Assorted Things of May

Saturday was Pp's birthday.  I had promised to make a cake and a meal, which I did, with some success in the most important department (taste) but less success in the visuals.  I intended to make a chocolate tower-cake, but my tower proved structurally unsound, and even the addition of a bamboo skewer did not entirely prevent listing and eventual crackage. 

We watched the Coronation (well, I went out and walked the hounds for part of it, but I got back in time to see the Drumming From a Horse, which was my personal highlight of the event.  That and the mounties, who against stiff competition, I think had the best horses. ) 

The forecast was for rain, but in fact the sun smiled all afternoon.  I mowed a lawn. I had intended to try for No Mow May, again (in which you don't mow till the start of June to allow time for the lawn to flower) but I think the wetter spring and dog pee combination had resulted in grass that was too lush to favor wildflowers.  So I've mowed all but the spots where I have camomile and yarrow growing, and I have done my best to mow around those.  I think I'll have to try to mow once in March next year, that might knock the grass back for long enough to let the wildflowers do their thing. 

I have a bunch of plants in pots that I really must plant out soon.  Still, a few more days won't hurt them. 

The local street party was a fairly laid-back beach party on Sunday (due to the forecast for Saturday being dismal) so we dropped by that briefly to admire the fire and chat with a few people. After that, we went out on the river in the boat, and journeyed upstream on the tide many miles, to the very fringes of Haverfordwest.  There was a fraught moment when we had to change the petrol tank and  couldn't work out why the engine wouldn't re-start afterwards, but it was resolved happily.  We do have an emergency paddle, but it would have been a long paddle home.



I've been oddly exhausted since Sunday and keep finding myself forced to stop and nap: unfortunate, since today I was dealing with a wrangle with the Oldies Club email that involved a teleconference with Google, and the Shop on the Borderlands had 28 orders to pack today, including a huge one to Australia. Still, we got it done, despite the minor niggle that the Royal Mail parcel-picking-up service is terribly glitchy and you never know when you'll have to just haul everything off to the sorting office. At least the sorting office has given us permission to ignore the 'no parking' signs when we come in with a car-load of post to send. We are allowed to park in one of the official van slots, as long as the vans are out delivering at the time. 

Theo's Ears

Theo had itchy ears again today, which seems to be a recurring issue with him.  He does have rather long floppy ears, which makes it harder for the ears to stay well-ventilated, apparently. 

He's now got to the point where the vet will not touch his ears unless he's sedated.  I've never had a vet-reactive dog before, and although I've tried working with him, it's difficult to get anywhere when, essentially, the vet IS going to do nasty things, and that's kind of the point.  

So now we have a bottle of eardrops and I'm going to try to administer them myself for the next ten days. So far, we have managed to give him two doses with the aid of liver paste and chicken. The ears seem less irritated already, so fingers crossed.