There was no thunderstorm yesterday, but heavy rain set in during the night and continued as I set off for the village shop and back. My headache had gone. By the time I reached Minstead Hall I realised I had forgotten my wallet, so I turned round, returned home, picked up my money, declined the offer of a lift from Jackie, and set out again. I was, dripping wet, tempted to accept a further lift I was offered by a gentleman in Running Hill. I didn’t.
This afternoon Jackie and I drove to Lyndhurst for some shopping. 
As we left home there was a double rainbow against the leaden sky. We couldn’t see any sun which must have been producing it, until Jackie noticed patches of golden leaves on the very top of a pair of dark green pine trees. This was the result of shafts of light streaking through the branches opposite. As we drove out of Upper Drive we saw that the sky on the far side of road was blue and clear. There was a strange division between dark indigo clouds on one side and the sun slowly setting in bright light on the other, making for quite dramatic effects, including the rainbow.
Kalu’s development continues (see yesterday). He now wags his tail and looks happy at the sound of his name. When walking along he avoids obstacles.
He didn’t seem quite able to decide what to do about a ruck in the carpet, so he raised his head and called out; wagging his tail for good measure. Flo left him to his own devices over lunch. He is now so secure that he just chunters away to himself rather than offering up a noisy complaint. Suddenly it all went quiet, and we realised that his battery had died. This made us speculate that we will miss him when Flo takes him back to Mitcham.
After we returned from Lyndhurst we were entertained by Jackie and Flo teaching Corey, in America, on Skype, to make tea with the Yorkshire Tea Bags Flo had sent him. Given that his household does not possess a kettle the task was quite complicated from the start. Transatlantic terminology varies, thus offering some confusion over saucepans and pots. Not so strange, really, when considering that ‘pots’ is a catch-all term in parts of England. Then there was the question of what size mug to use.
The final result looked pretty good to me.
We dined this evening from large oval plates on our knees whilst watching ‘Doctor Who’. They contained cheese and bacon omelettes and toast.