Summer

Summer

One of the great joys of Summer arriving to Uptonians with hounds, is being able to walk the blighter @ a less brisk rate now that the threat of winter frostbite has been averted. Walking that quickly that the dog doesn't have time to stop and have it's customary 5,000 sniffs is great for the heart beat but not so good for a dogs mental calmness so summer's final arrival is greeted as happily by the dog as it is by our chapped lips!

Summer has truly blossomed now with all the intensity of a modern man keen to find that 'just right' dashing new tweed jacket in the Harris Tweed January sale, a sale that arrives far too close to the Christmas food fest to allow you to fit into the one jacket you really like in the said sale. As a result you find yourself buying the one with a green leaning on the basis that in the dusk of a pub no one will surely ever notice! Everyone will notice...

Of course with summers arrival new activities arrive, not least of which were preparations for the new cricket season. You might think that dropping the number of catches our team drops means we have no practice before the season starts, but no, think again! Any Uptonian cricket player knows that the early spring season ritual of arriving at the Southwell leisure centre far too early on a Sunday morning to bowl and use muscles not used since the previous summer and even then only in short bursts, is bound to lead to injury. Even so we arrived keen and eager to turn our arm over in the hope that something of dear Freddie Flintoff may have magically arrived into our DNA. Two and a bit hours later we drag ourselves back to Upton wondering how we will ever lift our arm again! Later that day we will eat our Sunday dinner through a straw whilst watching Songs of Praise from another village much like Upton yet with a few more church goers! As you watch the seventh hymn you remind yourself that Reverend Phil is a good egg and you really must get to church when cricket practice moves itself from the Sunday slot.

Yes Summer has truly arrived.

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