13 June 2026 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Bat & Trap

It was good to have a holiday. I really enjoyed our time away, but you can’t beat your own bed and your own chodbin.

And somehow I’ve managed to knack my elbow…

I got up in the small hours. For all that you can’t beat your own chodbin, mine is quite a hike from the bed. Whilst I was at it I put a load into the washing machine.

 

I made toast and peered int Facebook. I was immediately presented with the claim that “Ashford MP Sojan Joseph & Labour tried to make KENT taxpayers pay for daily school transport from Crawley, Sussex — for illegal asylum seekers”. The claim was from some Reform UK councilor. Did Ashford MP Sojan Joseph & Labour *really* try to make KENT taxpayers pay for daily school transport from Crawley, Sussex — for illegal asylum seekers?

I really don’t know. They may well have done. Is there any evidence for this? That’s what we need to see. I did a little research and all I could find was name-calling on Facebook. Sadly however this is what I’m seeing more and more from politicians of all shades. No one is saying what they’ve actually done; they are just making claims about the failings of the opposition whilst rarely providing any evidence to back up their claims. I’m reminded of the bickering of children that I had to referee when I was a cub scout leader.

There’s no denying that the people of Ashford have made a mistake by voting for the current MP, but what is the alternative? Just shouting “VOTE REFORM” doesn’t tell us precisely what we would be voting for, and “vote for us because we aren’t as bad as the alternative” is hardly a defensible political position.

 

Steve was on the radio doing the “Guess the Lyrics” competition. “The reason for living the reason for leaving” was from ABC, but it wasn’t “Poison Arrow”; it was “The Look of Love”. Even with the initial mistake I still got it within a minute. I felt rather smug about that. I Munzed. I Worded from “lyric” to “quell” in five goes then we took the dogs to Dog Club.

 

There were quite a few new dogs along today, and Morgan took a few minutes to settle, but in the end a great time was had by everyone. I tried to count the dogs; we had somewhere in the high teens of dogs along. It was difficult to be sure; they don’t sit still.

From Dog Club we drove to the petrol station while Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. “Stand By Your Man” and the first appearance of Davros on Doctor Who? 1975.

 

We headed out to Staple. Being a few minutes early we took the dogs for a little walk and as we walked we met a coupe of friends who were also early for the geo-meet and thought that they too might have a little walk. It was good to catch up.

And then it was on to the Black Pig for the annual Bat-And-Trap-othon. Bearing in mind the rain of the last week we had a really good afternoon in the sunshine drinking beer and playing Bat & Trap. I scored two, which was something of a result. I do like the geo-meets, and today’s was so like how they used to be.

 

As the afternoon wore on things became progressively more vague. I counted five pints of ale, and I’ve a photo of gin & tonic. I slept much of the way home.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went off to the local Am-Dram’s production, and I settled in front of the telly and watched three episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale”.

 

I took quite a few photos today. And I think I’ve caught the sun…. And my elbow still hurts.

12 June 2026 (Friday) - Coming Home

I was up twice in the night. I shall miss having a chodbin in the next room. I got up at seven o’clock and made a noise shaving so that “er indoors ^TM” might wake.

She didn’t.

So I clattered about a bit, and that didn’t work. In the end I piled the dogs onto her, put my suitcase on the bed and stared noisily filling it. That did the trick.

 

I then took the dogs out to do what dogs do. I can only assume they’d taken to dumping in the thicket near the Sanctuary because they’ve been scoffing like things possessed but dumping nowhere near as much as the do at home. I hope they haven’t been dumping in the thicket near the Sanctuary; the Sanctuary is a little shed in an unkempt corner of the garden where you go to say your prayers, and the last thing anyone wants when saying their prayers is a bonanza of dog dung.

I had a good look round, but didn’t find anything.

 

We seemed to get packed up rather quickly, and we were soon on our way to Hutton Country Park; a little park near Brentwood. A walk round there would break up our drive home, and there were ten geocaches there which was an added bonus. They were rather well crafted geocaches too. We had a good wander round; it was only a shame that Treacle was willful. With minutes to go she made a bee-line for the swamp. I called her back; she ignored me. I shouted at her, and she glared at me in a most indignant way. And then carried on heading to the swamp. After a second bellow she eventually took some notice of me.

 

We said our goodbyes, and headed home listening to Radio Two as we drove. Have you ever listened to Radio Two? It was dire when my gran used to listen to it (she died in 1984) and it hasn’t got any better in the meantime.

We got home. It didn’t take that long to unpack. I spent a little while straining my brain at geo-puzzles. There’s one outside the pub we are going to tomorrow.

 

Feeling rather tired we had a cheeky KFC for dinner. We scoffed it, and as the dogs slept we watched an episode of “The Orville”.

I’ve put some polish on my walking boots. It might waterproof them a bit; it might not.

 

I’m going to have an early night. I’m absolutely worn out.

11 June 2026 (Thursday) - Lawshall

As the week has gone on I’ve slept better. Either it’s all a bit much for me or the beer is taking its toll. The dogs are finding it a bit much too. Earlier in the week when I got up they would all leap up ready to go bothering everyone else, but today they were all-in and frankly sparko at seven o’clock this morning.

We spent a few minutes watching the birds in the garden. There’s certainly more than we’ve got back home.

 

Karl and Tracey were soon up, and we had brekkie, then went for a little walk. The weather forecast was against up, but no matter what happened the weather couldn’t be any worse than it had been yesterday, could it? (at the risk of giving spoilers, the answer was “yes”)

 

We drove out to nearby Lawshall where we walked a wonderful series of geocaches. A lovely walk, really well-thought-out caches. Tricky puzzles to solve in the field. Finding the thing was easy enough, but getting the log out to sign it wasn’t easy. It would have been one of the best geo-days ever if not for the rain.

But unlike yesterday my pants stayed dry, so that was a result.

 

We came back to base for a sausage roll and a scotch egg and a pint (three), and then it was declared that this was just the starter.

We then drove out for a late lunch. Having had a rather good dinner there a couple of days ago we went to the Rushbrooke Arms again. I see one or two people have been critical of the place on Google and Tripadvisor. All I can say was that we had a very good bit of dinner again. More Bang Bang Cauliflower, and this time I went for the steak and ale pie. The dogs all got scraps… perhaps they’ve been getting too much this week? Bailey wouldn’t take a chip, but would lick the gravy off of it.

 

We retreated back to base, where we perused the geo-map, then had even more scoff and even more beer whilst playing “Trouble”.

The house seems a lot quieter without Jess and Charlotte.

I took a few photos today.

 

10 June 2026 (Wednesday) - The Kings Forest

 

I rather ached when I woke, which was odd bearing in mind that we’ve not really exerted ourselves massively. I got up and had a shave, and then took the dogs round the garden (again) gathering dung and again I looked at a glorious morning.

 

As brekkie was being prepared I went and sat with little Bailey who has claimed one of the sofas as her own. She seems to be struggling this week. Normally spending about eighteen hours a day asleep, being constantly awake is taking its toll on her. I sat with her… and woke an hour later with all three dogs asleep on me.

We had a particularly good bit of brekkie, then looked at the geo map. Admittedly the weather forecast was a tad iffy, but we had this plan that if we went for a little walk just north of Bury St Edmunds we might drop Jess and Charlotte off at the train station on the way back to the cottage.

It was a good plan. In theory…

 

We got to the designated parking spot and the heavens opened. We waited for fifteen minutes for the rain to abate, then went for a little walk. After a few hundred yards it hossed down rather epically. Only for a few minutes but enough to soak us. My lightweight raincoat needs to be either replaced or binned.

But the sun came out. Rather brightly. We were all dry in two minutes so we carried on. We had a good walk though rather pretty woodlands. We saw deer. We found a dead deer, and some of us rolled in it (as you do). We even found geocaches.

And then it rained. Seriously rained. Whatever rain you’ve seen before was just a light sprinkle compared to this. Within minutes my pants were ringing wet.

We abandoned and came back to the cottage where the dogs got a bath. With soap. As we scrubbed the dogs so Karl and Tracey ran Jess and Charlotte back to the train station at Bury St Edmonds, and we had a lazy cuppa. A cup of coffee as opposed to a pint.

 

We had a rather lazy evening with scampi and chips and the Infinity table playing Blokus (2-D) and Sorry…

 

I took a few photos today.

9 June 2026 (Tuesday) - Rushbrooke

The dogs were asleep, but the sun was rather bright through the curtains. Being wide awake I got up and did the geo-admin for the last two days until the cottage’s wi-fi died unexpectedly at seven o’clock. Hurrah for my mobile and its mobile hotspot facility, eh?

As I logged our thirty-odd geo-finds I looked out at a glorious morning which sadly wasn’t forecast to last much past brekkie time

 

After brekkie we looked at the weather forecast for the ten thousandth time and decided to take a chance. We drove up to the Rushbrooke Arms where I banged on the door and had a word with the nice man. He said that my plan of using their car park, going for a walk and coming back to his pub for lunch was a good one, so that’s what we did.

As always our walk was laid out for us by a series of geocaches. Perhaps spread out a little too much for my liking, and perhaps a little too much on roads, but all things considered it was a very good walk. Geocaching-wise far better than the frankly impossible hides we’d struggled with earlier in the week.

And apart from a minor shower the weather held for us too.

 

After four miles we were back at the pub where we had a very good bit of dinner. Bang Bang Cauliflower – no, I’d never heard of it before either, but I would certainly have it again.

 

We drove back to base where we jigsaw-ed. I say “we”; I had a kip. As the afternoon wore on the weather alternated between glorious sunshine and thunderstorms and hailstorms.

We had a few pints, and a very good dinner of bread and oils and halloumi and olives, and the 3-D Blokus came out too.

 

I took a few photos today. And I had a bit of an early night… A rather lazy day had been rather tiring…

8 June 2026 (Monday) - Long Melford

The dogs stayed asleep until half past seven this morning which was something of a result. When at home they spend so much of the day asleep; they are constantly on the go here. Little Bailey is particularly showing the strain of it all.

 

We got up and played silly beggars charging round a damp garden, and as brekkie was prepared so the rain stopped and started. Brekkie was particularly good, and with that scoffed we thought about going out. But the rain had come back. We (I) had a little doze in the conservatory, and eventually the rain held off long enough for us to decide to take a chance.

 

We drove down to nearby Long Melford where we had a little walk along a very long village. There were two geocaching adventure lab series there which gave us a good walk. The first one took us to the top end of the village . We then tried a puzzle geocache at the church. It was a huge church; almost cathedral sized, but with a very strong smell of cannabis. What was that all about? The puzzle geocache was rather rubbish; we had to find five bits of information from the church and the graves. We found two, Googled two, and guessed one.

But we found what we were looking for, and had an ice cream to celebrate.

 

From there we walked the bottom end of the village; it was rather pretty. And with walk walked it was only a five minute drive to the Nethergate brewery where we went on Friday. We needed supplies, and while we were there we had a little drinkie. A pint of mild, and a pint of lager-coloured stout. It was odd!!

 

We then came back to base for a bit of a rest and a very good late dinner. And a couple of games of 3-D blokus…

 

I took a few photos as we went round today

7 June 2026 (Sunday) - Shimpling

 

I had somewhat naively hoped that the dogs would have slept better last night. This early morning’s bout of silly beggars took place at five o’clock; half an hour earlier than it did yesterday. Having given the impression that they needed a widdle I opened the bedroom door… and then had to chase all three round the cottage to herd them into the garden. I saw two raking out, and can only hope the third did too.

We got back to bed eventually…

 

After a bit of brekkie we got going. We went down to nearby Shimpling where we had a bit of a walk following a series of geocaches as we do. There was a minor incident as the dogs chased off after a huge rabbit… it might have been a hare: I really should find out what the difference is.

We found an archaeology site. No one was digging though which was probably for the best as we could have made serious nuisances of ourselves. We had a picnic in the graveyard…

Geocaching-wise I can’t recommend the route. When you hide a geocache you rate the difficulty, state the size of the thing, and give a little clue. The difficulties were all left at the default setting, the sizes given (when given at all) were misleading, and the clues were meaningless at best. Sadly many of the caches had been seemingly just drop-kicked into the hedge. Which was very strange as the chap had clearly put a lot of effort into creating quite a few very well made hand-crafted caches.

one.

 

After six and a half miles we were back at the car. We came home for a little drinkie. And another. And another. And the evening got progressively more and more vague.

I took a few photos (until I fell asleep).