Lark Rise to Crandlesford

I decided to leave the boy at home again while I went to yoga today, and told him to stay, be good, I'll be back soon. When I came in the door an hour and a half later it was clear that he had been beside himself with anxiety and loneliness. He threw himself at me, crying and gulping, and continued to wrap himself around me and try to climb up me for several minutes, panting crazily all the time. I calmed him, and eventually he was OK, but he has been suspicious of my every move all day and hasn't left my side. Poor little boy. His terror of being left alone is very extreme. It's ironic because a couple of the women at yoga said they miss having him there. But I think I should persist, though I can see that he has been all around the work surfaces. I made a cup of coffee and sat down, and invited him to come up beside me. He sat as close as he could get and then stretched his paws and his long nose across my lap and lay there contentedly while I stroked him and murmured sweet nothings.

Another productive day in the garden, but by 7pm, already fed though he was, Hugo decided I really had to stop. Walkies, his ears and eyes said as he stared at me. I need to go walkies! I took him down the lane and across the bottom of the field where he startled a couple of dozen ground-roosting wood pigeons and the odd pheasant but no hares. There was so much for him to sniff at that he hardly ran at all, but he enjoyed himself. And so did I. As we walked the length of the field, already golden with ripe barley, I heard the clear, persistent cry of a skylark. I could see it way above us, hovering on the spot and calling, calling with its plaintive song. It hasn't been much of a summer so far, so these moments have to be treasured, stored in the memory to prove that it has been lovely in parts and will be again. Indoors the house smells of sweet william, and the puppy is out for the count, exhausted by the traumas of the day. The combined scent of the flowers and pleasure at watching the little black sleeping seal is making me feel quite blissful.

Coming along