Reserved for blippers

It was lovely to meet up with blippers caninegalore and turnaround. Turnaround had turned around pretty quick having only been here last weekend! They were up on a brief mission and I was glad I was able to get back in time to catch up with them this morning. Caninegalore kindly treated us to scones at the local hostelry and then we all headed in to town before they then headed back south and I went to the supermarket. (Depressing quote of the day ... overheard in the supermarket, ‘... what! I don’t believe it ... no cucumbers...what kind of supermarket doesn’t have cucumbers...?’)

When I got back I ended up going for a rather more challenging walk than I’d intended. I caught sight of a hare running across the saturated ground and thought of Wordsworth’s ‘plashy’ hare in The Leechgatherer ...

‘There was a roaring in the wind all night;
The rain came heavily and fell in floods;
But now the sun is rising calm and bright;
The birds are singing in the distant woods;
Over his own sweet voice the Stock-dove broods;
The Jay makes answer as the Magpie chatters;
And all the air is filled with pleasant noise of waters.

All things that love the sun are out of doors;
The sky rejoices in the morning's birth;
The grass is bright with rain-drops;—on the moors
The hare is running races in her mirth;
And with her feet she from the plashy earth
Raises a mist, that, glittering in the sun,
Runs with her all the way, wherever she doth run.’

I’ve been claiming for compensation on my tickets for the disrupted train journeys. It seems a bit unfair on the train companies as the conditions were pretty challenging and I did get down and back but you can elect to have the monies go to charity so it seemed worthwhile.