Hello, Locksley here again.

The big news is that I had a bath. Mummy said my bottom hair was getting very dirty. It wasn’t my grease gland (like Victor), it was just where my hair is so long. The same happened with Roscoe. He got a yellow tail. I don’t think I had a yellow tail. (It was more like brown, Mummy says).

I don’t think I’ve had a bath before. I don’t remember it. I remember seeing Biggles photos on here. Roscoe had his bath in the kitchen, a long time ago. I went in the bathroom like Biggles did last time. It’s a very small bath. I don’t know how Mummy gets in it.

It was a very hot day again, so I enjoyed the nice slightly warm water trickling over my back. Mummy gave me one of the special Gorgeous Guineas Easy-rinse shampoos. It smelt nice, anyway. I was the best smelling boar in the house afterwards.

When I was pretty dry we went out in the garden. We go out once the temperature outside is not much more than the temperature inside. Most days that’s been about eight o’clock. Yesterday it was cooler, and we could have gone out at three, but Mummy went outside to check and discovered it was raining a bit. She’s been giving the vegetable beds rain in the evening, after we’ve gone in. You can see from the picture she’s planted the cucumbers around a green net, and there are lettuces all around them. The trouble is the blackbirds keep digging in the nice soil hoping to find more worms. Mummy ran out of mealworms for them because they eat so many.

A couple of days later she planted out the climbing beans in the next bed. She’s got more to put out, and she says we’ll be eating the yarrow that’s in the way for a few days until she gets enough space for the rest. Mmmm, yarrow. Mummy only does a little gardening at a time because her hands hurt, or her wrists don’t work. So she does a little and then sits in her chair and reads for a bit. As long as she gets enough lettuces to grow we’ll be happy.

Oh, and good news! She thought the carrots had failed because the soil they are in was too hard. But since she watered it, lots of carrot seedlings have come up! Yummy.

Mummy’s taking me to see Dr Rebekah for a check-up. I wonder if that’s why I had a bath? She says I have some ‘suspicious symptoms’. I know she was watching a lecture from the chief vet the other day. I hope he hasn’t given her ideas. I’ll let you know what happens next week.

love

Locksley xxxx