On The Island

We have a family of sparrows live in our garden and they nest in the Star Jasmine. Yesterday when we were sitting out there, the three of us were watching the mum taking food from the feeder and giving it to the baby. So sweet.

It was quite a shock this morning when I was sitting in the conservatory to see a Sparrowhawk swoop down to the feeder and fly away with one of the sparrows. We only have a small garden, so I am amazed at what I saw. I know it is nature but we are quite attached to all the birds we have out there.  Nor have we seen Cassidy for a couple of days but hopefully a Sparrowhawk wouldn’t take a blackbird even if he only has one working leg.

We then went off to East Kent Railway for a walk around Knees Wood.

Ellie only wanted to go half way, so we turned round and went and had a coffee.  The same gentleman as last Sunday came and sat and talked to us. A lot was about football and back in the day he had a permanent season ticket for Blackburn as he used to referee.

Tris came over to see us and joined us for lunch. It was so nice sitting in the garden and catching up with him.

We are going to miss being outside when the weather changes.

Ellie had a very quiet day.

Late afternoon we watched the Spurs game, the first of the season and it was awful. Not much to be said!

I went shopping in Whitfield again as the Ramsgate Road is still closed and I am not doing that detour to get to Westwood Cross! There is a rumour it will be open by Sunday. Of course the Toll Bridge is still closed and I am sure will be for months as the bridge is Grade II listed.

We sat ut in the garden in the evening as usual but have to say the later it was, the colder we were and in the end put a fleece around our shoulders! Has summer ended?

We decided to go to Solley’s Ice Cream – the farm. It is very near to us and we have never been there, so decided to put that right. It is a lovely place in the countryside. It would be the ideal place for camping although there weren’t many campers there.  We had breakfast and as much as we love dogs it was a little annoying having the “farm dog” watching every mouthful and no one asking if it was OK!

Ellie lay down very quietly the other side! I asked for a sandwich with brown bread and they brought white, Mal’s coffee was not good. Obviously we know their ice cream is very good but it was too early in the morning for that. I have changed my mind about having it as a Red Hatters venue!

But it is in a lovely place.

On arriving home it started to rain and quite heavy and then a thunderstorm.

It rained but at least our walk was dry. Mal went to the allotment but obviously not wet enough yet!

Lunchtime the Kent Lavender Ladies, Red Hatters, we all met at The Jolly Farmer. I had curry, I  can’t say it was very good, more like soup with a few bits of chicken in it! A shame but we enjoyed ourselves.

 

 

A cooler day and Ellie was a little livelier. As we were walking around the cricket pitch we were chatting to another dog owner whose dog is 13. He takes her to Hydrotherapy in Whitfield, it is Waves. I know we were going to try it as it has so many recommendations but then I was ill and it became forgotten.

As soon as we arrived home, I completed the online form and sent a request to the vet to send all the details to Waves.

A work day and because of all the closed road chaos around us (Southern Water repairs), I left half an hour earlier but still arrived in good time. I heard all about Jack’s holiday and his birthday.

A busy day and I managed to get Mal some “allotment” trousers at one of our rival shops (we didn’t have any suitable). He ruins them anyway at the allotment but these were brand new, zip pockets, everything he wanted for £4!!

Coming home I then had to find the alternative route as Ramsgate road is closed but I did it in far less than their suggested 31 mile diversion!!  The problem with that way is it is through tiny villages with tiny country lanes and obviously heavy traffic otherwise you couldn’t get back in to Sandwich!