Wolds Diary: Worthwhile trip and sneaky dog tricks

I decided to treat myself on the way back from the doctor's surgery one day. I popped into our local supermarket and bought a freshly cooked pizza with my choice of toppings - ham pineapple and mushrooms - I got home and sat down and ate a couple of slices, and then a third. Then the phone rang in another room so I carefully put the pizza box in what I thought was a safe place, answered the call.
View from the Wolds this week, with Sue Woodcock.View from the Wolds this week, with Sue Woodcock.
View from the Wolds this week, with Sue Woodcock.

After taking the call, I sat down and reached for the box and it was as I had left it, only with a distinct absence of pizza. I looked around and the dogs were sitting just where they had been before but one, Looroll, looked guilty and did lick her chops. I thought it through and realized she is the only dog athletic and tall enough to have climbed up and taken the food without disturbing anything else. Maybe she did me a favour, I was supposed to be on a diet... She didn’t even look in the slightest bit guilty. I will put anything edible in a more secure place in future. I should have known better.

On another I drove over to Harrogate. I’d been contacted by a lady who wanted to give me an unfinished quilt she had started and could no longer complete.

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On the journey, down the A64 I noticed a succession of raptors, hovering over the road side, obviously hunting. At first it was a series of kestrels, then a red kite and finally I saw a buzzard much higher up.

I love Harrogate but not the traffic there. I found the house I wanted opposite the impressive Majestic Hotel. The lady lived in the buildings that were built at the turn of the 1900s and her place was immaculate.

Over a coffee, I looked at some of her beautiful pictures and there, on one of her walls, was a copy of a picture I know well, as it was on the wall of a house I lived in as a child. It was of the Duke of Wellington, astride Copenhagen. It was like meeting an old friend. She offered me a biscuit, and I can honestly say she bakes the best gingernuts I have ever had.

I learned something very interesting while I was there. The land on which both the hotel and surrounding buildings had been sold for the purpose by Howard Carter, the Egyptologist that found Tutankhamun’s tomb. I learn something new every day.

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On one walk with the dogs this week I managed to gain a very handsome black labrador, called Spud, for a while, until we came across his owner.

The dogs all played together before we parted and I got back to the car with five very happy, tired and grubby dogs.

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