Living on the edge

What a different day weather wise today. Still nicely hot but overcast and much better for the doglets. It it said that if 15 seconds is too hot for your hand to be on the pavement it's also too hot for their paws and as levitation hasn't been perfected, it's stay at home and walk only on grass.

This poppy was thrusting itself between the gaps in the pavers, the grate for the water meter and the edging of the pavement. With little in the way of nutrition and still less inthe way of water it is surviving against all the odds and definitely living life on the edge.

I'm fairly chuffed with my cycle ride again today, my usual circuit of 7.8 miles provides enough of a push to feel I've done something. I'm puzzled at what the criteria are for constructing cycle ways as I used one on a country road where I saw possibly 6 cars in 15 minutes and nothing on a single carriageway road which had buses, massive articulated trucks and cars at all to frequent intervals. I'm looking to see if I can add a couple of miles on and cycle basically on pavements or on roads in the town which in some cases are wider than the main road with the trucks ! I'm might write to the council. They've no excuse, austerity was just a ruse.

Yallright ? I call across the road to the woman who is forever walking that dog. Now she's retired she's out all the time with it. I reckon it's well fed up now probably wishes it could have a rest and she was at work! She never has much to say but I hardly know her really. I wish I could retire, sometimes I think working for the RSPCA is just too much. I believe in it through and through but I'm often shocked by the callousness and greed of people and the beauty and vulnerability of the sentient beings maltreated and exploited. Sometimes I think this job is time limited. But what then? What's next. It's the uncertainty of the alternatives as much as the love of what I do. And every week I have to clean this bloody van, just so it keeps the image of the RSPCA clean. There's more important stuff!


I often see him cleaning that van. What a huge waste of water it is, always a constant flow down the road. I wonder what he does when he's not working for the RSPCA? The labels aren't always on the side or maybe he's unmarked on some jobs...