had this stroke of genius (I have those from time to time) that I might sand them both down and give them a lick of paint and see if they might perk up.

I sprayed varnish onto the gnomes I’ve been painting. Hopefully this will have them last a tad longer than the last ones… Having said that, the last ones were painted for the first time on 17 June 2007 so if they do last longer they will probably see me out.

 

I got the sander out and read the instructions. The instructions had clearly been written in some obscure language and converted (not translated!) to English by Google translate. The instructions seemed to put an inordinate amount of importance on a nozzle which was “design to collect dust task”, but notwithstanding tasks (collect dust or otherwise) it managed to sand down that which I wanted sanding.

I shall see if anything has perked up after tomorrow’s painting. I was too tired to get the paint out today.

 

By that time I’d spent five hours working in the garden, and (in all honesty) it looked much the same as when I’d started. I voomed round with the watering can, then performed a test of canine memory.

Last year whenever I mentioned “I’m going to feed the fish” the dogs would fly to the pond in the hopes of getting some fish food. With the pumps in the pond running the fish were moving about, so I made my announcement. Despite it being five months or more since I last said it, the dogs flew to the pond.

They remembered.

And they still like fish food.

The fish had some too.

 

“er indoors ^TM”  boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more “Throw Down”. We had a bottle of plonk too… and some port.

18 March 2025 (Tuesday) - At The Dog Dentist

I ached again when I got up this morning. I’ve been overdoing it a bit lately with all this garden nonsense.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there, and much the same as ever. No one was really doing very much on Facebook, which was a shame. A new geocache had appeared on the map – this one in Biddenden. It involved solving a puzzle, and I’d soon solved it. I thought about chasing after a First to Find, but someone else had already found it two minutes before I saw the thing. Ho hum…

 

I munzed and wordled, and sparked up my chess app. Overnight “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” had been attempting to advance her rook, so I countered with a horsey, and then took the dogs out.

As we drove to the woods so the pundits on the radio were interviewing Adrian Edmonson about his radio play “Waiting for Waiting for Godot”. He didn’t really sell it very well.

 

We got to the woods and had a rather good walk. We saw the Dalmatian we saw the other day; the woman with the dog was as strange as ever; again marching deep into a thicket to avoid us, and then coming out once we’d passed. All the dogs ate horse poo, and we saw a herd of deer. As we walked so we saw a rather morose looking pair, and their dog ran up to us. Said dog had a dead squirrel in its mouth and looked very pleased about it. Needless to say my three all wanted a go with the dead squirrel, and weren’t happy that the other dog wouldn’t share.

We came home via the Sainsbury’s petrol station where the usually miserable old bat was quite chirpy. She’s usually got a face like a smacked bum at six o’clock, but was a different person at eleven.

Perhaps she’s not a morning person?

 

I made a cuppa, then cracked on in the garden. I mowed the lawn and had a tidy-up of the smaller gravelled area. It does look a bit better, but was hard work. I’ve hoiked out several little garden ornaments; I shall get the big pressure-washer out later in the week and see if they scrub up any good. Somehow I doubt they will, but I need to get the big pressure-washer out anyway.

 

I had a hot cross bun for lunch, then took Bailey out. First of all we went to the garden centre where I had a look at the water features. They were offering last year’s models at rock-bottom prices… Rock-bottom prices being about double what Amazon were charging. From there I took Bailey to the Doggy Dentist. I took Treacle the other day and we had a really good session. Today’s didn’t go quite as well. If Treacle’s behaviour had been nine out of ten, I think it’s fair to say that Bailey scored minus three. She wriggled and struggled. The doggy dentist did a good job, but there’s still quite a bit of cleaning to be done on the inside surfaces of her teeth. We’ve got another appointment in three months’ time. I’m taking the fact that she’s allowed back as something of a result. In the meantime we’ve got homework – we’ve got to get her used to having her mouth mauled about.

 

We came home for a cuppa. I got more paint onto the gnomes, and then I had a video call. On Sunday when I was in the garden centre some chap was offering cheap rate leccie and gas. I’m up for cheap rate anything so I made an appointment. He wanted me to have the figures together of what I was currently paying…

I won’t say he was selling a scam, but he was pushing a strange arrangement where I would get leccie, gas, broadband, mobile, credit card, house and contents insurance all through the one company. The savings he promised would all come through cashbacks on the credit card. Personally I’m not keen on having everything through the one company; if I have the arse with one (like the buildings insurance!!!) I don’t want to have to cancel everything.

 

As “er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner I watched “Ancient Aliens: The Ultimate Evidence” on the history channel. Have you ever watched the show? There was absolutely no evidence whatsoever; ultimate or otherwise. Instead, several feeble-minded simpletons attributed everything they don’t understand to aliens.

Give it a go – it is hilarious… up to the moment when you realise that there really are people who believe this rubbish and these people are allowed to vote and do jury service.

17 March 2025 (Monday) - Walk, Whelan's

I didn’t sleep very well last night. When I finally got warm so the dogs started fidgeting, and when they finally settled so the aching started. I must have overdone the gardening yesterday.

I got up, made toast and watched an episode of “The Other One” then sparked up my lap-top. There wasn’t a lot going on this morning really, but there were a few photos of the Maison Dieu in Dover. The place has been closed for two years (that’s why there’s been no beer festivals there), and from what I could see it looks just the same as when they started.

“Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” had made her move in our chess game. She’d had my prawn with her horsey, which I thought was fighting talk. I threatened her horsey with the bishop’s prawn on E3 and hoped for the best. Amazingly she made a bit of a bad move and I huffed her horsey with the bish. She wasn’t impressed.

I munzed, and got a butterfly and a qrate too, and I got Wordle on the third attempt.

And then I spent an age fighting with the Met Office app on my phone. It was “having an issue” as it was unable to load data. It finally started working in the early evening..

 

I went down the road to the dentist as I had an appointment with the dentist and the hygienist. As I stood outside with everyone else waiting for someone to open the door so my phone rang. It was one of the dentist’s receptionists telling me that the appointment with the hygienist had been cancelled.

Eventually someone opened the door. Everyone who had been queuing outside all went to the counter where three receptionists were sitting, only to be rudely told that reception was self-service and we were directed to some pad-devices by the door.

I got in to see the dentist ten minutes after my scheduled appointment was due to start. Bearing in mind I was due to be first one of the day, that wasn’t a good start for them. The dentist rummaged in my gob and muttered something incomprehensible. After a few minutes rummaging his assistant said that all was done, and the reception people made an appointment with the hygienist for Friday and with the dentist for six months’ time.

I really should change dentist; I’ve not been happy with the lot down the road for years.

 

I came home, collected the dogs, and drove them up to Kings Wood where we walked a different walk to usual. Over the weekend someone had gone geocaching at the top end of the woods and had lost their glasses. I thought we might try to find them; we didn’t, but we did find some socks. And we met Amie and Willow too. We walked with them for a bit. It was good to catch up.

 

With walk walked I took the dogs home, then drove up to Sheerness and Whelan’s. Some of our garden ornaments were looking rather tired, so I spent a small fortune replacing them. Whelan’s stuff is heavy; by the time I’d lugged it round their yard and into the car, and then from the car to the back garden I was knackered.

 

I spent an hour fighting with my phone and lap-top to check my state pension forecast. It wasn’t easy. I finally established that taking semi-retirement hasn’t affected my state pension.

I then went into the garden and hung up the garden clock that “My Boy ^TM” and ”Auntie Chel ^TM” got me for Christmas. I’d deliberately not put it up earlier, but wanted to wait until I started on the garden. And then I got out the paints and started painting up the gnomes I’d bought earlier. I’ve got the red, yellow, blue and white done. Green and black and pink will come later. Painting gnomes is like potting plants and sorting shingle and any other garden job; it takes far longer than you’d think it should take.

 

“er indoors ^TM” has gone bowling. I’ve done the ironing. I’ve watched the last two episodes of “The Other One”. I think I might paint some more gnomes…

16 March 2025 (Sunday) - Gardening

I slept like a log last night right up until the nightmare in which I was at the bar in a crowded pub where the queue at the bar was getting longer and longer because the King (who was standing next to me) couldn’t decide what he wanted to drink and no one could be served before him.

What was that all about?

 

I got up, made toast and peered into the Internet. I sent out birthday wishes to the two Facebook friends having a birthday today. There wasn’t much else happening in the Internet, so I munzed, got wordle on the last attempt, and sparked up my chess app. Overnight it had updated, and was working again, so I did something racy with a prawn to see what “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” would make of it. Some might say I advanced the Queen’s pawn, but we don’t encourage the normal people, do we?

 

I put a load of washing in, and having completely forgotten the mental notes I’d made yesterday I had a little look in the garden to see what I needed from the garden centre. I needed white stones, brindle chippings, lawn food, a bag of compost, two biggish shrubs and a small plant. I harvested the dog dung (again) and then set off to get garden stuff.

Bearing in mind that Ham Street garden centre opens half an hour earlier than Bybrook Barn I went there only to find they didn’t have any brindle chippings or white stones. Ho hum… I got the compost and the lawn food and the plants and went to Bybrook Barn. I arrived there at the same time as a rather irritating chap whose wife was constantly apologizing for him as he was continually getting in everyone’s way. He really was utterly oblivious to the fact that he wasn’t the only person on the planet.

I went there to get two bags of stones; I came out with five. One bag of white wouldn’t have been enough, and it was buy two get one free. And the red ones were at a bargain price if you bought two.

 

I came home and heaved everything into the back garden. I got the laundry hung out, some white stones round the cordyline and one buddleia potted before “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs came home from their walk. We had a cuppa and a lunch of hot cross bun, then I went back into the garden.

I got the other buddleia into its pot, then re-potted the triffid that “er indoors ^TM” wanted me to save. And I put the new polyanthus into the pot that the triffid came out of.

By the time I’d swept up, tidied up and made good six hours had passed. I took a few photos of what I’d done in the garden since Thursday. Over the last three days there’s probably over ten hours’ effort and close on ninety quid’s worth of squander spent on the garden. You really wouldn’t think it, would you?

I ran round with the watering can, got the laundry in off the line and put another load in to scrub, and reviewed the situation. The lawn needs a mow. The ponds need turning on. The wooden planter I made last year needs sanding and painting. The yard needs a tidy. A lot of the garden ornaments look tired and need scrubbing or replacing…

I left that all for later and made myself a cuppa. I felt I deserved it. There’s only so much garden I can do and still be able to move the next day.

 

“er indoors ^TM” sorted a gammon joint which we scoffed whilst watching episodes of “The Great Pottery Throw Down”. I was left wondering - how do you get into pottery? Everyone’s got a kitchen so baking is easy enough to have a crack at. But just the basic set-up in pottery would cost an arm and a leg.

 

And in closing, today is March 16^th. Back in the day it was the start of the close season. Every year there would be no fishing from March 16^th till June 16^th so that the fish might breed in peace. Nowadays it doesn’t seem to happen. The law states that it still applies to rivers and canals, but it doesn’t seem to be enforced.

I’ve not been fishing for years. Five and a half to be precise. The last time I went was when I caught my biggest fish ever.