Fire!

Last night was a bad night for the island (Serifos) I called home for almost a year. A wildfire broke out and spread rapidly in the strong wind. Evacuations were ordered and several houses were destroyed. Several fire trucks were brought in from the nearby island of Syros, and a helicopter. No one was hurt or died. But although the blackened landscape will recover, unfortunately some farm animals died. I spoke to a friend this morning, she said it was scary to see the fire and smoke in the distance. But it’s been put out and hopefully will stay so. 

I made two dishes for the summer party at the Cosy Nook, another Carrot cake, and a Salmon and Prawn quiche. But before then, a few other things to do and enjoy. I was looking after my favourite chocolate Labrador, for three days. The first day, we walked around Dinton on the big loop, after having lunch at the nearby pub. It was nice for the lab, as we normally do the walk with the pickle that is the Cocker Spaniel. I did some work in the our garden. In the evening, I had a friend come and see us in the evening, and we had a lovely dinner together. 

On the Saturday we went to the nearby Hurst show, where there were lots of stalls, various events going on in the arena. We bought some Samosa’s for lunch, the Labrador spotted her lunch left on the ground by a careless stall holder, why wouldn’t the food be for her? We were alerted to her seating  by a crunching noise. The stall holder didn’t mind too much.  There was a Sadler who was up cycling old saddles into bar stools and all sorts of other things. We also saw some classic cars, a sort of dormomobile, where five people could sleep inside. The detail was amazing in the detail and the restoration. Unfortunately we both forgot to take a photo of it!

One of the other stalls was for a dogs for blind, where a blind guy had this lovely black Labrador. She was nine, but looked much younger. He told the story of himself, how the dogs are trained, and the problems caused by covid. Where the lab had her lunch was the WWF people and another sad tale, of wardens for places where wild animals are safe from poachers, and these wardens are murdered. It’s so pitiful and sad.

In the evening, myself and my charge, went to look after a new dog, a labradoodle, keep her company until her mum came home. Anyway we walked to a nearby pub, by the river Loddon, and then after a nice dinner, we went back to the Doodles home. The two dogs seemed uninterested in each other, but it wasn’t long before they were playing together for what seemed like hours. It was lovely to see. Eventually it was time for us to walk home. One thing unusual in looking after the Chocolate lab, this time I am sleeping on the ground floor. I leave the doors open, and she sleeps outside my bedroom, she occasionally comes in to see me, then  sniffs me, reassured all is well, she goes out and lies on the floor to sleep again.

After a morning at the TRHA store, I waited until my friend came around in the afternoon, and we walked to the Cosy Nook with my baking. Everyone soon gathered and we had several hours chatting and enjoying the other goodies brought in by others. I got several plaudits for my efforts, which was very kind.



So a nice end to a busy weekend, tomorrow we hope to go to Henley with the Cocker Spaniel in tow. Looking forward to it already.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Deja Vu

Image
It is the last day of looking after the Cocker Spaniel who lives in the house where  one called Neville used to live. As time goes on the two Spaniels are converging, there are some subtle differences, the  youngster is becoming less black on his back. The youngster is very vocal, he talks non stop. Ignoring him increases the volume of the chatter until you involve him in some way. He loves doing things, non stop, action all day is the name of the game. He loves water, but he won’t swim. It’s been hot, so the walks I have done I have tried to ensure he had the opportunity to cool down. A walk from Aston to Henley, along the river Thames. Pub visit at the Angel on the Bridge. He loved that of course. Another day, another walk. This time around the pub at Waltham St Lawrence, another favourite pub, but we did the walk too early for opening time. Another dip in the lake by Shottesbrook. He found a dead mouse early in the walk, decided to carry it about, but thankfully dropped it!...
Read more

A few days off in the sun

Image
Like many tourists of yesteryear I have just got back from a holiday in North Wales, based in Colwyn Bay where my brother in law now lives. I have stayed there before but many years ago. He was down in our neck of the woods, so I hitched a lift in his MX-5 car to save me using the train or driving. The weather was still nice up there, just a little cooler, with a sea breeze thrown in for good measure. In the evening after we got up there, as  Monday is a quiet night, we had a few drinks in a local bar, where they have a reciprocal arrangement with a local pizza place, you order at the bar, they get delivered to you and you eat them with your beer. Result. All are priced the same. I had Peking Duck ( amazing ), he had Smoked Haddock ( also amazing ). The bar does all sorts of things like film nights, to tempt to punters in. We also had another drink in the local Wetherspoons, which I think was an old cinema, still featuring lots of its old fittings. On the next day we walked to near...
Read more

Remembering two tragedies

Image
After breakfast in my room, I had a leisurely start and left Penzance by foot to Mousehole, not pronounced as it is spelt. I walked through the town, heading to nearby Newlyn, which is a proper fishing village. Along the route was a lovely wide promenade and a Lido, cleverly designed to withstand the force of the sea and heated from a geo thermal spring. It’s called Jubilee Pool because it was built to celebrate George V’s Jubilee in 1935. There was a nice old art deco pub opposite, sadly with the parked cars it was not easy to see its full design. Along the prom, lots of people were walking, and many of them had black Labradors, which was nice as it got me thinking about the one I know who now lives in Oxfordshire, they contacted me today, I might see them next weekend. I carried on into Newlyn, a smaller conurbation with several buildings with a fish themed rectangular mosaic on their front walls, a nod to its fishing heritage which is ongoing. There was a statue to honour all the fi...
Read more