Phoebe Phobia Day

Something has been missing in the last week. Today I realised what it was and so went exploring the local waters, hoping to find a sign of a possibly shipwrecked Cornwall pirate.

Luckily no flotsam found and later thanks to a tip from MollyCollie found him alive on FB. I am reeling from what I found out and trying to find a halfway sensible explanation. He has been suspended from the very top of the Blip yard-arm. I have a very nasty suspicion that we are dealing with censorship at it's worst.

I had come to learn the pirate as a very caring, thoughtful, witty and excellent photographer, and a champion of all things Blip. I would lay my hand in the fire to say he would never knowingly insult or hurt someone. I had seen his last Blip and suspect I even star'ed it. It's no longer possible to check back if, as it appears on the surface, someone could have a reason to have felt offended. The idea that a group/body used his posting to silence his critical thoughts, does not bear considering. He was simply concerned for the future of Blip and frustrated at the lack of information. If, and I doubt it, his journal entry that day was offensive, I am sure he would have voluntarily removed it and at very worst, Blip should have merely deleted it and gone in to offline direct contact with him - even though the entry was apparently rapidly climbing the Popular pages. It appears he was not even contacted or informed of his suspension.

I hope he will be back from his enforced as well as long planned holiday.

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For the first time in ages did the beaver walk today. Over the last year or two have often Bliped their work. There are a number of small trees they have felled, nothing spectacular but we did find this, at least 120cm diameter, specimen that they have just started on. I suspect it will take a good 12 months before it finally falls or is felled. The farmer is probably quite pleased to let them do the main work and spare him several gallons of petrol and worn out chains.

We also spotted our first willow catkins. Our weather is still rollercoasting. At morning muck out it was +6°C and dry. By the time I got back in it was +3°C and the rain and hail was lashing about horizontally. As the weather forecast was for increasingly bad weather, I was sceptical that we would be able to get out for the morning walk.

Many dog and especially border collie owners, will know what I went through while sipping a warming cup of coffee and trying to think how to break the news to the dogs. I gave up - a pointless exercise trying to translate the German expression " bei diesem Wetter jagt man keinen Hund vor die Tür" (you don't put a dog out in this weather).

Who came up with the stupid expression - there's no such thing as bad weather......? Needless to say I then needed 30 minutes to get in to the full protective gear, not aided by two happy BC's constantly encouraging me to get a move on.

As we shut and locked the back door to prevent the wind blowing it open, the rain stopped and the wind died down and stayed that way for the entire walk. I didn't appreciate the looks when we got back, saying "what was he so worked up about".

While we had lunch the rain returned, followed by a very brief spell of sunshine and by evening thunder, lightning, rain, hail, sleet and snow. Tomorrow it should be nice and mi.ld and by Saturday snow again.

Could be excused for thinking it was 1st April. I wonder if Phoebe would be interested in a dog exchange until then?