Pea discovered the desiccated remains of a hedgehog which he carefully brought back to the compound several weeks ago. I recall removing it from the SDC as I didn’t feel that a dog of such tender years should be partaking of such delicacies so threw it into the outer compound and forgot all about it. Today, Charlie has been spending some time with Ursula and Tony but has now come back as they have gone to Paleochora for some lunch. I left Charlie, together with Heidi, who has been out most of the day, in the main compound. Hearing some barking from Heidi, I could see that the desiccated hedgehog has been rediscovered and was the cause of some friction between Charlie and Heidi. So I gave Charlie the remains of a chew which I’d removed from Minnie who was planning to take it out on the morning walk a couple of days ago. I then went into the SDC for an Al Fresco, despite the wind, to find Heidi hot on my heels wanting to go back in. Charlie is now lying peacefully under the shade of the olive tree next to Boris’s compound: he has a chew and a desiccated hedgehog.
After a fairly early and bright start, the sky is now clouding over and there is a bit of a wind. The temperature made it to 31.2°C at 13:15 but is now a more comfortable 28.7°C, probably due to the wind. Ursula and I went out for the morning walk around 05:15 to find a mystery person sitting on the beach looking in the direction of the (almost) full moon. I assumed it might be Maria due to the presence of Micky and Five but I have no evidence to support that assumption. Our walk was fairly uneventful and we managed to return with the same number of dogs and the same number of balls. Salt Man appeared in his Jeep so the dogs were able to chase after him as he drove down to the end of the Promontory. He then busied himself pumping out the water in the rock hollows to fill them up again with sea water. He is going to be earning his money this year.
The walk was very pleasant and there seemed to be less buzzy-biting things than yesterday, the sky was clear, the moon equally so, with just a few fluffy clouds in a row. Boris’ flashing ball is still flashing and we appear to have got over the turning on and off problem, however it seems not to be quite so bright as before. The ball has fallen victim, not only to Boris’ teeth, but also to those of Millie, Heidi and Charlie, who has a tendency, like most boys, of trying to destroy things. Whist pressing the ball to get the light to stay on, it now emits a gentle sigh, a kind of wheeze, as the button is pressed.
I carefully unpacked my digital clock project and filed down the tip of my soldering iron ready to build the kit. Having laid out all the pieces I could see that there was one capacitor missing! All the same, I have constructed it as far as I can go and will obtain the missing part online. The cost of the postage will probably be half the cost of the entire clock. It’s been a long time since I build any sort of electronic project and I noticed that all the components have got a lot smaller. I now need a magnifying glass to check the soldering and to read the component values. Why is the writing so much smaller?
The camping seems to be quite busy for the time of year, with a mixture of some quite large motorhomes and various tents. It is generally busier during the weekends as Greek families visit for a short stay. I still reckon there is not enough money around for many Greeks to take time off work so they come for a couple of weekends instead of a holiday. There are a few ‘stealth tents’ on the camping: these are hired to customers who don’t have a tent of their own. They can give a false impression of the number of people on the camping. I have suggested they are deliberately left up especially when things are a bit quiet. I always think it’s a good idea to have a number of vehicles in the car park and tents in the camping. Even if the tents are unoccupied and the vehicles belong to the staff. Psychologically I think many people don’t want to arrive somewhere that seems deserted.
I’m still trying to find a way to get Millie to UK as Reni, her Forever Family, do not have any more leave until October. I will try to see if I can find some kind soul with a motorhome going back to England or someone flying back to France.
