Strange yellow shiny thing in sky!

It's been a long and wet winter. Admittedly not as bad as winter 2023 when the rain was absolutley relentless, but all the same a long wet winter. It's also been incredibly mild in my part of the country. Whilst the rest of the country seems to have had a proper winter and some snow, I live about as far south as you can get. Down here it's remained at between 8-12 degrees and just rained. 

Everything is waterlogged, though in good news, about 5 days ago Southern Water actually lifted the hose pipe ban from last summer (they are a disgrace). There are so many potholes around that you can't look ahead when driving any more because you have to look at the road to avoid them. According to the local newspaper some anonymous bright spark locally has been filling the potholes with soil and planting flowers in them to make a point. I admit I'm impressed with that.

Years ago there were regularly things in the local pond where I live. You'd go past it and there'd be a manakin dressed as a scuba diver in there - or something like that. It always made me laugh. When the queen had her 50 year anniversary - on the duck pond on the small island in the middle, were pictures of all the royal family. With the exception of Harry and Megan who were in the reeds hiding and Sarah and Andrew who were in the slime around the edge (very appropriately).

Nobody ever found out who was the person that used to do this, but there were lots of local legends about it. What was best was how much it used to annoy the local council. Suddenly a few years ago it stopped. A shame, maybe the person moved.

That was quite a divergence from my week wasn't it.

To be fair not much happened at all, but spring continues to get closer. I'm now able to go out with the dog a full 30 minutes earlier than I could a week and a half ago. This morning dog and I were in park at about 6.45 and I actually think I could have been down there a bit earlier.

I think I can relax about dog today at long last - it's been 4 days since I did something very stupid! On Thursday morning I was a bit bug eyed when I woke up. I prepared dogs breakfast as normal, breakfast is a spoonful of fibre and half a tray of dog food. I mash it all up together - otherwise the fibre gets left. As I mashed it it all seemed a bit grittier than normal I also appeared to have forgotten the fibre. So I put some fibre in the bowl mashed it all in and fed the dog.

Dog spent a surprisingly long time eating. I went to check she was ok and somehow she'd separated the fibre from the dog food and it looked like it had a sort of gravy on it. I threw that away. 

It wasn't until Friday morning when I put the dog bowl in place, then reached into the cupboard and took the jar of instant coffee and went to put a spoonful in the dog bowl when I realised what I'd obviously done without thinking the day before. In a panic I checked with Alexa whether coffee was poisonous to dogs. It is. So I've spent the whole time since Thursday giving the dog as many good times and as much love as possible just in case it was her final day! Fortunately it turns out not. I recall when dog ate the Christmas pudding that they said we had to keep an eye on her for 4 days and after that we could assume she'd be fine. 

With much excitement last week I spotted that a bush in a local park was already covered with blossom. To be fair the bush is always an early blossomer, but it's so exciting to see it. Then on Saturday we were promised one lovely day in between rainy days for as far as the weather forecast stretched in the future.

I kept an eye on tide times and at about 14:00 the tide was at its lowest. So dog and I headed down to the sea. I've not been down to the beach for a while because the unrelenting rain hasn't really encouraged me to take leisurely strolls. Dog walks have been purposeful and I've been trying to get them over and done with as quickly as possible. I even ended up purchasing a new pair of waterproof trousers it's been so miserable.

Unfortunately because it was such a lovely day and it was mid-afternoon many other people had the same idea that I did and it was heaving down there. So dog and I headed down the ramp to the beach behind the wall, where few others dare to tread. I knew I was safe because the tide was at its lowest. We wandered along and eventually came to the rockpools. I was guessing the sea was pretty cold so I didn't let the dog paddle for too long - but needless to say dog got her first paddle of the year. 

Husband was quite ill last week. I managed to hold off from catching it from him right up until the weekend. I was then wretched on Saturday and Sunday - and in true workers style, was ok to go to work on Monday. Hey ho.