22 July 2026 (Monday) - Too Hot

Another hot and restless night, but I managed to stay in my pit until seven o’clock which was a minor result. I made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there.

This morning my Facebook feed was filled with adverts for pubs and beer festivals. Quite a few of them, but the closest being a hundred and twenty miles away. Getting adverts for shops and services half-way across the country is a regular occurrence on Facebook. Personally I’d never pay to advertise anything other than a mail-order business on there.

You’d think that the software would somehow be able to target the marketing a little better.

 

I Munzed; our guild had reached the second of our monthly targets. And we made an early start on our walk today. I had a plan to get out before it got too hot, but by the time we’d driven a mile the temperature on my car’s thermometer had gone up by two more degrees. We abandoned the idea of Kings Wood and went to Orlestone instead. We walked a shorter walk avoiding swamps and fox poo, but saw far more people than we usually do on our walks.

When we got home I couldn’t park. I couldn’t reverse into the space as the idiot driver from Clearabee was only inches from the back end of my car. I drove forward so he could pass… only he wouldn’t. He remained inches behind my car. And when I pulled up at the side of the road he too pulled up. I just sat and waited. Eventually he reversed and passed, whilst the chap in the passenger seat glared at me.

 

Once home I made us both a cuppa and heard the news that the Prime Minister has resigned. I can’t pretend to be a fan of the chap, but he’d achieved quite a bit in his short time in office. Sadly what he hadn’t done was to entertain and amuse the masses. As we’d driven to the woods this morning the pundits on the radio had been talking about how Prime Ministers don’t seem to last any length of time these days. The blame was put on the fickle electorate who want to be amused. Look at the success of that idiot Donald Trump who says black is white and good is bad, and when he can never deliver that which he’s promised he immediately finds a scapegoat to blame. Or consider the antics of Boris Johnson…

 

I Wordled from “guild” to “ovate” in five goes. “Ovate” means egg-shaped, and I got it randomly as it was the only word that fitted given the letters I had left.

I marked trainee’s work, I wrote up some CPD (not done that over the last two weeks’ holiday), and then went to have a look at just how hot it was in the garden.

 

It was hot. Too hot to be farting about putting the wishing well together. I didn’t want to be heaving and sawing in the heat, so I just contented myself by gently trimming back the jungles coming over the fences from next door. And with those trimmed I had a little doze, then played some more Meowdoku.

I then announced that it was time to “FEED THE FISH”, not that this came as any surprise to Treacle. She has a built-in timer when it comes to food. She knows that half past three is fish feeding time, and is rarely more than a minute or two off at dinner time and chicken foot time either.

 

I voomed round with the watering can, and then got the hair trimmer out and gave myself a haircut. Speaking with various people over the weekend it would seem that you pay over sixteen quid for a short back and slap at the barber’s these days. Stuff that !!

 

“er indoors ^TM” went bowling. I cracked on with the ironing whilst watching another episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale”. Like so many other shows it started very well, but now that it’s got to the fourth season it is fast running out of steam.

 

I’ve got to go to work tomorrow. That will come as something of a shock…

21 July 2026 (Sunday) - Rather Dull

It was a hot night, not helped by the dogs all laying in a straight line only allowing me about eight inches along the edge of the bed. They all looked most indignant when I hoiked them over (several times).

I eventually gave in and got up at eight o’clock. I had a plan for an early dog walk, but it was already too hot.

I made toast and peered into the Internet. This morning’s petty squabble was on one of the pond-related Facebook groups in which quite a few people were bending over backwards to show they didn’t have the faintest idea about how to tell the difference between a tench and a goldfish.

And a friend got married yesterday. I say “a friend”; she’s on my Facebook friends list, but I don’t recognise the name or the face. I wonder who she is?

I Munzed, Wordled from “eight” to “alibi” via “spiny” and “flick”, and got dressed.

 

Last Sunday we went for a short walk round Frittenden following a geocaching Adventure Lab. I did have a vague plan to do one of those today – a little half-hour walk. Yesterday we met friends at a geo-meet; there was one of those in Sussex today. Yesterday we’d also had a great time at Dog Club and with friends round in the evening. But by the time I’d scoffed toast it was two degrees hotter than that in which I’d have been happy to take the dogs out. Being far too hot to do anything much we sat in the garden (under an umbrella) and had a rather dull day. I got a couple more coats of paint onto my tyres, and in between painting I alternated between crossword puzzles and my latest waste of time – “Meowduko” which is actually rather harder than you might think.

And “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good ploughman’s lunch so the day wasn’t a total write-off.. 

 

In between “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” sent messages and “My Boy ^TM” visited, both in honour of today being Father’s Day. Back in the day Father’s Day used to be a big thing…

I miss my dad…

20 June 2026 (Saturday) - Rather Busy

I had something of a restless night last night, and eventually nodded off just before the alarm went off. Being woken by the alarm - there’s a novelty.

 

I made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. This morning there was quite a bit of talk about the Geocaching Association of Great Britain (the GAGB).  Despite its rather impressive name, the GAGB has absolutely no formal standing with geocaching.com whatsoever and is pretty much unknown to the wider community of those who rummage under rocks for errant film pots.

Back in the days when the Internet was young the GAGB started its life as one of those internet forums in which people used to bicker constantly before Facebook was invented. It tried to make the transition to social media, but therein lay its problem. It was an internet forum and pretty much nothing else. Its membership is basically those who have subscribed to its newsletter. Over the years several friends have suggested that I stood for their committee, but what put me off was that during the fourteen years that I’ve been asking, no one (least of all other committee members) seemed to be able to tell me what they actually did, and I’ve only ever heard from them when they wanted votes in their committee elections. 

It would seem that they’ve now gone belly-up.

 

I Munzed, Wordled from “night” to “drake” on the last attempt. Steve was on the radio doing the “Guess the Lyrics” competition. He said this one was easy: “Theres a rumour going round the town that you don’t want me around”. It might be easy for some… it wasn’t for me.

 

I got dressed – putting on the same clothes that I wore yesterday. They’d been washed yesterday evening and had dried in the heat overnight.

Being Saturday we went round to Dog Club where we had a rather good session. I counted eighteen dogs but it was difficult to be sure. Treats were shared, squabbles were squabbled, a typical Dog Club really.

“er indoors ^TM” went off to craft club, and as I drove home Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition… When did the Pope come to Canterbury, and when did Genesis release “Paper Lace”? I knew that one – 1982.

 

Once home I emptied the dishwasher. The thing has been playing up lately; the glass isn’t sparkling like it used to. I’d topped up the rinse aid and the salt, and used non-cheapo tablets, but still the glass needed a rinse under the tap afterwards. I suspect the dishy needs replacing.

I got another coat of paint onto those tyres. We’re on to the masonry paint now. The masonry paint seemed to go on rather quicker than the primer; despite a serious shaking-up it seemed to be rather thinner. And with the tyres painted I fiddled and farted about for the four hours it said to leave between coats. It was then that I struck on the genius idea of getting a stick and stirring the stuff. When you stirred it (as opposed to shaking) it was considerably thicker.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home from craft club and we drove down to Brookland where there was a meet-up of local geocachers going on. As we walked into the pub garden so the normal people’s dogs kicked off, and our three totally ignored them. I felt rather smug.

It was good to catch up with friends… even if we had met up with most of them only a week ago.

 

We came home, and were soon joined by Chris, Steve and Sarah. We sat in the garden for a while and got out the 3-D Blokus. I offered sage advice (!) for the first game, and then won the second.

We came inside where despite a rather promising start I came last in “Game of Life” and I amazed everyone (not least of which myself) with a rather impressive winning score in “Ticket To Ride”.

 

Today had been rather busy… and I’ve covered about half the steps that I’ve done every other day this week.

19 June 2026 (Friday) - Too Hot

As I scoffed my toast I saw that Ashford is to get a branch of Primark. Is that a good or bad thing? I don’t really know, but our MP was all over social media this morning trying to take the credit for it. As I have said so many times before, our Labour MP is pretty much indistinguishable from his Conservative predecessor in that all he is ever seen to do is to appear on social media somehow managing to take the credit for other people’s efforts.

Meanwhile the people of Makerfield have elected Andy Burnham to be their MP. He’ll be Prime Minister within a few months… and facing leadership challenges of his own within a year.

And I rolled my eyes as I read some of the snake-related Facebook groups. For some random reason Facebook has suggested I might follow pages about royal pythons. Lovely creatures. I've been following those groups with interest. I used to keep pythons thirty years ago, and helped run a local reptile club at the time. Back then reptile keeping was one big argument, and sadly nothing has changed. Snakes, fish, dogs, Star Trek, 70s bands, geocaching, walking in the woods and now pythons… no matter what the topic, people just want to argue.

I Munzed, and Wordled from “thing” to “emoji” in four goes. Did you know that today is Wordle’s birthday?

 

I took the dogs up to the woods. We walked our usual four-miles circuit and as we went we didn’t see anyone else at all. Treacle waded in several swamps… it was a tad warm when we started, and was far too hot when we ended. But we managed to walk most of the way in the shade, and Treacle found several puddles in which she cooled off.

 

We came home for a cuppa. I loaded up the car with a bootful of rubbish, then turned the tyres over and got another coat of primer onto them. And then I took my bootful of rubbish to the tip. It was rather hot as I drove.

Bearing in mind the local tip has been closed for redevelopment for months I was rather surprised to find it pretty much *exactly* the same as it ever was. The only discernible difference was that the various skips were rather more full than they ever used to be.

And with boot emptied I came home, I spent a little while pulling weeds, then settled by the pond and read my Kindle for a bit until it cooled down a bit. When it wasn’t roasting I ran round the garden with the lawn mower. The lawn had reached that length when it could conceal a smaller dog’s turd, and I’d rather see them than be navigating a potential minefield. And with lawn mowed I voomed round the gravelled areas with the garden vacuum. That made me sweat. I had a quick shower, and bunged a washload in.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up ribs and chips for dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more “Taskmaster”. Part of me wants to go out and paint those tyres. The instructions on the tin said to let the primer dry for six hours and it’s had seven…

18 June 2026 (Thursday) - More Rain

Again I ached when I woke. I got up, made toast and had a look at Facebook. Someone who used to run a rather specialist shop in Folkestone had the arse with the government because no one was coming to buy surplus military stuff from him. I can see that only taking fifteen quid a day wasn’t a viable business model, but more and more the government is being blamed for every single failing of the world. Am I missing the point here? Would having a Reform UK government have the masses running out to Folkestone to dress up like Action Man? Somehow I doubt it.

 

With “er indoors ^TM” not working from home today we were up earlier than usual. We got to the woods a good hour and a half earlier than we did yesterday. We walked our usual shorter walk (what used to be our usual walk) of four and a half miles and in that time we only saw two other people. We did see a deer though. Again like the one we saw the other day it wasn’t particularly fazed by the dogs.

 

We came home. My Forestry England welcome pack had arrived together with the all-important car sticker which allows me free parking at the Kings Wood car park. I Munzed and opened a qrate. I Wordled from “today” through “butty” to “entry”, then cracked on in the garden.

As always I started by harvesting the dog dung. Strating with anything else usually leads to disaster. I then got a first coat of undercoat onto the tyres. The instructions said to allow at least six hours between coats so I got the spirit level and got the platform for the thing level, and that was all I could do on “Operation Wishing Well” for today. I don’t want to saw any wood into shape until I’ve figured out how far apart my uprights are going to be. That distance will be what it is once the uprights are actually in place, and will probably bear little (if any) relation to anything I might measure.

 

It was a bit warm so I came inside. I saw I had an email. I subscribe to a website called “Lablogatory”. Every so often there would be a work-related post appearing there which I could sometimes use in my personal continuing professional development. Naively I always thought the site was created by volunteers. It turns out that those producing material for the site were being paid to do so, and the money has dried up. My CPD blog is open to all, and a surprising amount of people seem to refer to it. Am I wrong in providing this for free? Personally I don’t think so.

 

I watched an episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale” as I scoffed a Bombay Bad Boy pot noodle for lunch. Having been a tad egg-bound recently I hoped for great things. And then I went out to the shed and had a little tidy-up. I’ve booked a tip run for tomorrow to get rid of that which I tidied.

I could feel a few spots of rain so we quickly did “FEED THE FISH”; it was hossing down by the time the fish and the dogs had had a little scoff.

I then spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between trying to do the shed when it wasn’t raining, and reading my Kindle when it was. It rained quite a bit – I’m just hoping the paint on my tyres was mostly dry by then.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home and boiled up dinner which we scoffed whilst watching a couple of episodes of “Taskmaster”, and that Bombay Bad Boy pot noodle has done the trick. I’m going to bed as I shall lay down there. It hurts to sit right now…

17 June 2026 (Wednesday) - Taking It Easy

I slept like a log last night. I did have an idea to go out into the garden and scrub those tyres when I woke far too early at five o’clock, but I slept through until eight o’clock which was something of a result.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do. I’ve noticed something - more and more I’m seeing posts to Facebook starting with “please – no hate”. This speaks volumes about social media doesn’t it? There’s no denying I’d be lost without it, but when you consider how many people clearly just go on-line to spew their vitriol at people they’ve never met and never will, you can see why the government wants to keep children off of it, can’t you?

Meanwhile a Russian frigate sailing down the English Channel has taken a pot-shot at a passing yacht.

 

I Munzed, got Wordle on the fourth attempt, and at twenty to nine decided that “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs had been in bed for quite long enough. I hoiked them out of their pit, and once they’d had brekkie I took the dogs up to Kings Wood. I made a point of taking a shorter walk today… we did what used to be our standard walk. I need to go back to a shade under four miles. The recent five-and-a-bit miles is just a bit too much. But we had a good walk… even if Treacle found the mud and Morgan did come home covered in bird crap.

As we walked we met quite a few other dogs; the woods were rather busy today. And most of the encounters passed off well. They only real iffy one was with some woman with a Labrador and a Poodle who blanked us entirely. Generally there’s a polite greeting, and sometimes a bit of a chat with those we see regularly, but more and more there’s an element up there that is stand-offish to the point of rudeness. We saw one the other day – the idiot in the shirt and tie.

 

We came home. In a novel break with tradition Bailey escaped being bathed, and with the mud off of Treacle and the bird crap off of Morgan I made us both a cuppa. And then I cracked on in the garden.

I gave the tyres another scrubbing with soap and water, and got another coat of wood stain onto the wood bits. I voomed round with the bionic burner, and spent a little while looking for the roofing felt. I had this stroke of genius that roofing felt might make a good roof for the wishing well I’m going to make out of the tyres and timbers.  I can remember having loads of the stuff… It turns out I took it round to “My Boy ^TM” to help with his shed roof.

I drove round to fetch it back.

 

I stopped off at the co-op to get Belgian buns for lunch. The co-op do the best Belgian buns. Sadly they do the best annoying idiots too. How can so many people blunder around utterly oblivious of the world around them? At one point one old biddy grabbed her mate’s arm and dragged her away saying that she was in everyone’s way. The one being dragged looked around and was very obviously very surprised to see there was a whole world around her.

And with buns eventually bought I went on to the first fruit of my loin. He’s had his lawn replaced with artificial grass. It looks rather good at the moment, but will it last? We shall see.

I got the roof felt. And I blagged his white spirit too.

 

I came home and saw that the little pond’s aerator pump was struggling so I cleaned it out. As I did I found one of the grass carp was dead. Ho hum… That got flushed.

I had my Belgian bun then went back into the garden. I rubbed the tyres down with white spirit, then gave the timbers another coat of wood stain. Then rubbed the tyres with more white spirit. That stuff stinks. I had a little sleep by the pond and thought about painting the tyres but decided against it. Instead I pruned the hedge between us and not-so-nice-next-door. It needed pruning. I would say something to her about the jungle, but over the years I’ve sadly found that speaking to her is at best a futile endeavour.

I also pruned our no-longer-dead cordyline. I’ve pulled off all the dead leaves. Maybe that did it some good. Maybe it didn’t. Time will tell; it always does.

Meanwhile my new fuchsia is blooming.

 

I had a phone call from one of my old trainees (he was a trainee sixteen years ago!) He’s up before the beak facing allegations of… well, in many ways the allegations are immaterial. Having been up against the legal system myself a couple of times, and having seen friends contesting with it, my hopes for my old mucker aren’t high. It really has been my experience in courts of law that victory goes to those who know what phrases to say (regardless of their veracity) whilst keeping a straight face. Am I bitter? Yes.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled me up a pizza then she went off out with her old workmates. I settled in front of the telly underneath a pile of dogs and watched more episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale”. As I watched there were several commotions outside. We’ve put a tray under the bird feeders to catch the seeds chucked by the sparrows. The pigeons have taken to trying to get those seeds by getting into the tray and making the whole lot over-balance..

 

My plan for today was to take it somewhat easier… I’ve come in at under fourteen thousand steps so that’s somewhat better than the last two days, I suppose… I still ache though.

16 June 2026 (Tuesday) - Walk, Shopping, Gardening, Vets

I rather ached when I got up this morning. Last night when I went to bed my watch claimed I’d covered over seventeen thousand steps yesterday. Perhaps I overdid it a bit?

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do. The other day I mentioned that a pub a few miles away, the Bonny Cravat, was closing down. There was a post about them on the local news site this morning. Despite having spent ninety thousand pounds of their own money on a Shepherd Neame pub they were only getting one or two customers a day and have knocked it on the head. For all that I keep saying that pubs have had their day, this one has always amazed me. The Bonny Cravat looks like a council house surrounded by a tarmac car park whilst the building next door is a traditional olde-worlde pub with oak beams and a rather pretty garden. The only surprise here is how the Bonny Cravat kept going for so long.

I saw a friend was off on a river cruise in Portugal. I quite liked the look of that… but I couldn’t leave my dogs behind.

And several people were posting to say that their children had left school for the last time.

However no one was posting pictures of fishing. Back in the day freshwater fishing would stop for three months in March so that the fish could spawn, and fishing would re-start on June 16^th. People would sit on the lakesides and cast out at the stroke of midnight. These days no one observes the close season.

I Munzed, Wordled from “ached” to “amaze” in four goes.

 

I took the dogs up to the woods where we had a good (if long) walk. As we walked I saw a deer on the path in front of us. The dogs missed it completely; it watched us approach, and it only ran off when I reached for my phone to take a photo of it.

We had a “near miss” with the normal people. Bailey disappeared for about ten seconds. I whistled for her and a voice on the other side of a thicket told me not to worry; he’d found my missing dog. I whistled again and the chap said he’d got her. I replied to let her go. This confused him. What – just let the dog run? Yes. He wasn’t happy about it but two seconds later Bailey came running round the tree and I could hear mumblings from the other side of the bushes. We carried on but never actually saw this bloke, which was probably for the best.

 

We came home for a cuppa, then I went out on a little mission. First of all to Brewer’s (the paint shop) to get something to prime my old car’s tyres before dobbing them with masonry paint. The internet said I should use oil based multipurpose primer. The specialist paint shop said they’d never heard of it, and after a quick look it would seem their suppliers hadn’t either.

I drove round to Wickes where I got a water-based multipurpose primer, several bits of wood, some screws, a chain and most of the ingredients for what I’m going to make those tyres into.

 

I came home again and potted the plants I got on Sunday. They look much better potted, and the purple plants give a nice contrast to the water buttercups round the bog filter. I scrubbed the tyres with warm soapy water (as it said to on the internet), painted up the wood with woodstain, and by then I was worn out. We did “FEED THE FISH” and then I sat by the pond for a while reading my Kindle as I had a late lunch of a bag of smoky bacon crisps and a tin of Doctor Pepper.

 

I took Morgan and Bailey to the vets for their annual check-up. For a dog that barely eats, Bailey has put on half a kilogram. Morgan’s weight remains constant, and both dogs passed their MOT with flying colours.

I came home, had a shower, and slobbed in front of the telly as I do in the early evening playing games on my phone whilst watching drivel on the UK Gold channel… There’s something odd with that channel. So often the program goes intermittently silent and the video pixelates. It doesn’t happen during the adverts and it doesn’t happen on any of the other (non-UK brand) channels. I shall hope that the issue is at their end and not with our Sky-Q box.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we washed down with a bottle of prosecco and a couple of G&Ts as we watched a couple of episodes of “Taskmaster”.

And for all that I might have overdone it yesterday, as I type this my watch is telling me I’ve covered twenty thousand and twenty-five steps and it hurts to move. I really should take it easier tomorrow.

15 June 2026 (Monday) - Another Day Off

 

I slept though till six o’clock this morning. I got up, did what I got up for, and put a load of washing in to scrub. I went back to bed in the hope that I might get some more kip. I didn’t; I rarely do. Once I’m awake, generally that’s it.

I eventually got up at eight o’clock. After a shave I stood on the scales. Last week’s holiday has put half a stone on to me. Oh well; that’s what holidays do. I hung out the washing, made toast and had a little look at the Internet as I do most mornings. There was quite a lot of consternation in the Facebook pages about the Romney Marsh as some asylum-seekers have been housed in the area. Apparently these asylum seekers have been bothering local children… Apparently. Everyone’s heard the tales but no one has actually seen anything; let alone reported it to the police. No end of hatred and vitriol was being spouted. I originally wrote “racist hatred” but is it *really* racist? There’s also quite a lot of bad feeling in the Hastings Facebook pages from those who’ve never lived more than fifty yards from the house in which they were born. They really don’t like the “DFL”s. “DFL”s is a term used to describe the people moving into the area who are “down from London”.

I’m reminded of my days in the cubs (as a cub, not a leader) when the children there came from two different primary schools. The leaders tried and tried to get the kids to mix, but we stayed in two completely separate tribes. We simply wouldn’t even acknowledge the existence of a child who went to a different school.

So many people have a general animosity against anyone who hails from somewhere else, which is silly and a great shame. People you don’t know aren’t actually enemies looking to slit your throats; they are just friends you haven’t met yet.

 

I Munzed, Wordled from “slept” to “broil” in five goes,  then took the dogs up to the woods. We walked one of our longer usual walks, but over the course of five and a half miles we only saw two other dog walkers. One said hello, the other looked down his nose at us whilst his poor dog (formally ordered to walk at heel) watched with a pang of sadness as my three ran riot in the thickets. I felt sorry for the poor dog; he really was with one of the normal people. Who else walks in the woods in mid-June in a shirt and tie with waistcoat, jacket and a coat on?

 

We got back to the car and came home. We arrived just as “er indoors ^TM” was making a cuppa, so that saved me a job. I updated my Facebook profile pictures with those piccies above, then charged into the garden to get the laundry in as it was raining.

And with that draped over the banister I popped over to the garden centre. Yesterday I’d got some new plants but we had no compost for potting them. I got some compost… at eight quid for a huge bag or twelve quid for two huge bags I bought two huge bags. And as I suddenly had loads of compost and the pots at home were small I got a couple of small troughs too.

 

I came home where I made myself some toast, and with that scoffed I got on with the post-holiday ironing. I’d got all the laundry washed and dried over the weekend, and it only took a couple of hours to get it ironed. As I ironed I watched more episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale”. And with ironing done and telly watched I then tried to get up quietly. But the dogs which had been so soundly asleep and snoring weren’t going to miss the possibility of “FEED THE FISH”, so that’s what we did. I then ran round with the watering can and had a look at that pile of tyres I saved from when I got new tyres for the car. I’ve got instructions for what I might do with them.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up sausages and chips then went bowling. I watched even more episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale”. The republic of Gilead seems to be a scary place, but with Reform UK councils seemingly repealing a *lot* of the legislation which stopped the alienation of the LGBT community and there insisting on prayers at council meetings, is it *that* unlikely that the UK could be reduced to that sort of religious crackpotism ?

 

I’m feeling rather worn out. Days off often do that to me.

14 June 2026 (Sunday) - Frittenden

I was awake far too early this morning, and so put a load of washing in. I went back to bed and dozed on and off, and was hanging the washing out at eight o’clock. I put another load in, made toast and had a look at the Internet. Apparently yesterday was supposed to be a day of showing pride in our country as various far right groups had planned marches and rallies, but from what I could work out they were all incredibly poorly supported and were all trounced by the anti-racist brigade. Am I alone in feeling that those who are trying to make me proud of our country are actually making me shamed of it?
And there was talk about the first games in the football world cup which is taking place. A friend in Australia was telling his pal that “we” were going to get through to the next stage and “you” might not. Almost as though they themselves were playing in the games. People take football so seriously and so personally. I really can’t see the attraction. I don’t know if being immune to it is a good or bad thing?
I Munzed, Wordled from “early” to “sepia” in four goes, got dressed and went into the garden again.
 
I set the aerator in the pond going as today looked to be another hot one. Whilst we were away the lawn had gone mad. I strimmed the edges and mowed the lawn. By the time I hung out the second wash load I was worn out and it was only ten o’clock.
I had a little look-see round the garden. The lawn wasn’t the only thing to have gone mad. The strange plant that I got last year which had gone a bit iffy was doing well. Before we went away I gave it a “kill or cure” pruning which seems to have cured it. And my poggered cordyline seems to have come back from beyond the grave… which is a minor inconvenience. I was going to use its pot to home the lilac that Karl gave me. However I’m told that the lilac wants to sit in its existing pot for a few months, so there’s no immediate rush to sort anything out just yet.
 
We took the dogs out. There was talk of a food and craft festival in Elham, but when I looked it up  there was nothing that really interested me. So instead we took the dogs out to Frittenden where we walked a rather good little series of adventure lab caches finding several of the village’s purple plaques celebrating places of local historical note, and then on to a final geocache. It was an ideal short walk for a warm day; just enough for the dogs.
As we headed home we found a load of plants up for sale in someone’s front garden. We got enough to fill our empty boxes in the garden, and got some rockery plants too.
 
Once home I got the laundry in from the line. That took some doing. We had a cuppa and a bun that we’d bought when out. I couldn’t find a link to “Granny’s Doughnuts”; they looked awful but were nowhere near as bad as I thought. Far better than the offerings of the family-owned bakery down the road.
Bearing in mind it had been a couple of weeks since I’d done it last I ran out the hoses and cleaned the big pond’s filter. And with that cleaned and the waste hose away I left the other hose running for a few minutes to top off the pond as I cleaned out the little pond’s filter.
I hosed round the plants, and felt rather worn out. I never used to feel so knackered after doing so little.
 
I had another cuppa with a slice of Battenburg cake (or bat and bird cake as I’ve heard it called) whilst I struggled with a cryptic crossword. I didn’t have a clue what the cryptic clues meant, but I had a stroke of genius. I copied them into Google and pressed the AI button which came up trumps. There’s a particularly fiendish cryptic crossword in every edition of Viz magazine (or a “craptic” crossword as they call it). I might have a go at the next one if only for the bragging rights of getting my name published for having solved it.
And flushed with success I then had a go at another geo-puzzle and spent a couple of hours trying all sorts of ideas and getting them wrong. In desperation I sent out a message to a pal who’d solved it some time ago… it turned out my first idea was the right one, but my basic arithmetic was at fault. Twenty-one minus three isn’t fifteen. Have I ever mentioned that I’ve got a degree in maths?
And I found the chicken’s feet that we took on holiday. The dogs never got round to eating them.
 
“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good curry which we scoffed whilst watching the last episode of “The Orville”. When I first saw the show I wasn’t impressed, but as it went on it got much better.
 
I always say I’m going to have an early night. I really should have one… bet I don’t.

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).

6 June 2026 (Saturday) - Whelnetham

 

I meant to bring a clock… I always feel rather confused and disorientated if I don’t know what the time is… it turned out that it was five o’clock when the dogs wanted to go for a tiddle this morning. Mind you when I say “go for a tiddle” I actually mean “go play silly beggars in the great new garden we’ve got”. But they’ve learned their lesson and stayed away from the swamp which was masquerading as a pond.

After five minutes the novelty of “silly beggars” wore off. I dried their bellies and we all went back to bed. But I was wide awake.

I plumbed the lap-top into the cottage wi-fi and posted up yesterday’s photos. It’s the sort of thing I want to see when others post them.

 

We tuned in to Radio Ashford for Steve’s “Guess The Lyrics” competition. “I thought i could have my cake and eat it too”… no? I had no idea either. It was The Four Seasons.

Karl boiled up a particularly good full English brekkie. Oh, it was good. I contributed by loading the dishwasher afterwards. The plan was to go for a walk, but it was raining, so we sat in the conservatory and I fell asleep…

 

I woke to excitement. The rain had stopped and we were forecast four hours of dry. We hurried off to nearby Whelnetham and had a little walk guided as ever by a series of geocaches. A rather good series of geocaches as it happened. I’ve never found one magnetised to a road drain before. As we walked we saw a rather spectacular red kite. The dogs chased rabbits and came back incredibly quickly (for them). The walk was only marred by some local thug getting incredibly aggressive because Morgan and Bailey dared to run within fifteen yards of his dog. For someone who never wanted dogs I do tend to get rather protective of them… but to be fair the dogs just ran in his general direction, and came back when called. The local by-laws said that dogs had to be under control which mine were. For all that Thugbert was ranting about dogs being on leads, those who insist on dogs being on leads generally know very little about dogs.

 

We came back to base. We had a pint and sat in the garden with it… for about five minutes until the rain hit. Then we adjourned to the conservatory for crisps and another pint. And a game of chess. Not all of the bits were there, but they rarely are.

 

It was soon tea time. Karl boiled up a rather good pasta and chicken sausages and I offered sage advice, and Jess and Charlotte soon arrived.

The dogs got very excited again…

 

Itook a few photos today.

5 June 2026 (Friday) - Off On Holiday

I couldn’t sleep last night. I gave up and got up at three o’clock and watched an episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale” before going and waking “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs.

They weren’t keen on it.

 

We got on our way shortly after half past six and made really good time right up to junction twenty-eight of the motorway where Google told us we’d found a one-hour tailback. That was an inconvenience. But good old Google told us of a diversion we might take along Wiggly Bottom Lane and pausing only briefly to tiddle in a lay-by we arrived at Duxford McDonalds about thirty seconds before Kark and Tracey.

 

We chuckled at the row the staff were having; we scoffed sausage and egg McMuffins, and drove down to Rede where we went for a little walk. As always our walk was guided by several geocaches…

We started with a puzzle at the church and couldn’t find the information we needed.

We couldn’t find the second one…

Once we’d found the third one we realised what was going on… geocaches all have difficulty ratings scoring them from one to five. These had all been rated at one and a half (really easy to find) They should really all have been rated at three and a half or higher… But we eventually found twelve out of fourteen, and the dogs were rather good off the leads which was a result.

 

From there we went to dinner at the White Horse in Rede. The people were friendly, the food excellent. The dogs all got a treat of biccies and cream. But it was odd that they had no ale on hand pumps. They were getting some in a couple of weeks’ time. Presumably no demand for the stuff?

 

We then divided our forces. Some went to get food shopping. We went to the Nethergate brewery to get beer and cider. An interesting place – it’s got its own bar. Might go back there in a day or so…

 

And then on to the holiday cottage. There’s a pin for the place on Google maps. You’d think the pin would correspond with the actual location, wouldn’t you? But we found it, and once unpacked we had a little look around.

The place has three ponds. As a pond-keeper I rather thought that the smaller two might need a little maintenance. The third looked to be in a very sorry state. Behind a gate and with very thick weed and much all over its surface. So thick that you might mistake it for solid ground if you were as silly as Morgan and Bailey who went charging up… There was a look of total horror on their faces as the ground on which they were running just collapsed underneath them.

They aren’t keen on swimming at the best of times.

Fortunately there was a hose in the cottage garden. They weren’t keen on the hose either but there it was. It was as well we’d brought a lot of dog shampoo along, and it didn’t take *that* long to scrub them.

 

We had some rather good pizzas for tea which we scoffed in a conservatory. Have you ever scoffed in a conservatory? I’d not convinced about them.

The beer gave way to port, and it all got rather vague…

 

Itook a few photos of the day… sadly nowhere near as many as I usually do.