This week has been another odd news week, dominated by the question ‘who would you take the knee for’? Yet again, the media did a superb job of taking a relatively light hearted interview, where no disrespect seemed to be meant, and twisting it to create a story. I have not been doing much kneeling this week, but I did get up early today to salute the sun. In the last six years we have tried to mark the summer solstice by doing a night sail, enjoying the long days and short hours of darkness. Today, I had to settle for some yoga poses instead. The weather has been settled and sunny for most of the week and with it has come the end of our cabin fever. We often say on the boat, that we can be in the nicest place in the world but if we get stuck due to bad weather, we get port fever and have a desperate need to get moving. I think the bad weather last week and being stuck inside caused the same reaction, but this week has been one of getting out and enjoying the sun. The beautiful sunshine has bought out the wildlife, and it has been a week dominated by seeing animals.


TinkerBella
This week started with a local walk. We have a choice of circular walks from the house, and today we went through the local wood which still smells of wild garlic. It is here that we threw Scrappy into the river, or at least his ashes. He hated swimming and he has very stubbornly silted up a bit of the river. Every so often we go and have a look to see if a bit more of him has moved on, but he is just expanding like he did in real life. He thought he owned the woods whilst alive, and I reckon if we went down there one windy night, he would be seen terrorising all the rabbits! The local farmer was out harvesting his field and as a result we enjoyed watching a pair of playful stoats along the path, fleeing from the combined harvester.

We walked back along the side of the beck (river) and through a field of wheat and poppies when we had a bit of excitement. Bob came to say that his dog had gone missing and we were enlisted to help find him. Bob is a rotund little man, who drives to this field and drops his dog off to do his business, whilst Bob sits reading his newspaper. According to Bob, his golden lab had done a runner after a bitch in heat. We didn’t find him, but I heard via the grapevine that a good time was had by all, and there may be some pups on the way!

Patch
On Tuesday we got up early and drove to the coast for a long walk along the beach at low tide. We arrived at 8.30am before it got busy and watched the fog roll in. We were walking towards Whitby, and as the fog engulfed the ruined Abbey where Dracula came ashore in the form of a black dog. Mom and I got a tingling down the spine. Luckily the only black dog around was Tinker, and the only things emerging from the fog were fishing boats. According to the humans it looked very biblical as the fishermen were rowing out the nets by hand. For me, I got sensory overload and I got into a bit of trouble. I blame the smell of the fish, the dampness of the fog and plenty of dogs to sniff around and play with. Mom had been wondering what Q meant in LBGTQ. Apparently it stands for ‘questioning’ and that applies to me. I didn’t know whether to lick their faces, smell their bottoms or hump their backs. It didn’t matter to me whether they were a girl or a boy. After 12 weeks of lockdown I went mad. Mom ran after me l as I went from one dog to another. She used words like, ‘disgrace’ and ‘dirty boy’ and whoever “Randy” is, he is having something chopped off very soon!!! What was a boy to do? When we got back to the van Dad cooked a bacon sandwich, and with a full tummy I fell asleep dreaming about my perfect day.

Sade
We have really tried to make an effort to only take out our van a few times each week. We are becoming very Yorkshire; ‘there is no need to drive out, when there is so much beauty on the doorstep’. It is also about doing our bit for the environment. It is not just about seeing new places and experiencing new things, but it is a way we can explore the world in an environmentally friendly way. This week we got the bikes out and cycled to the next village to have iced tea down by the river. We have walked miles through fields full of wheat and barley and along river paths full of daisy like flowers and watercress. We can’t believe how big the lambs have grown and we have admired the local rams in their solitary magnificence (Patch clearly sees them as role models). We were followed by a field full of nosy cows and nuzzled by the local horses. Patch acted like a kangaroo hopping through the barley fields after the pheasants and he came face to face with a wild hare. He stumbled on it in its burrowed bed, and I am not sure which was the most startled. After a long pause, the hare bombed it along the field with Patch in hot pursuit and soon Patch was just a distant speck. The hare won hands down, and for once Patch didn’t have the energy to run back, and he slept for the rest of the day. However, the highlight of the week for us was the owl last night. The sun was poking through the clouds at about 8.30pm after a downpour of rain we got out for a quick evening walk with the dogs. We went over to the fields and were rewarded by a beautiful display put on by a snowy white barn owl. It soared and glided above our heads, and swooped silently down to take a closer look at Patch. We stood in awe watching his wonderful display for about 10 minutes, before he vanished, ghostlike, into the next field.

So for me, I shall keep my thoughts on ‘taking the knee’ to myself, but I shall keep saluting the sun everyday, and hope for more weeks of magic like this one.