Morning walk

-
Blogging has been in short supply recently, after my OH was carted into hospital rather dramatically with a kidney stone. He is now out (of hospital; the stone is still where it was alas), but he is not exactly firing on all cylinders. Anyway, he has now managed to get up, so I am trying to re-connect with the world. Illness is an odd thing for the non-ill: as well as the constant nagging worry (not like this at all when one is ill oneself) and the sheer bloodiness of watching your nearest and dearest being terribly unwell, is the odd sort of half-world it casts you into. Everything is carrying on around you remarkably normally but you, as you sit in Tescos waiting for the promised but not yet faxed through prescription to appear, petrified in case things are getting worse at home, are not.

The natural world continues, as does my ineptitude at harvesting anything. I attempted to make elderflower syrup, but think I now have to accept that the browned mess on the side has gone too far for me to do anything about it. Elderflowers look better on the tree, anyway.







Dog hunts by scent, so very rarely sees bunnies. There were several out as we walked down this ride. I saw them all. She saw none (having her head buried in the wheat Sniffing Something). She's now got to the point where the bunnies were and is terribly excited about it. Uselessly so. Bunnies now firmly in burrow.

I love the way bryony winds around.




Deadly Nightshade is something I cannot look at without instantly thinking "Poison!" My mother drummed into us which plants to avoid, and this was top of the list, along with laburnum.




Comments

Unknown said…
Ooh, a Dead Nettle. Did you suck the nectar from the flowers ? I still do on the rare occasions when I see a Dead Nettle.

They used to be as common as anything where I grew up, but I hardly ever see them here in Sheffield.
2 July 2010 at 12:28
Christina Wilsdon said…
What a beautiful place you live in. Just glorious.

Funny about the dog; my Lab often reveals how poor her eyesight is compared to her nose on walks. One day a crow dropped a Starbucks cup from its perch high in a tree and the cup skittered down through the branches like a squirrel. The dog went nuts. We had to sit under that tree for 5 minutes until she was convinced the cup wasn't a squirrel and would move on.

Sorry about your OH. Mine had to deal with the same issue last summer, while on vacation. Our vacation was in Yellowstone park, and that word will forever have something of a different meaning for us.
2 July 2010 at 18:14
Jane Badger said…
Gillian, I have never done this. Next time I go that way, I will.

Moggypie - however did you cope with that? We were at least in reasonable distance of ambulances etc.

Dog has a similar thing to yours about squirrels. Squirrels are The Utterly Worst Enemy as far as she is concerned, and she will charge off, yowling, the moment she sniffs one.
5 July 2010 at 08:43
Christina Wilsdon said…
If we'd been in the wilds of Yellowstone when the drama began, it wouldn't have been so great, but fortunately (if that word can ever be applied to kidney stones) it began 2 days before we hit the road; seemed to have abated; flared up anew en route, necessitating a stop at an emergency room; and was kept under control by strong meds from that point on until we got back home to our own doctor and specialists etc.

A pretty miserable thing to have happen no matter where or when it occurs.
5 July 2010 at 22:03
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rollkur and the blue tongue

-
I've been meaning to write about this all week, but reading the exclusive in Horse and Hound about the controversy tipped me over the edge. For my non-horsy readers, rollkur is a training/warming up technique used by some dressage riders. It basically involves riding the horse with its jaw pulled in virtually to its chest, in order to increase suppleness. Patrik Kittel , a Swedish competitor in Odense was videoed riding his horse in this way. If you watch the video , you'll see the horse's tongue hanging out - blue. It takes a while before the rider notices this. When he does, he stops, puts the horse's tongue back in, and carries on. There are two things which bother me about this. Firstly, I am fully aware large sections of the dressage world, and some of its brighest stars, consider rollkur perfectly ok, but the FEI guidelines state this practice should only be for short periods, allowing the horse to rest. Patrick Kittel apparently rode the horse for two hou...
Read more

Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes

-
Image
My friend Louise sent me this picture today. It's from a children's book with the rather wince-making title For The Wee Ones. I thought, when I read that (because I read the message before I looked at the picture) that the picture was going to be a typical winsome production from the school of artists who think (or who are paid to think) that the child is a thing sent from God and a blissful thing. They had obviously never met a child, and certainly not mine. I should have known Louise better. The artist responsible for Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes slipped this one past the editors. Just look at the poor, broken Mother Rabbit. She knows she has not the faintest chance of being listened to, and poor thing, she is stooped in the way of a mother to whom this is just the lastest in a long line of horror; with nothing good to come. And Archibald is obviously the spawn of the Devil. Just look at those eyes. He'll have the bed after he's finished the bedclothes...
Read more

Dick Sparrow - 40 Horse Hitch, and Neil Dimmock's 46 Percherons

-
Image
Here's a clip of Dick Sparrow driving 40 horses. It's an amazing sight, particularly when the shot changes to show the team from the rear and you get the great incongruity of modern American corporate architecture as a background to the wagon and horses. I love the anticipation in the video: the sense of something amazing being just round the corner is palpable. Thanks to Christina Wilsdon for telling me about this world record 46 Percheron hitch (alas just stills) but you get the idea.
Read more