And that was summer?

When I was little, I remember hearing a rhyme about this time of year:

"Ne'er cast a clout till may is out." Roughly translated, this means, "It is ill advised to remove any of your winter clothing until the may blossom is visible on the hawthorne trees." I noticed the profusion of may blossom on the trees at the bottom of the field this morning when we were out on our walk and that reminded me of the rhyme, (usually quoted at me in my youth when I wanted to go out to play without a coat.)

Given the chilly weather and rain which have returned to haunt us today, it seems that there will be no clouts cast just yet or for the foreseeable future, i.e. next week. And it's no good any of you gardeners saying that we need it; I definitely don't! I like the sun, so there!

Still it was nice to see the horses back in the ajoining field and even Paddy steers clear of them, probably recognising that, given their size, it wouldn't be a good idea to invite them to play! 

Sunday

Sunday really lived up to its name over here in north Wales. The weather was beautiful, hot and sunny with not a cloud in the sky - just like most other places in Britain really. After the disastrous summer last year, followed by a winter that would have been more suited to the Steppes of Russia, it seems so long since we last had some decent weather, but this last week the Weather Fairy has done us proud.

So off we set, Keith and Paddy and I to follow the winding road to the west coast.

"Let's go over Hellfire Pass," Keith suggested, and so we did. This is where Austin used to test drive their cars back in the first half of last century.
Apparently, 'an Englishman' named it Hellfire Pass but the Welsh soon returned it to its original name of Bwlch y Groes and it's the highest pass in north Wales, or, as the Welsh would say,
"Rydych yn sefyll ar y bwlch uchaf yng Ngogledd Cymru."
Not bad, eh?

Paddy here

You know, I sometimes wonder what I have to do to get into Jenny's good books. OK, so she's started giving me little treats when I let a dog go past on our walks without barking at it and I am getting the hang of that, but seriously, would any self-respecting dog stand quietly by when he's got a rabid bulldog growling at him? Of course not, so I do a bit of barking back, just to let the other fellow know I'm no pushover. And then, there are the rabbits. Jenny has discovered a new walk. We have to go halfway round the lake and under a bridge. There's a stream running beside the path there and steps up to another path which leads into a field. This field is one of my favourite places, especially if we go there early in the morning. The reason? It is packed full of delicious scents of rabbits. The place must be full of them! Of course, they keep well out of my way and, as she's got my on this long lead, I can't follow my instincts and charge all over the field like a lunatic until I find one. I only want to play with them, honestly!
Today, we had a glimpse of a fox. It was a bit of a shock actually. It came charging out of the bushes, saw me and shot back in again. Then I spotted a lovely little rabbit and of course I did try to chase it - it was practically shouting 'Come and get me!' but 'the boss' wouldn't let me.
She's such a spoilsport sometimes...

Another car

We had a flying visit from Elder Daughter, Kathy yesterday - in her 'new' car. It's a very nice, well- looked after Saab, which takes a little getting used to for her as it's an automatic.

Mind you, they sold the Porsche first... :)

Thank you, Barclays! :(

Well, this seems to be the week for being grumpy, so let's maintain the trend and turn our attention to Barclay's bank, which is where Keith and I deposit our (lack of) money (as opposed to keeping it in a sock under the bed, you understand.) Now this is not a rant about our brand new, expensive local branch where they have too few people on the till, which means that they have at least two other employees pacing up and down the queue asking everyone if they would like to use the automatic machine to pay in their hard earned groats and offering to help them do it. Nor is it about my perplexity over having these people walk up and down rather than get behind the tills to shorten the queue. I have supreme confidence that Barclay's know exactly what they are doing and have worked out that this is the best use of their employees' time. No, this is about something else entirely.
One of our accounts is a joint account which is used for quite a few incomings and outgoings and which we do our level best to ensure  has an adequate amount of money in it for dates when outgoings are due. So not surprisingly, Keith was less than happy when he noticed last night that money had been paid in to cover outgoings but said outgoings had been refused, which would no doubt give Barclay's a perfect excuse to impose bank charges.
He picked up the phone and within minutes of jumping through the usual hoops, was outlining the problem to the bloke in the other end. After a lengthy conversation, during which Bloke finally conceded that this was a Barclay's Blunder, he pointed out that,  although Bloke agreed not to impose bank charges, it still remained his problem to soothe the ruffled feelings of the people who had not been paid. He did assure Bloke that it was not a personal attack and the conversation ended with Bloke inviting Keith to his birthday party.
No, I made the last bit up, it ended with Bloke trying to persuade Keith to take out home contents insurance with Barclays.
Well, they have to stick to their script, you see, come what may.

Good morning!

Paddy is undergoing a slightly altered form of 'training' at present. In the past, he has always been very erratic in the way he greets other dogs that we meet on our walks. Sometimes, he's as good as gold, he and the other dog have a sniff round each other (recognised etiquette in the canine world) and then we continue on our way. But on other occasions the 'greeting' consists of  barking furiously and lunging with all his might towards the other dog. Often, I think, there is something in the other dog's body language or behaviour which elicits this reaction, but maybe I'm just making excuses for him. After one occasion recently when he got over excited and wound his lead round the legs of the other dog's owner, threatening to topple her over into the valley below, I decided tactics had to change. So, instead of allowing him to approach slowly and greet the other dog - or not - we now have a different system. When we see another dog and owner approaching, we withdraw to the side of the path and let them pass. If he gets this right, he gets a treat before we proceed on our way and he has mostly been getting it right.
So that's him sorted. Now I apparently need to work on my people skills. After all, what other reason could there be for this morning's encounter with a spaniel and his owner. who, when I said 'good-morning' to him, completely blanked me and called his dog away from Paddy?
Oh yes, he could just have been an ignorant so and so, of course.
The spaniel, on the other hand, was lovely and perfectly behaved.

Car insurance

Since we changed our car a few weeks ago, the AA decided that our premium should be practically doubled. Granted the car is a bit bigger, as you can see, but it is also older and the 12 year old that I spoke to was not up for discussion. In the past, when my insurance was due for renewal, I would get a quote from my current company and a cheaper one as an alternative. Now, it just rises steadily and it's 'take it or leave it.'

So, I decided to do some investigations of my own via a comparison website and, lo and behold, I found one, nay half a dozen, which, even with myself as main driver and Keith as named driver, which would have cost me even more with the AA, comes in at just over half the AA quote.

Next was another phone call to the AA to tell them that I wanted to cancel my insurance policy with them. Naively, I did expect the lady at the other end to  ask why I wanted to cancel, even to add some expression of regret. I have been a customer of theirs for close on thirty years and, to be fair, I have, until recently, found their service to be good value. However, no enquiry was forthcoming and even when I explained that I had found another policy for half the price, there was not a vestige of interest or comment. She completed the transaction, informed me of my refund, which is minus FIFTY POUNDS for 'administration'! To add insult to injury, yesterday they sent me a three page customer survey to fill in.
The second word is 'off' AA!