And back.

I thought we’d never manage to pack all the contents of Clive’s room in the Lymphedema Clinic but somehow we did, and we set off for Italy at about half past eight on the morning of Tuesday 15th.

It was a long and painful journey for Clive, but cheered, towards the end, by the beautiful landscape of Le Marche and then Umbria.

Beautiful landscape

Clive isn’t one to be effusive, but I found him leaning out of a window that opens onto rose and lavender bushes, breathing deeply, and I could tell how glad he was to be home.

We’d arrived at six-thirty in the evening: time to do a bit of shopping and pick up the dogs. Taylor and Kepler were both very happy, but Joules went wild with joy when he saw Clive, and couldn’t stop jumping at him and butting him.

Strimming

This is the third day I’ve been strimming in the orchard. Since I don’t do very much at a time (just one fuel load) it takes ages.

Today, tired and with the ‘crawling ant’ feeling in my hands that comes from the vibration, I wasn’t amused when one of the Wellington boots I’d been wearing went missing.

The culprit, of course, was Kepler. I thought it would be too heavy for him, but I could now envisage him taking it all the way to the neighbour. My mind was just going over the possibility of doing a trade (my boot for your mother-in-law’s 5 shoes) when Kepler appeared with it in his mouth.

Bugloss saved from the strimming

I was even less amused when, later on, all 3 dogs raced by and trampled not only the little island of bugloss which I’d saved from the strimming, but also me, as I took photographs of it. The bugloss would almost certainly survive but I might not.

Ticks

This tick was taken off the dogs and was still alive when the photo was taken (here very much enlarged).

We do treat the dogs (they’re due for treatment tomorrow) which is probably why it hadn’t attached by the time I found it.

I believe there used to be sheep in the field where they pick them up, and ticks can survive a long time without a host.

The second photo (of a different tick) is less clear but next to an appropriate word on the sheet of paper. They run quite fast so it’s difficult to ‘organise’ them!

Cinderella’s slippers

The metal-brilliant-studded shoes brought to me by Kepler

Cinderella has lost both her slippers.

The culprit, as usual, is Kepler, who has a definite shoe fetish and steals them from the neighbour.

I saw him playing with the first one and managed to get it off him. Jokingly I said: “Bring me the other one, Kepler.”

And blow me, he did! A bit later on I opened the front door and there it was, laid just outside like an offering.

How could you ever be cross with a dog that brings you a gift of slippers encrusted with brilliants?

Water, water everywhere

… and plenty to drink, at least for the dogs.

The water started flowing into the pond last night. This morning Joules was weighing up whether to drink there or somewhere else.

Joules by the replenished pond

Because the flow of water is so strong, and presumably because the outlet isn’t big enough, water is seeping continuously out of the ‘hatch’ of the blue pig, underneath the lid. I channelled this overflow down some old roof tiles to a drinking bowl for the dogs, but Kepler being Kepler had to investigate the water higher up.

Kepler the budding water engineer

The existing flow is quite enough for the system to cope with. Yesterday afternoon, I deliberately broke the connection between the bit of blue pipe sticking out of the stone chamber where the water emerges, and the thin black pipe which normally conducts the water straight  into the red corrugated pipe which is underground at that point. This allowed me to plug the hole in the concrete basin around the black pipe – but not completely, as I found. The water has filled the basin to overflowing, but is still getting to the blue pig.

The basin where the water first appears

There’s now the sound of trickling water all over the place – one of my favourite sounds provided it’s not indicative of a problem.

I wonder if, during the drought last summer or maybe because of a minor earthquake, some form of syphon broke in the network of springs in the rock, and now the connection has been re-established. I do hope so!