Our little house-guest was a tad restless in the night, and
having three dogs did make things rather fraught. Dogs tend to bark at the most
random things such as odd sounds, shadows, and the strange voices in their
heads. One dog barking sets off another, and on hearing another dog barking the
first feels vindicated in having declared “Red
Alert”. With three of them randomly grumbling and growling I felt as though
I was sitting on a powder-keg for most of the night.
Sadie got up when I did, and after wandering round the
garden (leaving a turd every yard or so)
she squeaked at me as I ate my toast.
Not much had happened on Facebook overnight, and with only
one email of note I found my morning was somewhat dull.
As I scoffed brekkie I glanced at the smart meter. The
thing read seventy pence. What was different about last night compared with the
night before when we used thirty per cent more power in the same time?
"er indoors TM" and my dogs then
came downstairs, and mayhem ensued. Fudge sat on the sofa with me to hide from
it.
Once the dogs had calmed down I went upstairs to get
dressed. All three dogs followed me. They sat nicely as I got myself organised,
then suddenly Treacle flew off like a bat out of hell. It was at this point I
realised my socks were missing. I eventually tracked them (and the puppy) down.
We got ourselves and the hounds into the car and went to
the co-op for sandwiches. We hadn’t made any as we’d run out of margarine. As "er
indoors TM" went into the shop so the dogs started shouting
for her. I thought I’d do a “Facebook Live” to share the noise; they all shut up. But
during the day the video was watched over a hundred times.
When we arrived at Reculver the dogs started seriously
shouting; I recorded that onto Facebook Live too.
Karl, Tracey and Charlotte soon arrived, and after a minor
hiccup with "er indoors TM"’s second phone we were
soon off on a walk. Walk-wise it was *really*
good. We wandered along the coast barking at the waves, watching the
kite-surfers, exchanging pleasantries with the normal people. We came back
along a track which ran parallel to the train line along which we saw swans and
some rather beautiful scenery.
We had a minor dilemma at lunch time. Our little
house-guest was crying and holding up her paw. We gave it a very gentle
once-over in case it was broken, and then a more forceful check for thorns or
scratches. We could find nothing wrong. Thinking a rest might help, and seeing
how it was mid-day we stopped for lunch. In between having her own bowl of
biscuits and getting scraps of cheese sandwiches Sadie’s hurt paw miraculously
healed itself. She was fine for the rest of the walk.
As we walked we met some other people hunting Tupperware.
They were quite new to the game; we chatted for a bit before making our way
back to the car. It was at this point that I got a whiff of that delightfully
fragrant odour that is unmistakably fox shit. Our little house-guest was
smothered in it.
We had to sit outside the pub for our de-brief at the end
of the walk; we couldn’t have taken her in the pub smelling like that. Mind you
the pub was a little bit “council”.
The pub at Reculver caters for the nearby caravan park. I think that as caravan
parks go, it isn’t at the top end of the market.
This was one of the best walks we’ve had for a long time. A
coast walk, a countryside walk, dogs off the leads continuously for over six
miles. But geocache-wise… I can’t recommend it.
The Reculver Ramble series was put out about five years
ago. That was a rather good geo-series put out by someone who knows a thing or
two about the noble art of hiding plastic boxes under rocks. However those ones
were rather spaced out. Last year someone new to the game thought he’d help by
filling in the gaps. Probably done with the best of intentions, but clearly
done with little experience. Why on Earth would you put out a series of piddly
little things half the size of your little finger when there is room at every
location for something the size of a tool-box?
And like so many people who get over-excited about hiding
film pots under rocks, they flooded the area and seem to have now lost
interest. A few weeks ago we did one of their series near Hoath and found them
either in need of repair or missing. Today we replaced three before giving up
trying to help.
I don’t like to be negative, but the geo-guidelines
recommend that people should find quite a lot of geocaches before hiding their
own. Today was a good example of why this guideline exists.
We came home and Sadie got a bath. To be honest she wasn’t
alone in having a bath, but she was first. Just as we were towelling her off
Jimbo arrived to collect her.
The house seems much quieter now she’s gone back to her
home…
"er indoors TM" boiled up a rather
good bit of dinner before going bowling. I spent the evening trying to watch
episodes of “The Good Place”. The
operative word here was “trying”; my
dogs were snoring rather loudly…
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