The Big Trip

Took our walk early this morning and though I avoided coming back home to get changed because of

the heat, I didn't manage to avoid the pollen. Itchy nose, and sneezing or wanting to sneeze. Not good.  We hosed Tim down with running water to get the pollen off him, because he is running through tunnels of grass higher than he is. In some area, the flowers are chest high on me - those white ones - cow parsley? and shake the grasses and dust clouds of pollen fly up. Still it is pretty and lush in the old sense of the word - abundant, succulent, voluptuous and we had it all to ourselves.

The blackbird chicks have fledged. The cuckoo abandoned its nest in the blue cedar, but the blackbird continued to fly in and out of the ivy trellis by our patio window, almost zonking us in the face as it whizzed by. Now the nest seems to be empty, but there is loud cheeping coming from the undergrowth and Tim finds something in there most interesting. We're keepng him away as best we can, though the poor dog has to go out and pee!

We are slowly gearing up for going off to France and our wellies are the first things going into the car. The rain clouds over the Dordogne have been almost constant for the last three weeks, so the stream is going to be full and the fields soggy. The stream under the mill might be running higher than usual. Still the temperature has been in the low twenties, and that is forecast to continue, so we won't be cold when we're outside.