You would never believe what’s been happening here over the last few days! Want to guess?
You’ll never guess! Okay, you might.
It’s been raining. (I’m chuckling to myself as I type this because you’re probably rolling your eyes at me right now!)
Anyway, it’s been the type of rain that is just a constant drizzle with a few belches of sudden showers to mix things up. Today was the first day in ages that it didn’t rain, and the sun actually came out for a while. Too bad the ground was so wet though; I couldn’t do any grass cutting or more general garden upkeep. It will happen when the ground is a bit less soggy!
Of course the pups don’t mind soggy ground, so off I went with them today for their daily walk somewhere along the moor. It was warm and I started to get sweaty very quickly after starting walking. So, after about 5 minutes, my light sweatshirt got peeled off and I strode forward enjoying the warmth on my arms. I decided to head to the shore so the pups could paddle about in the cool water after the first half of their run.
It only took a few minutes for the first flying thing to find me. I think it was a fly, but I’m not sure. See what these weird Scottish flying beasts have done to me? I’m not even sure a fly is a fly these days!
I took it in stride, though. I can deal with a fly and I can deal with walking and swatting my hands around myself every so often. Multitasking – it’s a thing these days, you know!
The fly started to follow me. I’m absolutely sure it was the same fly. After about 10 minutes there were more of them. They were definitely following me and annoying my head and arms.
It was that stalking behavior that made me wonder if these things were flies or some sort of horrific mutation of a fly. I don’t think they were Cleggs, nothing ever bit me.
I decided to embrace the sweat and retreat into the safety of my sweatshirt which would cover my head, neck and arms. I clutched the ends of the sleeves firmly in my palms and made sure that only my knuckles and fingers were exposed. I also gathered my hood around my head, clamping it to my forehead and chin manually, because of course it was the oldest sweatshirt I owned and it was missing the drawstring at the hood!
The puppies had their quickest paddle-splash ever! I hot-footed it back home wondering how many of those flying things were following me. And believe me, they followed me! Ugh, I’m shuddering just thinking about it now.
On the way back I had to stop on two occasions, both by boggy patches of ground. I didn’t think that I’d be seeing anything new in terms of flowering moor plants as it’s the middle of summer and the growing season will be coming to an end before too long. But, I was surprised twice, so pictures had to be taken! (Of course!)
I had to endure quite a few flying beasts in my face for a few seconds each time I stopped. So believe me when I say that these pictures were taken in record time. I actually nearly fell backwards because of how quickly I did the stop, drop and squat for the pictures!
Nothing stung me though, so that’s a good thing! Here are those pics. I wonder what tomorrow will bring? I need to wash the feeling of those stalker flies away now…
