Z winds down

Jamie has been forking over the kitchen garden, getting it ready for the new season.  The ground is not as moist as you'd expect in February, if we don't get a lot of rain soon then it'll be a difficult growing season. I'll start things off early, with our light soil it'll be the only hope.

This evening, the Sage was having a meeting with someone in the drawing room, so I skulked in here, putting together notes for a letter I'm going to have to write later in the week, when I heard a squawking chicken.  Looking out of the window, I saw a young black labrador chasing her - rushed out shouting "DOG, DOG - RUSSELL, DOG CHASING CHICKEN!!(!)*"  By this time, the dog had caught her, but rightly realised that I was a greater threat than the chicken a temptation, dropped her and legged it across the field.  The Sage came out, I briefly explained and he chased the dog while I went to look for the chicken.

The Sage has had a word with the dog's owner.  I think it'll be kept on the lead when being walked on the road in future.  I couldn't find which chicken had been caught, they were all clustered together and promptly decided to go to roost, some in trees and some in the henhouse.  None was left, let's hope the poor girl was unscathed.  It can't have been more than five seconds and he didn't shake her and labs have soft mouths, he wasn't a vicious dog.  Very upsetting though.

Anyway, the Sage took some time to return so I went and chatted to the fellow he'd been talking to, and when he left I went to have a long and relaxing bath.  Face mask, intensive hair conditioner, I lay back and did nothing at all for quarter of an hour or so and then rinsed them off, got out and dried myself and slathered myself with body creams.  The Sage had better not try to hug me, I'll slip right out of his arms like a cork and hit the ceiling, I'm that slippery.

Tomorrow, I must buy more wine.  I've just opened the last bottle, a very nice Côtes du Rhône - I'm reminded again that the nicer the wine, the less I drink.  All I've got left, other than the good stuff, is a couple of glasses of sparkling something-or-other (not even champagne) in the fridge.  One was opened last night, I needed a pick-me-up.  Feeling a bit jaded?  Mm, yes.  I'm doing something about it though, I take great care of myself and have just lit a candle and am listening to the divine Elisabeth.  Actually, I'd intended to sit with the Sage, but he's on the phone and I don't intend to be wound up by listening to it.

Oh, by the way, Blogger is playing silly buggers, not only with the almost unreadable word verification but by changing the pop-up comment box, which now doesn't give an option to subscribe to comments.  Since they're the best bit, I've changed to embedded comments and the box is at the bottom of the post instead of in a separate box.  And the automatic spam detection is excellent, none of the spam that reaches my email notification ever gets published.  Honestly, if you just turn off wv you won't find a problem.


*if anyone ever wonders about this, JonnyB has rights over !!! and he's far too exalted a blogger (rarely as the dear boy blogs since his book deal, mind you) for me to stand up to.