Little Treasure

Such a busy day today. I'm someone who doesn't really stop to see if things will work out, but just decide that I'll fit everything in somehow. And so I do usually, and did today.  First of all I had to dig up as many little plants as possible to go in the village plant sale on Saturday. There were hellebores, and echinops, Japanese anenomies, lysmachia, pulmonaria, vinca - varegated and normal, macleaya, eryngium, euphorbia Fireglow etc etc. I got them out of the ground, potted them up and watered them, praying that they'd be alive in the morning. It took ages in the hot sunshine and icy winds, the clouds deciding which one dominated, but it was satisfying, the neat row of pots looking very professional. I had just gulped down a quick lunch when Nick arrived to do some planting for me. This was serious planting, four fruit trees, a eounymus alatus, a cotinus, a physocarpus and a viburnum. He's terrific at this sort of thing, expert and careful, and he did a great job in very short time. No sooner had he gone than Hugo and I had to hurtle off to Snape for evacuation practice. It's always good fun, for me at least, as we had a good laugh going through the motions of helping the elderly and infirm out of their seats and outside to the mustering point should tyhe very worst happen during a concert. Hugo probably wasn't so happy as he had to wait in the car, but as soon as I got out I took him to the big field behind the concert hall and let him run. There's something splendid about him in full flight. A fellow usher was walking her dog, and Hugo flew up to him sniffed and ran around in circles and then tore off again, his body fluid and graceful. We both laughed at his speed and his antics. But once in the car he cried and panted again, and nothing would soothe him. I still don't understand why he suddenly gets so upset.

But there was magic to come. Back home I let him out of the car, and found the stuffed bone that has been in his crate untouched for weeks. It weighs a ton, but I offered it to him, and he took it delicately in his mouth from my hand, then trotted, no danced lightly but secretly, like a newly-trained spy, around behind the oil tank and burried it in the soil. My baby, digging a hole, dropping the heavy bone in and then carefully covering it up again with his nose! I pretended not to see, or notice his muddy muzzle when he returned to me as if nothing had happened, but he had a secret now and he was very pleased with himself. Oh Hugo. What a clever, clever boy. What a joy.