Diana had got up very early and had taken Debbie over to the castle for the departure of her school trip to Saumur, France, as I set off for a Norfolk Dog Training session and met Wiggly for a rendezvous on the way.
Later, training the dogs with Jim in some large fields of sugar beet; dripping wet with the early evening's rain. I ran Sam first and, after a while to settle down, he ran well; better than ever before.
There was patchy rain around this morning with showery intervals, but this was not going to stop my day's activity!
**"Read More" BELOW for the complete story**
Just a modest walk for Sam and then back to tackle the host of mail and paperwork that had built up over the preceding week. Diana had got up very early and had taken Debbie over to the castle for the departure of her school trip to France, where they will be staying in Saumur.
Di came back quite sad but relieved that nothing important had been forgotten and then Della joined in the morning as her favourite tormentor and playmate was now away for two weeks. Lunch with Di and then I had to get ready to go over to Sutton for Sam's training session.
I left early, having also arranged to meet Wiggly at the five-ways recreation area. She was spending the day in Lowestoft, taking photographs of Unilever's Birds-Eye frozen chicken plant for an assignment and we were able to rendezvous for a while as I made my way east in the opposite direction.
The funny thing was that I thought she would be keen enough to be early for our 3.00pm meeting time and, when I arrived a few minutes early myself, I could not see her or her car and drove off again to fill up with petrol and use the time effectively.
I did think of giving Sam a run but there was somebody sitting on the bank access footpath, and I thought he would mug them given half a chance. It was only when I returned that I found out that this was Wiggly after all, dressed up in sunglasses and trousers! We walked Sam along the river and then stopped for a mug of tea each before I drove my Discovery off-road into the trees.
****** Sections have been censored for reasons of privacy for five further years from this date ******
All this as the rain fell steadily on the car roof and Sam laid in the back looking on. Then, I was on my way to Sutton but I was still late for my rendezvous with Jim & July Bird. I need not have worried as Jim had been also badly delayed by the roadworks and wet-weather traffic back from Norwich.
We donned waterproofs and first took the dogs for a walk up the road when Jim was recognised by a local farmer and called over for a chat. He had heard of Jim's ability to control rabbits and pigeons and was soon also in conversation with the chap's father with the end result that we can now run our dogs on their land in the future and shoot a pheasant or two as well!
All this delayed dinner and it was quite late by the time we got out to some large fields of sugar beet, dripping wet with the early evening's rain. I ran Sam first and, after a while to settle down, he ran well; better than ever before.
After his first point, when he crept forward a bit and the hen pheasant and poult flew, he was much better on the second and stood firm. Later, Jim shot a pigeon and, Ben having failed to retrieve it, Sam was soon onto it and brought it back. He was a bit rough with the bird but at least he found and fetched it. Back to Jim's house for a mug of tea and home-made piece of jam tart and then the journey home.