Calm before

The Gorse Fox was not amused when Jasper decided that he wanted everyone up and about just after 6 a.m. - we know he missed us, but really! The Gorse Fox creaked down the stairs and opened the back door so he could roam and that seemed to satisfy him. The Gorse Fox went back to bed.

At a more convenient hour we wandered down for the morning coffees and teas and then the Gorse Fox got on the running machine while the Silver Vixen got ready for a quick shopping trip to Chichester. We have a dinner arrangement with friends on Saturday and she wanted something suitable to wear that fitted her svelte, slimmed down figure. The Gorse Fox meanwhile finished his exercise, showered, grabbed some breakfast and then tried to address the mess Jasper had deposited on the bedroom carpet.

Jasper has the occasional habit of eating grass then finding the most visible and inconvenient place on the light beige carpets to deposit the contents of his stomach. This, if not dealt with quickly, leaves stains. We have learnt to scoop up the mess, then damp down the area and cover it in bicarbonate of soda. This is exactly what the Gorse Fox did yesterday - so now, 24 hours on it was a case of cleaning it all up. Unfortunately this time the trick with the bicarb doesn't seem to have worked so well. A bit of carpet cleaner has been tried and then the bicarb re-applied. We'll see if this does the trick.

After lunch we had a quick trip to Sainsbury's. There were a few small gifts to get and the car needed diesel. Talk about YOLO (you only live once)!