Morning Rain

As I write this blog post it's raining. (7.30 a.m.) Not very heavily, but certainly enough to refresh the grass around here. There's a certain amount of water running down the side of the road at the front of the house which I could see when I was in the bathroom having a shave this morning with the window open. Someone just walked past with an umbrella up, so it must be of a certain level to need to use an umbrella. I means I won't be taking Alfie out for his, by now, routine walk around Eaglestone Park, which he won't think too much of. I can always take him that bit later when it's stopped. I just hope it soaks the ground sufficiently to revive the grass around here. At the rear of the house the grass is looking somewhat shrivelled and brown, large areas have more or less given up, so a sudden soaking should do the trick. A lot of the Gridroads around Milton Keynes are looking decidedly patching and brown. 

We were going shopping on Tuesday morning and had intended going to Morrison's at Westcroft. . Carol was driving and we went along Chaffron Way but couldn't get through due to the road being closed off, most probably because they are gradually resurfacing the Gridroads, which in places are in a real need of this sort of work, but it was annoying and we weren't given sufficient warning in advance so we ended up going to Morrison's newer store near the railway station.

I spent some time on Monday and Tuesday morning tidying up the garden at the front of the house, using the Ozito cordless grass trimmer (not actually a Strimmer because it doesn't use the plastic fishing line that an actual Strimmer has, but a similar plastic blade like the lawnmower, which is better because you don't have to keep stopping to pull out the fishing line which keeps on breaking with a Strimmer.) As this machine is cordless it makes things easier when you don't have to connect it to the mains electricity supply with a cable connected to a power point. You just have to remember to keep the battery pack charged. I managed to cut the grass which has grown in the flower bed in front of the kitchen window (if you can really call it a flowerbed as it hasn't ever had any flowers in it, except a few pathetic spring bulbs which appear each Spring.) and then I hooked the cut grass out with the rake we got in The Range the other day. I got the mower out of the shed and used this to cut the lawn at the front of the house, although the grass wasn't really long enough, it's got very scruffy and most of the growth is tusky and tough weeks, giving rise to yellow flowers a bit like dandelions, but which I have an idea are actually called coltsfoot, but I may be wrong. Does it really matter? Our landlord's wife, who visited us the other Sunday, only had one comment about the house, not having done an actual house inspection, and that was 'have you cut the grass?' which is why I'd made this effort with the front of the house, as I imagine, when they'd drawn up in their car, they'd noticed how scruffy things were looking. I also had to hack down the saplings (no doubt they're called that, otherwise the tree-like plants which seem to spring up at the front of the house as well as in the back garden. They always appear along the left-side fence as well as under the lounge window.) I used the loppers to cut it all back and the  put the bits in the green Wheelybin. I've also managed to clear some of the weeds and grass that come up between the concrete slabs at the front of the house which is swept up and put in the Wheely bin as well as the brambles which put out runners all over the slabs and since cut down it all looks somewhat tidier and should now be easier to keep clear, but there is still more to be done to keep it clear. The Wheely bin isn't really large enough for this operation and is soon filled and then put out at the edge of the garden at the roadside, on a Wednesday so that the dustmen can take it to be emptied. So it's a limitation as to how much you can actually manage to trim each week.

I took Alfie out for his walk when the rain held off. It was actually drizzly as we crossed the road into the walkway down into Eaglestone Park. Alfie is generally a good complaint little dog. If he runs off and I call he almost always comes back to me. But as we got round to the open green leading to the shops he ran ahead of me and I couldn't see where he'd gone as there was another bend in the path and some brambles in the way. He ran towards the lady who has the two little chihuahua dogs we've met on a couple of occasions. When I called he just would not come back to me. Then I saw another lady with a Great Dane and Alfie ran away when he saw this dog. He doesn't usually run away from dogs, more likely he will run towards them and run in circles around them, attempting to make friends, which most large dogs don't like or are so stunned by his behaviour, he moves so quickly they haven't got a chance to respond, but this time he ran away. I wasn't sure whether the Great Dane scared him because I was further back on the path and could see, but it was odd that he'd run off.

Alfie got a bit of a soaking in the drizzle, not too much, but the wetting made his coat go all crinkly and wavy which always happens when he gets wet. Once we were in the house he tried to dry himself by rubbing under the over-lapping cushions on the sofa in the sitting room and upstairs he rubbed along the bannister rails which makes an odd sort of noise.

The sun has now come out (9.45 A.M.) so perhaps the day will turn out a good deal sunnier than expected.