We live in a small village in the heart of rural Bedfordshire. As such we are surrounded by farms. Now this can be a good thing as fresh eggs, cheese, meat and veg are always available and can be bought for very reasonable prices and you know exactly where things have come from. The downside is that every so often you nostrils are assaulted by a variety of farm yard smells, some stronger than others but none of them pleasant. Even with the windows close it seemed to seep in and if you had to open the door for any reason your eyes watered. Today was one of those days, I know it has to be done but even so.
Things were not helped by the wind, my goodness was it windy today. I love listening to the wind especially at night tucked up in a warm bed. However like most PH patients I find it very difficult to get around in as it literally takes my breath away. I don't know why but it is like having all the air sucked out of my body. It is not so bad when the windy is warm and moist but in the depths of winter when it is icy it can be a real problem. We have a mature silver birch in our back garden and at time this afternoon it was almost bent right over into my neighbours garden. I've worried about that tree ever since we moved in but so far it has survived everything the weather has thrown at it including the hurricane of 1987.
I was forced to venture out as we needed to stock up at Tesco's. We decided to go what we call 'the back way' which avoids the main roads. As usual the first day of term means the council is out digging up as many roads as they can possibly manage. Anyway we drove past a hedge of fire thorn. It was so beautiful, absolutely covered in bright orange berries. The birds will be having a real feast and it made the otherwise dull country lane light up. It was lovely wandering around the shop without fighting my way through hoards of screaming kids. I did consider road testing my portable oxygen but once out of the wind really didn't feel I needed it so didn't bother.
The excitement of the day was indirectly provided by Smirnoff. In the early hours of this morning Smirnoff appeared at my bedside mewing loudly. Too tired to investigate the cause I sushed him and went back to sleep. After returning from Tesco I went into the bedroom to change and for whatever reason remembered the cat's strange behaviour. In the corner of the room there is a pile of books awaiting a trip to the loft. Don't ask me why I did this but I slowly moved the books and found cowering in the corner a tiny mouse. It was so cute but had no place in my bedroom. I called Andrew to come and give me a hand removing it. He was just reaching out to grab it when it took off down the corridor to his room. I have never seen anything move so fast. Andrew shot after it closely followed by Smirnoff who had been asleep on the bed. A scuffle ensued then the mouse followed by the cat and then Andrew ran back past me and down the stairs. Andrew caught up with them in the living room and cornered the mouse by the book case. I followed and removed both cats, Tarmac had now become interested in the commotion, so Andrew could have another shot at grabbing it. There was a yell then Andrew raced towards the back door calling for my to unlock it quickly. The mouse had taken off up Andrew's shirt sleeve and was sitting in his armpit. We got onto the lawn and Andrew was squirming and laughing as the mouse was racing around inside his shirt. I lifted his shirt up and saw the mouse sitting between his shoulder blades staring right back at me. After a lot of wriggling we managed to extract the mouse and release it into the undergrowth at the end of the garden. We were both hysterical with laughter and I had to sit down and take my asthma inhalor because I was laughing so much. In all my years of having cats I have never had anything like that happen to me before. I'm just glad it was Andrew's sleeve it ran up and not mine.
Fantastic tribute to Freddie Mercury on Google this morning. Very surprised to find Freddie would have been sixty five years old today. Had he lived I have no doubt he would still be rocking. Time to put on Day At The Races and raise a glass to one of my favourite performers of all time.
Things were not helped by the wind, my goodness was it windy today. I love listening to the wind especially at night tucked up in a warm bed. However like most PH patients I find it very difficult to get around in as it literally takes my breath away. I don't know why but it is like having all the air sucked out of my body. It is not so bad when the windy is warm and moist but in the depths of winter when it is icy it can be a real problem. We have a mature silver birch in our back garden and at time this afternoon it was almost bent right over into my neighbours garden. I've worried about that tree ever since we moved in but so far it has survived everything the weather has thrown at it including the hurricane of 1987.
I was forced to venture out as we needed to stock up at Tesco's. We decided to go what we call 'the back way' which avoids the main roads. As usual the first day of term means the council is out digging up as many roads as they can possibly manage. Anyway we drove past a hedge of fire thorn. It was so beautiful, absolutely covered in bright orange berries. The birds will be having a real feast and it made the otherwise dull country lane light up. It was lovely wandering around the shop without fighting my way through hoards of screaming kids. I did consider road testing my portable oxygen but once out of the wind really didn't feel I needed it so didn't bother.
The excitement of the day was indirectly provided by Smirnoff. In the early hours of this morning Smirnoff appeared at my bedside mewing loudly. Too tired to investigate the cause I sushed him and went back to sleep. After returning from Tesco I went into the bedroom to change and for whatever reason remembered the cat's strange behaviour. In the corner of the room there is a pile of books awaiting a trip to the loft. Don't ask me why I did this but I slowly moved the books and found cowering in the corner a tiny mouse. It was so cute but had no place in my bedroom. I called Andrew to come and give me a hand removing it. He was just reaching out to grab it when it took off down the corridor to his room. I have never seen anything move so fast. Andrew shot after it closely followed by Smirnoff who had been asleep on the bed. A scuffle ensued then the mouse followed by the cat and then Andrew ran back past me and down the stairs. Andrew caught up with them in the living room and cornered the mouse by the book case. I followed and removed both cats, Tarmac had now become interested in the commotion, so Andrew could have another shot at grabbing it. There was a yell then Andrew raced towards the back door calling for my to unlock it quickly. The mouse had taken off up Andrew's shirt sleeve and was sitting in his armpit. We got onto the lawn and Andrew was squirming and laughing as the mouse was racing around inside his shirt. I lifted his shirt up and saw the mouse sitting between his shoulder blades staring right back at me. After a lot of wriggling we managed to extract the mouse and release it into the undergrowth at the end of the garden. We were both hysterical with laughter and I had to sit down and take my asthma inhalor because I was laughing so much. In all my years of having cats I have never had anything like that happen to me before. I'm just glad it was Andrew's sleeve it ran up and not mine.
Fantastic tribute to Freddie Mercury on Google this morning. Very surprised to find Freddie would have been sixty five years old today. Had he lived I have no doubt he would still be rocking. Time to put on Day At The Races and raise a glass to one of my favourite performers of all time.
No comments:
Post a Comment