Yawning not roaring ....

Pearl, yawning not snarling .

Buzz in the tube on the right .

Disgruntled ....

Called at Blagdon en route to Belsay , and stopped at the coffee shop

there then quick perusal of the various shops . All very well but in the end decided we will enjoy it better when we are older ....or perhaps just when we have grown up .

At Belsay we try to walk round the lake , following a map which unfortunately we have mis -read . We expect the walk to follow the lake in a circle but it goes off in the opposite direction taking us up through the woods ( where I temporarily wonder whether we might get bitten by a tick . I have a thing about deer ticks ) .

The woodland walk would have been just the thing had we not been expecting a lakeside stroll, so we trudge along in silence and I ponder the word "disgruntled " as it seems to fit the bill . A wonderfully descriptive word , it conjures up images of black and pink spotted pigs , with bristly backs , and snorty snouts , rooting in the undergrowth ( perhaps for truffles ) and coming up with nothing more than a grubby nose . And looking around belligerently as they emerge . A bit like we did as we emerged from the woods with " was that it then? " looks on our faces .

Later , as we re enter the grounds , and follow the gardens to the house , I notice the sign advising anyone who thieves plants that they will get their comeuppance . I dont know much about the world of plants and gardens but this one is particularly big and stocked fit to burst with every species of plant I know and I can't help thinking what a churlish notice this is . One of my childhood memories of walks round country gardens was of the women in the party snipping cuttings with their fingers and placing them in plastic bags in their handbags and going home all pleased with their acquisitions ( it wasn't a thing I ever saw a man do . Men in those days didn't have handbags though . Its all different now . )

St Mary's Lighthouse

A flurry of CatCalling this weekend including two visits which take us past the lighthouse . We stop to take pictures and muse about the weather . Floods in various counties west and south , and the news shows cars and people floating .
Later we go out to see a film and bundle up in coats for the occasion. July . Summer holidays . Wierd. Global warming ? Global cooling and flooding .

The cats don't seem too bothered . A wonderful British shorthair with the softest fur and a little black kitten who likes to play hide and seek .

Buzz the hamster , perhaps reacting to the change in environment , has carried a pile of sawdust up to his wheel on top of the cage ( reminds me of Center Parcs with all its flumes and tubes and plastic balls for play purposes ) and settled down there for the duration . A wise move , possibly .