Went in a different direction for today's dog walk. I was actually heading towards what Google Maps said was a supermarket.
The map was wrong.
No supermarket was there, but instead a rather nice farmers' market lined the street selling delicious fruit and veg, a few clothes and the ubiquitous sausages.
A word about sausages: I've lost count of the number of people who said, when they heard we were moving to Germany, "Oh, they have lovely sausages, enjoy the sausages".
I'll let you into a non-secret - I don't actually like sausages. I have a fair idea what goes into them and it's not pleasant. Even the dog isn't keen on sausages. And that tells you something.
Anyway. I needed butter and sugar, hence the supermarket search, but the market had neither. I had to drag Kita away from the rather fabulous cheese stall though.
It would have been nice to get a selection of fruit and veg, but I didn't have much money on me and it was quite a long way to walk back with a heavy load of shopping and an excitable dog.
So I bought myself a big bunch of lily of the valley. As you do.
All my years of studying Sogetsu Ikebana went to pot as I just popped the posy into a small vase and let the sweet scent fill the room.
Back at home, Kita suddenly shot into the living room at the back of the house, hackles raised, barking madly and growling. Yikes! What was up?
There were men in the garden. Ah yes, Tim mentioned to me yesterday that we'd been granted permission to replace the fence with something more dog-proof and lo and behold they were well underway already.
Once I'd introduced Kita to them, she was fine and only barked about 60 times throughout the day. So much for the Shiba Inu being a 'quiet dog'.
Needless to say I achieved nothing in particular today.
Apart from still (unsuccessfully) trying to sort out my now defunt internet business, set-up my outgoing mail server and generally try and think of a new business to start in order to earn some money.