Who's that knocking on my door?

We overslept this morning. Although my alarm went off, I turned it up and lay dozing, as it was Chris’ turn to get up and get the coffee. Only I did slightly more than doze: I went back to sleep. Unfortunately Chris’ alarm chose today for the battery to run out, so it didn’t go off. It was just before 9am when he finally woke up and came to see what time it was.

The reason we were so tired was that Jez had had us awake for quite a while at around 4am. We’re not entirely sure what was going on, but she started barking, then came down to the front door which she wouldn’t leave alone. She was snuffling and breathing round it so loudly. And she kept going back to it. We think a fox must have taken shelter from the rain on the doorstep, as next door’s cats sleep there all the time and she never makes this amount of fuss. Eventually she got up on my bed and I shut my bedroom door. After that she settled down and went to sleep.

Once I’d got us this morning I took the dogs for a walk on Canford Heath. It had rained a lot over night, but was fairly warm and sunny this morning. It was very wet underfoot though, and I was glad I had my wellingtons. In places the paths were completely flooded and, as with Upton Heath, new streams had formed in many places. In addition, a lot of the more regular streams that dry out during the summer are now filled with water. In many places they actually form the paths, and although you can try and walk along a narrow strip with no heather along their ‘banks’ it is actually easier most of the time to walk in the stream bed, which tends to be gravel and sand, rather than the boggy mud of the bank.

I’m not sure exactly who is responsible for maintaining the heath: I think it’s Poole Council. Anyway, whoever it is, they have been cutting back some of the young trees and rhododendrons again. I know it is good for the heath, but it looks dreadful where it’s all been cut back; flat and barren.

This afternoon I have continued with Chris’ tax return. He’s hopeless at record keeping, although at least he tries which is more than can be said for some of my clients when I used to work as an accountant. I mainly rely on my records of what’s been paid into and out of our bank account though. By the end of the afternoon I had finally got everything worked out, and am ready to input it to the tax return tomorrow.