Saturday 8th July
Quite busy editing – a good chunk done, and an emotional one,
not easy to do in case the whole thing is ruined. But I think it is tighter now
and better for it. I’ve deleted upwards of 40k words, so if I feel the story needs a
little more exposition or internal dialogue, I add that. We’re hovering at 103k
words now for the whole thing, which is about where I want to be.
It’s been a cloudy morning, and I walked Tim on the road, on
a lead, up the hill towards Monsieur Lambert’s farm. The farmers have suddenly
sprung into life around us and they’re nipping about with small tractors spiking
a couple of hay bales from the field and chugging off down the road with the bales held before them. When the sun is out and its over 34 degrees, the whole valley is
silent and still.
I’ve been curious about something that wanders about the
area. Animal, since it moves. Strong enough to dig a hole about the size of a tin
of Heinz baked beans in the hay field and then crap in it. Perfect aim. Dark
coloured, with lots of cherry stones. I recognise deer poo when I see it, but
deer don’t dig holes and anyway it’s a different shape and consistency. I found
another hole, near the little stone bridge, as I walked up to the farm this
morning, Fresher, with no cherry stones.
So I came home and googled for info, not really expecting
anything to come up in answer to “animal that digs holes to defecate” but right
away the answer came back: a badger. I’m relieved. I had been worried it might
be wild boar and I didn’t want Tim (or me) to suddenly come face to face with
one of them. Surrounded as we are by miles of woodland, they are bound to be nearby,
but I’ve never seen one. The hunters go out after them in the autumn/winter
season. There are tales galore about more hunters being wounded by gunshot than
boar being killed, but I don’t know how true they are.
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