It has been a number of weeks, in fact approaching a couple of months, since my last post. The hiatus started with a couple of days slipping by towards the end of my furlough leave, because I felt I had nothing much of interest to say – trying to make got up, exercised, ate etc. etc. entertaining was becoming a bit of a chore. Before I knew it a week and then two had passed, and then I didn’t know how to catch-up or where to start. In time honoured fashion, instead of working my way through this diligently, I stuck my head firmly in the sand and ignored it! So here I am, seven weeks later, prompted by the need to renew my domain name hilaryspicer.com, resuming my digital diary.
The decision whether to resume or abandon was made when, I looked back over what I have written since Robert bought me the domain name for my birthday last year, in preparation for our trip to Japan. I was completely surprised how good, reading about that trip, made me feel, and I realised that I am not writing this for anyone other than myself. Much as I would like to think there are others out there reading it, I don’t mind if it’s only me. Going back through my jottings and photos of Japan kicked off my Sunday with some laughs out loud and a warm fuzzy feeling. So I have decided to return to blogging, for better or for worse, but primarily for me.
WHILE I WAS MISSING…
Looking back through the photos on my phone I’ve realised that quite a lot has gone on while I’ve been off-line. I can’t begin to cover it in chronological order and so I have decided to group some things together and hope to make sense of it that way. I have decided to focus on the good things that have happened during or as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions it placed upon us.
THE PUPPIES or more accurately A BOY CALLED BORIS
Elsa, our neighbour’s black Labrador had puppies during lock-down. They arrived on a hot Tuesday in May (19th I think it was) and we have been besotted with them ever since. There were 3 bitches and 2 dogs, 4 black labs and one blonde – Boris.
It was love at first sight and had Robert not been made of stern stuff, we would by now be the proud owners of Boris, which I think could have been a disaster. I tried everything I could think of to get Robert to change his mind, but fortunately he remained resolute. I say fortunately because we have just had Boris & Elsa to stay for a week while Ros & Richard are in Greece, and I am completely knackered – after just a week (5 days actually) and we’re just minding him, not trying to train him. Sit, stay & fetch are nowhere close and to be honest I don’t think I would have the energy or will to get him up to the levels of behaviour required for polite company, let alone a smart shoot. I mean I barely got away with it with the boys (Nick still sees no real need for cutlery) so what made me think I’d be any better with a hound.
I have however realised why puppies are so adorable – it’s to make you overlook all their other transgressions. Boris is either 100 miles an hour or asleep, no nice halfway house of calm interaction with those around him. Elsa has had enough, giving him a fairly wide berth whenever possible, so as to avoid the attentions of the pouncing, nipping imp that is Boris. Given Elsa’s distancing, he has decided I’m the next best thing and he reminds me of the poem by Robert Louis Stevenson
“I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me, and what can be the use of him is more than I can see.”
He has a serious shoe fetish – the smellier and more expensive the trainer the better. He is bold, bouncy and I think a bit daft (altogether a lot like his namesake).
He is however undeniably handsome and seriously cute, so we forgive him everything and it will no doubt break my heart when he goes to his new owners in the Midlands at the end of August.
He is currently lying asleep, curled up under my chair, with his nose pressed against my foot – I can almost see him growing as he snores.
