Old Frank woke early & bleary eyed,  wandered down, put the kettle on & laid in wait for the guide.
First thing , Frank often contemplated the world & his exceptionally small place in it.  For about thirty years of his life he'd tried to join all the dots & make a consistent picture that represented his existence, but, to no avail. There was no consistency, & he'd long since given up the futile attempt at the formulation of an answer. Archie the Bold had no such need for reason, neither did the Guide for that matter , both of whom just got on & made the best of it. Frank pondered too much on the reasons why He'd not amounted to a great deal & as usual, at a point not five seconds into these thoughts; in a blinding moment of self knowledge and honesty,  fully understood that it was because of his downright good for nothing bone idle laziness !!
Enjoying the righteous moment of self deprecation , Frank poured the tea, took a mug up to the  still dormant Guide, and stumbled outside, his own mug in hand, to stand on the bank to stare aimlessly over the  fields. Lately  there had been the odd point of conjecture from readers that a touch of 'flowery' language had entered the  pages of the Buckenham diary, and Frank wondered if perhaps he should take oblique refuge in some form of colloquial redoubt, throwing in the odd 'chibble' or perhaps 'Harnser' ? That said, new tricks were already yesterdays failed expectations for Frank, and the lack of will to bring himself to bother to change , allied with all the  ironic pleasures having received a 'complaint' Frank carried on without further regard to anything outside the swirling irrepressible , and minorly  irresponsible  maelstrom of his own thoughts.

After the second mug of tea, the Guide wandered out followed by a grizzling Archie the Bold, whom Frank eyed,  (I thought) somewhat maliciously, but in the Guides' presence, of course did nothing.  After some teasing (the Guide) and chasing (the Bold) Frank's day had officially begun as he wound himself up into the infinity of merciless buggering about  that was  the most certain of all his personality traits  (or 'trays' as is the Norfolk interpretation of Radio 4's favourite perfect pronunciations, not forgetting 'genre' of course) to take hold in the presence of others, especially the Guide. The present uncertainties of major DIY hell had entered the simplicity of  Frank's life  & had prevented even the shortest of trips to his beloved Buckenham to report upon.  So without anything to write about , the diary had drifted a bit , however the end of the 'New Kitchen' tunnel was now (funny how Norfolk is obsessed with the word now, 'We are NOW closed Sundays !!........  What's that all about) ?? NOW occasionally glimpsed through the haze of MDF, brick and tile dust, and Frank allowed that he could kid himself that  normal service on the diary should resume next month. 

There had, however,  been a number of good nights for wondering about the immensity of the universe recently , even to the extend that the telescope was unleashed upon the skies to hunt out the  obscure galaxies, globular clusters and nebulae that Charles Messier had catalogued all those years ago , in order to simplify his comet hunting quest.  Mars was easily found (featureless blob, orange in colour) but much more exiting were a couple of galaxies from the new general catalogue , fifty odd million light years away, barley discernable smudges, Frank prized them as much as any rare bird (perhaps not an Osprey) and above most furry mammals of his daytime pursuits. 

Standing out there in the dark (can't imaging what the neighbours think)  the aroma of spring  on the wind, even at night, Frank was suffused with the rejuvenating fragrance of the change of season  and looked forward to the next time he could report anything sensible or useful from his favourite spot on the broads.

See you next time.

Footnote
To Melfie's mum,
I've not  forgotten, just run out of time , I'll try to get some of mark's brilliant pictures onto the wildsofnorfolk next month,.
Frank

Wilds of Norfolk was set up because of our unquenchable enthusiasm for the Norfolk Broads,  our small part of the natural world. We thought we'd like to try and give something back by helping other people enjoy the countryside and it's wildlife as well as do our own little bit to promote an interest in the natural world and it's conservation , not only for the wildlife but for the sheer exuberance of the precious life we're lucky enough to get the chance to live.

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