Having dashed to town to catch the post, drop in the dry cleaning, buy a birthday card or two and go to the bank we ventured into the cafe treating ourselves to steaming cups of fresh coffee. I ordered T-W-O a black Americano and myself a latte, we chatted about another small shop that had shut it’s doors for good.
The shops can make it through the summer but Winter here hits them hard and with less cash crossing their counters we see the special offers, then the sale signs and then that’s it the dream is finished for them. This last shop ‘Dots’ has moved to internet only and I can see that the overheads must be minute working from home in comparison to renting premises. We fear for several other shops in the town but we will keep their names to ourselves in the hope that we are wrong.
Whilst sipping our hot coffees we realised it was nearly five o’clock and we needed to get home to walk Vickie and feed the brood as well as close the door on the hen run to keep them safe for the night. On the way home I became caught up on a phone call with a friend from the office so by the time I’d done T-W-O had disappeared. Seeing his wellingtons had also gone I realised he was off to the hens so I went to see Vickie dog. She was so pleased to see me she was dancing round in circles, dashing backwards and forwards, eventually she calmed down enough to get a lead on her so we slipped away up the hill.
For those of you who visit us regularly you will know we have two hounds. Bertie dog is currently at the University vets in Bristol undergoing investigative tests to try and work out what illness he has. They were certain he had Cushings disease but he has had one positive test and one negative test. Apparently it’s hard to be conclusive so they need to put him through more discomfort. Poor Bertie is very brave but the vets is the last place he would volunteer to go.
Vickie and I wandered up the lane. Looking to our right I viewed Black Mountain, the top peak has small lines of white running down it rather like a comb with many broken teeth, backed by the failing sunlight it truly is black. Hanging in the wintry blue sky around us were clouds fit to be painted into a watercolour landscape. When we reached our turning point I looked down into the valley where Llandeilo lays, the evening truley closing in now the town could be depicted by it’s street lights, a myriad of yellow studs to my eyes, the false star (the international space station) hanging high in the sky above us. No moon I notice tonight.
Having chatted with a neighbour I quickened my pace home as I thought I may be missed. Vickie who took it to mean we would be running home tugged at the lead eager to pick up the pace as she loves to do. Poor Vickie was soon being tugged back into a more reasonable fast walk, but somewhere in her mind you believe she is happily running with the pack on a hunting mission of sorts – well her dinner is in a bowl ready for her return. I opened the door to explain where I had been only to realise we hadn’t been missed at all. T-W-O working away on his laptop had lost all sense of time.
Since the dogs were little we have occasionally bought them dried liver as a treat. When Bertie became diabetic we had to stop buying commercial treats and went on the hunt for dried liver.
