Furry companions and wild neighbours

I’d been very organised setting up broadband and insurance in my friend’s property I’m going to stay at from 30 Sept, telling TV licence and council tax, etc. I gave notice on my broadband in the house too. Annoyingly, the completion on our house looks like it’s going to be delayed a few weeks, so I have had to cancel all that I’d done! I need to be less urgent in future. Wait until things are finalised before setting stuff up, although I obviously need broadband set up in order to work so I wasn’t being ultra urgent! Anyway, things have kind of stopped for the time being. Waiting for clarification of what’s happening up the chain.

As I said in the last post, I’d been offered a house sit, and that’s where I am now. I’m looking after a dog and a cat and we’re really rural. I was a bit nervous beforehand at how rural it was. Don’t know why; I’ve lived rural before, but it was 10 years ago and I had my family with me. Anyway, I’ve settled in now.

The views are absolutely stunning. The dog is really gentle and loving and I’m enjoying our walks on the land. Particularly when I get to see the herd of deer that are here. Don’t know if they live here, or are visiting, but it’s a real pleasure to see them. One’s a huge stag, and yesterday I saw quite a young deer all on its own, but was pleased to see it rejoined the family on our walk back. I’ve heard the deer calling a few times which is quite cool. Quite a few times, the cat has come on a walk with us! I have to watch out for her because she’s so close to my feet a lot of the time I could easily tread on her, or fall over! My old dog Fly was like that. He’d be so close behind me that he’d stand on my flip flops as I was walking! Bless him. I miss Fly. Anyway back to the safari. It does feel like that in a way, watching out for the sheep, the cat, the dog, the deer, oh and the mice!! Yes, mice. The cat likes me so much she likes to give me presents! One was alive, and I managed to catch it and release it, and one - at 6am this morning was dead!! The cat sleeps with me usually but I could hear her chattering away and knew she was up to something. In the end, I put the light on and there on the floor was a poor little mouse. The cat seemed very pleased with herself. Talking of wildlife, the housemartins are flying around and will be setting off to Africa soon. I hopefully won’t miss them leaving.

I left the house today to get some more food, and am now not planning on not leaving for another few days. It’s so restful here. So quiet. It’s almost loud because it’s quiet if you know what I mean. I did work Weds to Fri, and will be working again from Monday, but it feels like I’m on holiday! The first two days the sun shone and I was able to spend a couple of hours on the lounger outside which was fab. This morning we had torrential rain, but managed to get out for a walk and it was so warm. It all smelt lovely too.

So there you are, I’m enjoying rural life and I am all on my own! Who’d have thought it.