Excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor.
It is a week today since we brought the Little Green Dragon to live with us. The weekend before had been hot, dry and sunny, and what was especially lovely was that it was a BH holiday weekend so the wage slaves could have some quality time off playing with the kids, tidying the gardens, mowing the grass and sparking up the BBQ. The showeriness started the day we drove over to North Lincs to get the MGB, last Wednesday, but even that day was mostly very splendid indeed and heart-liftingly beautiful at times as we crossed the Derbyshire Peaks on our way there and back.
The next day the clouds parted for about an hour at teatime. This was just about long enough to have a quick run through the local lanes and for the MGB's bodywork and other sensitive-to-the-weather bits and bobs to dry off sufficiently for The Husband to put her little coat on, a light-weight all-over cover which was part of the package when we bought her.
And then we waited and waited for some more "nice" weather so we could divest her of her coat and take her out again. For DAYS we waited. In the end, on Sunday afternoon, we gave up and decided NOT to be fair-weather convertible drivers. We took her up to show her to Perpetua and Perpetua's DH. This short trip we did with the hood over us and The Dog in the back.
Then on Monday we took her to the seaside, but still under cover of the hood. It was semi-clear when we got there, but then the sky turned black, and it rained and HAILED, for heaven's sake. But eventually the pewter grey billows blew inland and we were treated to the sight of the sun sinking into the sea behind her as the MGB sat neatly on the prom at Aberystwyth waiting to take us home again.
We viewed all this from the safety of indoors, from a large sea-view bay window in the Glengower Hotel. This is our favourite Aber watering-hole. Actually we like this place so much we have never been anywhere else in that town for a drink and/or a meal, as we struck so lucky first time we went in search of a dog-friendly pub with a sight of the far horizon.
Then yesterday we wrapped up warm and pootled over to Gregynog Hall to walk The Dog in its spectacularly beautiful and welcoming gardens, woods and park land.
For the price of an hour or two's parking we sauntered about as though to the manor born. The rain was fine and light, quite tolerable, by the end of our walk so we decided to come back with the hood down.
The thing with a little convertible is that provided you can maintain a speed of over about 25-30mph one really doesn't get all that wet, if one dresses for comfort rather than show. My leggings were perfectly dry until we had to slow down to go through town when we got home. So later today we will again fling back her hood, settle the dog on his shelf behind the seats, secured in his safety harness, and toddle off "there and back to see how far it is".
Watch this space to see where we fetch up THIS time...
Well, you're certainly getting out and about in the Little Green Dragon, despite nature's temporary grudge against open-topped vehicles. But no-one should have to wear furry hats and thick scarves in mid-May! It's a good thing you brought her up to visit us when you did, as we now have the most enormous puddle right across our lane and it might lap over her threshold. :-)
ReplyDeleteI think that bowling along in an open-top car or on a motorbike always needs sensible clothing (well, on a motorbike it needs top-to-toe padded leathers, for safety as well as warmth) as the wind-chill factor of moving through the air at speed is always considerable.
DeleteAnd then The Dog likes to stand with his front paws on our shoulders to have a good look-see where he is going, we have found, so if I wore anything skimpy or sleeveless he'd be sure to scratch my arms with his claws. So even in nice warm weather I shall probably have on a jacket, at least.
But a trip without the wipers on at any point, that's be good. Today we went via Rhayader to towards Builth Wells, stopped at a dog-friendly pub for a beer and a sandwich, headed toward Llandrindod Wells, then to Abbey Cym-Hir and footled about the back roads until we arrived home via Tylwch.
The last ten miles or do, I drove her for the first time with occasional grinding and crashing of gears (4 back to 3 was particulalry tricky) and then a very inelegant dismount at the curb outside our house when I got one leg stuck under the steering wheel! Which made me decide that on the whole I think I shall be Lady Penelope to The Husband's Parker, and he can chauffeur me and she can be entirely his hobby. Especially as handling the hood looks to be a nighmare, like a mixture of a beach umbrella in the wind and a recalcitrant deckchair.
Did you manage all that without rain? Here we had a shower on the way back from Newtown at lunchtime and it has since poured again, though not for as long as yesterday.
DeleteOh, we had showers, and we took the precaution of having the hood up whilst she was parked, which turned out to be a wise move (!) but when we were on the go we had the top down the whole time.
DeleteBTW. Did DD read this
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/10/michael-gove-grammar
on Friday, by any chance?
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteWOW those are super shots - that last one especially. All three of you look happy, relaxed and, as you say, to the manor born! As Perpetua says, though, rather a shame about the weather. Than again, that's a stunning hat. &*> YAM
The hat is the most luxurious-feeling long-haired sheepskin of some foreign persuasion, and just the ticket for a sportscar passenger who has 1/4" long hair!
DeleteI will TRY to get the hang of the car's gears and folding and unfolding the roof, but I feel quite happy being lazily reluctant whilst The Husband is so very keen
M
xxx