The moon, a dog, a coat and animal attraction

They've brought in the maize harvest now, the contractors working into the evening darkness to reveal a stubby, brown field by morning.

What was once tall and serene and crying out to be photographed has now disappeared before I even had a chance to get out my camera.

There'll be a Hunter's Moon in the sky tonight and it's full of foreboding. It means that my dog, Artemis, will go a little bit crazy for a while, as befits her name, which was the one the ancient Greeks gave to the goddess of hunting. Artemis was Apollo's twin sister and also a goddess of the moon.

 

The moon seems to have an effect on my Arty, for sure. She'll be particularly disobedient for a day or two, resisting all calls to 'come back here' after a week of being a good girl. This morning, she tears off into the copse and comes back five minutes later with a sheep's skull in her mouth. She, rather kindly, drops it at my feet.

A full moon is long thought to have had an effect on our moods. Well, if the Moon (along with the gravitational pull of the Sun and the rotation of the Earth) can affect the tide, then I have no problem in believing it has an influence on humans and animals too, especially as we are made up of about sixty per cent water.

Which is my excuse for buying yet another coat at the weekend to add to my collection. Who could resist its soft loveliness, its animal magnetism? I swear it jumped off the rail in TK Maxx and wrapped its faux fur leopard skin around me all by itself. Why else would I have bought it?

I put it back once and walked around a bit but then it leaped out at me again as I was leaving the store. I stopped to try it on, hanging it on the end of a rail as I took my jacket off in front of a mirror.

A young boy aged about seven walked past and stroked the coat while it was still on the hanger.

'Oooh, look mum,' he said, turning back to his beige-encrusted mother, who had highlighted hair and a complexion by Farrow and Ball, with a designer-etched frown on her face.

'No darling,' she said. 'You know I don't like things like that.'

Quick as you like, I said: 'Well, that's just as well, because I'm buying it.'

A look of embarrassment shot across her face. Embarrassment that anyone else could have such poor taste, I think.

'You should get that,' another woman said after the frowning mother went by. 'It suits you.'

And the young man on the till, well, he loved it.

'I so envy you being able to wear something like this,' he said, rubbing the fabric between his fingers. 'It's so soft.'

And, at that point, I didn't care that I might look like a complete tit in an oversized, animal print coat. At least I'd be warm.

But now it's in the cupboard, whipped from the bag before Mr Grigg's had a chance to go off on one ('how many coats and jackets do you need?).  You can see it's doing its best to blend in.

But I shall use this week to decide if it should stay or go.

And I shall be keeping it away from the dog. I've a feeling that in the mood she's in at the moment, she'd probably like to wear it.

That's about it.

Love Maddie x