The end of PHEaAT. Pre-Holiday -Ess ntial and Accidental Tasks.

The run up to a holiday has several essential tasks and chores. Known to all the world over. Packing, passports and visas. Dog or pet holiday care ( they took 7 bags) are all fairly standard. As are at least two loads of last minute laundry. I would also add as standard, but the little talked about talent of preparing meals using up the fresh ingredients from a fridge. My tour de force this week was Merguez sausages wrapped in bacon served with organic curly Kale, mashed potatoes and Yorkshire puddings. All pushed to the last supper because of their use-by dates apart from the Organic Curly Kale which had slipped from his organic best only two days after purchase. Visually he was in his prime long after his date of despair. Firm of shaft  and as curly as a 70’s film star. He struggled to assimilate with any of my  PHEaAT creations earlier in the week.  I cannot guess if last night’s concoction was too his Organic credentials but his fate was sealed. A green vegetable accompanying the unusual foods last standing in the fridge.

Bobbers do inspire some random pondering. Anne Bobber took a walk this evening to see the new moon . Some intrepid swimmers and divers were still in the water one of whom said he chased a huge squid.

These are waters that we swim in very regularly, with no idea that we might have close encounters with much sea life especially something squid-like and huge.

Some delving into Squid Fishing websites does suggest that squid are attracted to the piercing clear light of a cloudless New Moon. So the swimmer may not have been mistaken. But that does also make me ponder that squid of all sizes must be there while the bobbers bob, which is not something we have ever given much thought to. And maybe we shouldn’t.

Says one squid to another.

“I was in Firestone Bay for the new moon, and I saw a huge bobber”

A gorgeous sourdough loaf in bright sunshine?

No. A rusty old bollard for boats to tie  up to at a little harbour called Mutton Cove.

Even at a distance it looks like a muffin.

Today is about getting  jobs done but the sunshine was too good to just dash from A to B without visiting the sea. Today is the last day my stats page has the column of shame. Earlier im the month there were an inexplicable 900 readers of my blog on one day. Which made my daily count  of between 20 and 40 look pretty silly.

Thank goodness the 900+ have dropped off my stats chart and I am back to low level success.

Two examples of things not exactly looking as they should.

I blame Instagram. I mostly use it for art but I am a very guilty scroller of my Instagram feed.

Who knew, for instance, that you could restyle a cardigan by wearing it upside down.

Which I tried today and it seemed to work. But I sense the West Country mischief fairies saw a woman with her cardigan on upside down as someone deserving of a prank.

A regular dog walk was complicated by very gusty weather a large umbrella and two dogs  simultaneously doing a poo. Somehow, I blame the mischievous West Country Fairies, my car keys fell into the autumn leaves without me noticing. Time was already a bit short , I was heading to a Dry Bob to celebrate two bobbers birthdays. But I had no choice but to retrace the whole dog walk kicking autumn leaves to find the missing keys, which I did.

I blame fairies because I have never worn my cardigan upside down before and unbelievably, in a long life I have never lost my keys before. The two must be linked . Isn’t that how superstition and folklore starts?

But the mischievous fairy was not done with me. I went to pick up some ordered library books. All the books I have ordered over the last 6 months have arrived , 7 books in total. I cannot possibly read 7 books in the next two weeks. I may never put my cardigan on upside-down again, whatever Instagram suggests.

There is no doubt that it works, but is it tempting fate?

The mischievous fairy struck again , I arrived home, after another dog walk at the time parents collect their children from the local school. For 30  minutes near 3:15 parking is tricky. I have never arrived at that time and failed utterly to find a space, but today that happened. Awkward because I really needed to use the loo.

Needs must, I parked near the cafe where we had noisily gathered for the Dry Bob, walked in, in my lurid green upside-down cardigan, used their facilities. Knowing that in a busy place only three hours later I would be remembered as a customer of the day. Quite the day!