'Everyone a winner!'

‘I’ve been thinking guv.’

‘Good heavens.’

‘M’mmm.’

‘I see.’

‘Do you guv?’

‘Well when I say, I see, I merely mean…………..I see.’

‘Ah.’

The lad, when in thinking mode, has the air of a bard, considering a thought, before popping in down for posterity to mull over.

‘The thing is old poop……’

The gaze becomes distant and I’m wondering if I should remain silent or prompt him with a ‘yes?’ I decided to remain silent and see what develops.

‘The thing is…..’

He rests his chin on my knee and gazes at nothing in particular.

I remain silent…………..it’s no good I’ve got to say it!

‘Yes?’

‘Do you really think so guv?’

‘Um…sorry when I said yes? I was merely hoping to move our chat along a tad.’

‘M’mmm.’

Bing wanders over to the garden sliding door, and looks out at the familiar scene beyond. I chip in with….

‘It’s looking a bit bleak out there Bing.’

‘Is it guv?’

‘Well yes, the steady drizzle has rather marred this a.m.’

I realise that mine and Bings thoughts on the weather are in truth, poles apart. The lad is up for trundling out and about whether the weather is fine…or the opposite. To him, I’m a grouchy old poop who uses changes in weather as a justification for his shyness to tootle out in the cold!

He is now lying with his hooter trying to sniff the air outside through the crack along the bottom of the door!

The drizzle is easing and a watery sun is trying its best to lighten the scene.

I decide to break the silence.

I say…..

‘If it remains like this….’

A certain chaps tail gives a single flick.

‘Yes guv?’

‘If, as I say, the day brightens….’

We are now getting more than a feeble wag from the reclined figure.

‘We just might….’

The tail is drumming the wooden floor and the lad is giving me a very friendly look.

‘Venture out….’

Bing is now positively beaming and the tail is almost a blur!

And so it came to pass, minutes later here we are, as the lad would say….Out and about!

Just think this all started with a ‘I’ve been thinking guv……’

I really am a very easy touch when it comes to the chap towing me up the pavement to our beloved forest beyond!