The Unbearable Lightness of Being with Ruby...

Autumn has arrived. The rain is here. It's gray, dark and very somber. It's what it is. Apparently for a couple of weeks.

Ruby's family have picked a great two weeks to not be here? Ruby is not keen on leaving her seat. And I can't hold it against her.

14 days from today I am ensconced up on Chestnut Avenue, which is a million times better than being ledged on the 11th floor of Lovell Park Grange? 

***

Tuesday.

The rain didn't hang on in Wetherby, luckily? And we did get a second walk. I took Lola food to mum's and then took Ruby through town. Another good hour. Her body language was mainly tired after Sunday's biggie. Back to normal this morning I suppose. And Lola too. I am hoping we have a sunny afternoon so I can look at the allotment... Which might get neglected once more now I have Ruby.

***

Wednesday morning,

I've settled in. Had a bath prior to bed. Ate a noodle soup at lunch and a pile of beans for tea. Ruby had a long morning with me and Lola. She then had a happy meander around the fields behind Chestnut Avenue and chilled.

This morning she's eaten and returned to Lalaland. I've listened to a podcast about The Invention of Taiwan. All this potential war just around the corner or over the next horizon. It seems inevitable? Humans can't resist. To fight and win!

***

Yesterday I retreated to bed after I got depressed. When I met up with Ian a d Andy I felt tired. Tired of the lack of substance I feel within Wetherby. It has two roads running through it. One was the old Great North Road, with three  or four of the inns along it now closed, and the other is the one heading towards Harrogate passing Spofforth Hill, Spofforth and Plumpton. Those two roads met at the bridge crossing the Wharfe. I think knowing the weather is going to be bad today means I am further restricted in Wetherby.

And I know it shouldn't matter. It's just so easy to forget autumn has a part to play in the turning of the wheel. The time when all fruit and veg is harvested, processed, conserved and preserved for the coming year. It's a valuable time. The time when famine could be predicted. That's why we're such wanton gluttons at Christmas, during a time of plenty when there is no scarcity.

So it raining once more. Persistent. Ruby briefly went to toilet, ate her breakfast and is curled up asleep alongside me. This is our way. It's a nice way? Lola and I do exactly the same. While I brew a coffee and listen to one of the more than a thousand episodes of In Our Time...

A change pace. A change of diet. Porridge this morning. Yesterday it was potatas bravas with the beautiful Charlotte potatoes from the allotment. Nuts, sultanas, sesame seeds, honey and live yogurt. Going to take them both out somewhere in the rain. It looks persistent, but not as heavy as on Monday?

***

Friday morning, sat beside Ruby and trying to understand a podcast on Wormholes, General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics... I guess the concepts will never become as clear to me as they obviously are to physicists. If I can understand that time and space are the same, space-time, I might turn on a light in my mind?

The rain came down yesterday, but not until noon so Ruby, Lola and I had a good morning down on the Ings before I brought Ruby back and made an excellent lunch, pasta sauce and fusilli which paired very well with M&S Montepulciano(£6.50).

***

Then we went to Leeds and then we went to Harrogate. Ruby and I around Roundhay and then to a number of venues along Boar Lane. We were back on the bus at 3. On Saturday we caught the bus at noon from The Spinney and we were back around 5. We had a good time. And relaxed on Sunday.

Ruby's had her breakfast and is asleep once more. Today is meant to be another day of torrential rain, but it hasn't arrived yet.

I left the kitchen cleaned last night, had a bath and slept well. I was awake at 5:30am.

Second week of Autumn. Another day of rain. Last Monday the same. It was cold yesterday. Ruby and I went out with Lola in the morning and had another meander in the afternoon, but nothing as intense as either Friday or Saturday. I left her a little in the afternoon to read a chapter of A Year in Provence.

***

A second day of rain. It's 6:30am. I've been awake an hour.

Yesterday afternoon I took Ruby into town for an hour before we came back for dinner. But the rain was torrential and persistent so we returned wet and cold. Asking for the heating on is an unusual request in September?

It's October 1st today. Summer was switched off on the 22nd and by the 23rd the fury of autumn was upon us. This happened to me last year too - in Spain it went from summer to autumn during one windy day walking from Burgos on La Meseta - around Castrojeriz. That was later in October though.

The wet weather lasted ages last year too. It really hung on until late spring 2024.

***

The wheels almost fell off the bus. For the first time during this period of dog sitting. Oh boy. When the mist settles on my mind I lose all hope. Wine. Too much. And the final nail was the Cornetto before bed, and the disturbed gurgling stomach. And the usual attention to Xhamster... I didn't see it coming... But I did buy a bottle of wine in Morrisons! Which I really didn't need to reach for so now the anxiety and guilt spread as I convinced myself I about to have a heart attack... Anxiety!

But I am capable of resetting myself? This is something I must ponder as I deposit last night's bad sleep into the toilet and then reset the kitchen. Perhaps I will have a bath this morning too as I haven't had one since Sunday?

***

And it's gone. That dreadful day is in the past. How can I learn? Why can't I learn? It's so bizarre. It's addiction. 

Thursday morning. Slept until 5:45am without any breaks ... Until 4 when I went to pee. Ruby was quiet. She is quite happy in the kitchen area. Only once has she slept upstairs. She either sticks to her sofa or the one she's made some holes in in the 'front' room which is at the back of the house and hasn't got a TV in it anymore...

Going to collect Lola around 7:30am. Something nice. It's blue sky for a couple of days before autumn swoops down once more on Sunday...

But I must not drink!

***

I didn't drink. 

A good night's rest. Just listened to a very educational podcast about bad labour relationships in the US in the nineteenth century - In Our Time The Haymarket Affair. Ruby's eaten. It's still and pretty cold outside. She ventured out but didn't bark.

I've organised my budget until the end of the year, when I go onto UC (LCWRA) in January.

Hopefully I will have the operation on my foot soon? Four to six weeks takes me to mid November... And recovering time. I'd like to be in northern Portugal/Southern Gallica once more leaving Valença or Tui towards Santiago!

***

The final day has arrived. Monday. Ruby's owners are back this evening.

There was a downpour last night, but there are clear skies this morning. I've Lola and Ruby this morning before I do the big clean up this afternoon. Not that it's dirty: I think I should vacuum up and brush the floor in the kitchen. I cleared away the dog poo yesterday, after we returned from the river. 

Slept in this morning. Didn't crawl out of bed until 6:30am. In the end of yesterday I was tired. Glenn came over on Saturday so we had a few beers in Wetherby and finished most of the Coq au vin before bed. I finished it off yesterday. When I went for my lunchtime break I took the 'sack' of potatoes back to my mum's as I will be having a pasta meal this lunchtime. A sauce made with goats cheese, capers and greens.

***

Ruby was exceptionally tired yesterday; poor little thing (she's six)... 

Big clean up after we went to town for the final time to say thank you (for 2 weeks until I have her, briefly, again).

Returned to my mum's for the night with a lightly battered special haddock from The Frying Pan, ate it, retired and slept exhaustedly until the usual 5:30am.

And I think I did a good job of survival in Wetherby, after the first week which was so wet...

What will become of today? I feel like a total day to myself. Although I've not looked after Lola over much. Yesterday she, Ruby and I walked along the bank of the river Wharfe to Collingham and back to Spofforth Hill via the Golf Course in the dazzling autumnal sunshine... So she won't need much input today. I think I will head to Leeds once I've done the little jobs mum requires of me?