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.
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