Grounded!

Gym and bike sessions this morning. Then JR took Archie out for a walk. I sat around, sometimes outside till I got too hot, then inside for a while to cool down. I listened to podcasts and Radio 4.

Later, we needed to get some items from Waitrose, so we all walked there, mainly on the shady side the road. And in fact, I got the bus back.

I had a wee snooze when I came home, then we popped round to visit Pip and his mum and dad. We usually let the dogs meet, off-lead, in the graveyard, but Abi reckoned that Pip wouldn’t bark if Archie came into his house (take note, Archie), so we just walked round there. And yes, it was a peaceful entrance! Pip is so well mannered. But Pip’s garden is much bigger and much more interesting than Archie’s. In fact, he disappeared at one point and was found in the next door garden - he’d hopped over a wall that Pip wouldn’t dream of hopping over.

He also barked a neighbour who dared to appear, and scared some kids. But the worst thing was that he went poking around in the bushes and emerged, triumphantly, with a long-dead bird!! (Something that the innocent Pip had not noticed in his own garden!). His jaws were clenched tight on his prize, but we got it off him. He was most put out. From then on he was grounded - on his lead, tied to a chair. But we’ve more or less persuaded Pip’s mum and dad to leave him with us of an evening and go and have a meal in town. 

While we are basking in sunshine for several days in a row, there are more images emerging of the devastating floods in Europe, the scale of which is hard to comprehend. The world is in a bad way.