Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
More Signs of Spring
by admin - 17:08 on 10 March 2012
Spring is slowly taking hold of The Rural Retreat's garden (despite a wintry shower a few days ago): the snowdrops have faded, the first daffodils have popped, the grass will soon need to be cut, the ground elder is threatening a return. The knotweed can't be far behind. Mr Gardener has promised he'll be along soon to turn the bare earth beside the bushes into a riot of colour.
We'll have to ensure that he leaves a pine marten corridor from the shrubbery to The Nutella Tree, for the route, as we've observed this week, is well used. On three occasions, the most recent last night, martens have been seen to enjoy their food on the garden gate, return to the bushes, then dash to the tree.
Bess has become rather stroppy about their activity: the Bushnell has captured several images of a vengeful cat knocking an egg off The Feeding Stump. It could be that her thyroid medication has made her more perky, or maybe it's just spring rising in her.
Matchgirl is less perky, alternating between optimism that her marathon dream will come true, next year if not this one, and pessimism that she'll never run again because she's too old and decrepit. An electrically operated heating pad is her latest acquisition, used to ease the pain inflicted on her by The Back-up Team which has manipulated little-used muscles and separated fibres knotted together for more years than she cares to consider.
Tomorrow, the Inverness Half-marathon sets off without her, which is the cause of more gloom; the London Marathon is a mere 42 days away. On Monday she'll again be examined, probed and prodded by The Back-up Team which will then announce its opinion on her prospects. Fingers crossed.
Snappery Update: A fine selection of my prints and cards was offered for sale at today's market in Cromarty and in half an hour I made four times the profit I did in two days at Strathpeffer. So it was a shame that for the other two-and-a-half hours of the market I sold nothing, especially as on my return to the Retreat I found threatening letters from the DVLC, reminding me that the road tax for both Mr Ford and Kawasaki San (who's not moved since October) expire at the end of the month.
Band Update: An improved demo, recorded on Thursday, will be tweaked and polished next week then sent out to venues near and far. But mostly near. We even have a second gig in the diary: at the Drumnadrochit Hotel on March 31, the week before Strawdogs rock the Drouthy Duck in Conon Bridge. A few more gigs and we'll have the PA paid for. Happy days.
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