After the mild, and sometimes warm and occasionally sunny days of the last couple of weeks we’ve gone back to unsatisfactorily chilly temperatures and biting northerly winds these last few days. Penelope even had to cover some of her seedlings with a blanket to keep them warm at night!
Nick, Lucy & Annabelle were over last Saturday following their vacation in the Cape Verde Islands. They looked warm and refreshed and, as we had missed Easter with them, they came over for an Easter Egg Hunt and the season’s opening of the Moreton Pinkney Pizzeria. The weather was kind and we dined alfresco in the evening sun – excellent. And, the pizzas were excellent too! In fact, they were so tasty that Ms Playchute and I enjoyed another round on Sunday evening.
We “looked after” some neighbours’ dogs on Tuesday. They were going to be out all day and asked if we could kindly let them out to have a bit of a romp and run around during the afternoon. They have two dogs – one is about 120 and moves like a glacier and the other is a mere adolescent with boundless energy. When they were released from the confines of the kitchen, the younger one shot out the door as if from a cannon while the more elderly carefully wandered out with a somewhat bemused and confused expression on her face to have a sniff and a look around.
We set off up through the garden towards a larger field with a pond at the top – the dogs love a swim! The younger pup was a blur as she flew around the garden caroming off the hedges, the outbuildings, me and especially the elderly dog who meandered slowly from sniff to sniff and who was regularly bowled over as the juvenile screeched past.
There happen to be sheep in the top field at the moment so we had to put the dogs on their leads as we crossed over to the pond. The older one probably couldn’t even see the sheep but the younger might easily take an interest, we thought, so better to keep her close to hand.
As we set off towards the pond it soon became apparent the both dogs have a serious propensity for consuming sheep droppings. Even though they were on leads when they spotted a supply of sheep poo they had it snaffled in a heartbeat, even the elderly one – it was like watching a frog snag a fly with its tongue except that the whole head moved down in a flash to scoop up the savoury delight!
The pond is fenced off from the sheep so we let the dogs through the gate and off their leads again. As you can guess, the younger one bolted off circling the pond at full tilt, first in a clockwise and then in an anti-clockwise direction and then back again. It was rather like watching a motorcyclist performing the “wall of death” at the circus. Meanwhile, the elderly matron carefully eased herself into the water and stood looking completely at ease and content with the world. Once again, the weather was kind to us and it was grand to have a couple of dogs to have a bit of a tromp across the countryside with.
We went up to Canons Ashby the other day to have a look at the gardens. Not a particularly sunny day but the gardens looked bright none the less.
And, for some decent photographs, there was a link in the Guardian the other day to a decade of award-winning British landscape photography.
We’ll be in the States visiting with my mother, brothers and sister for the next couple of weeks so there may be a short hiatus in the publication of the Picayune, you’ll be pleased to hear.
Much love to you all,
Greg