Today I met for the first time my first cousin once removed!  The divine Olivia.

And her mother, my cousin and god-daughter.

I haven’t seen them for ages, years even and we all spent a lovely afternoon together.  Such a sweet and good little person. I adored her.

All except for a certain Ted who behaved appallingly. He was dreadful and had to stay on a lead all the time.

When Mum rescued Ted 3 years ago, she was told that he had been thrown out of two homes already, and she has noticed that he gets very agitated when he hears a baby on the tv so we took no risks.  We think he has previous form.

When we went for a walk in the garden, Floss was in charge of Ted.

It was a lovely afternoon. My family is very small so a new cousin is most welcome.

The purple poppy lasted one day and then dropped its’ petals but we had a lot of rain last night so perhaps that’s why.

But, happy days, another appeared!  I think it is the last one for this summer.

And, again, it is spectacular.

I am definitely going to ask for a poppy head and let’s see if I can achieve this beauty in Shetland.

I haven’t seen Master Fox for a few days.  The food vanishes but no film-footage.  I will keep going!  This is from two days’ ago.

Every morning we leave the house at 06:30 to walk Teddy around the golf course  that encircles the house. These days, Ted is kept on a lead as he can run off.  Idiot unhelpful dog.

The old oak tree is always visited.

At this hour, the golf course is empty and my mother walks there with the permission of the owners.

It is very beautiful so early and sometimes we see kites flying above, and deer running past.

Meanwhile Tedworth remains on his lead!  It’s his own fault.  One departure too many for Mum’s nerves. I can see her point.

Anyway, he has a nice big garden that he can run around off the lead. He patrols it regularly.

This morning, it rained, though stopped for our early morning walk, which was kind.

The poppy gave up but another is on it’s way.

The roses are just as gorgeous in the rain.

The most beautiful purple poppy (I will ask for some seeds) has just come out this morning.  Totally wow!  I am bewitched by it.  I have never seen one that colour.

I am enjoying taking photos of the roses.  At every stage of their brief blooming, they are beautiful.  The colour, the shape.

“Pheasant”

“Pheasant”

“Eden Rose”

“Parade”

“Felicite Et Perpetual”

Parade

A very fast bumblebee hard at work.

And the mighty brick tower – well, I walked around it and tried to work out how it was made.  Mum and I think there are three bricks on each layer and she remembers some cement being used too, possibly on the middle edges of the bricks, where you can’t see.

I hope that makes sense.  Lay three bricks with the inside corners touching and then place the next layer exactly opposite and keep going up, up, ever upwards.

Little Tedworth followed me around too.  A dear little companion.

This morning, I woke up with a tick biting on my belly.  So, stupidly, without thinking, almost a reflex, I ripped it off and the head was still left in.

Mum, with some sterile tweezers and needle, tried to get it out but we failed and it was fairly obvious that the head was still left behind.

I phoned 111 and spoke to someone, repeating myself at least twice, and I was told to go to Frimley Park Hospital immediately.

So off Mum and I trotted.

When we got there, it was quickly apparent that children over the age of 18 could not bring their parent in with them so Mum went back and waited in the car.  I felt bad for her.

Meanwhile, I sat for nearly 4 hours listening to “hospital radio” (in between the greatest hits of 1990, I had a lecture on IBS and not taking unnecessary antibiotics).  I was eventually seen by a doctor who did more prodding and poking.  When I squawked (cried), she then used local anaesthetic and we hope she got the whole thing out.  The doctor was optimistic although I am not so convinced.  I will keep an extra careful eye on things.  I have a dressing on the area, plus a spare.

Encouragingly, the doctor said that Berkshire was low in incidences of Lyme Disease.   I am now praying that I haven’t caught it.  That is all I need.

I am feeling a bit shook up after all of this.

Anywho, here are a few films of the Mr Fox (and I think we can all agree he is a Mr).  We think he is one of last year’s cubs.  He still has a baby face and is a bit scrawny.