Sleepless, With an Extra Pillow

I just had a terrible night's sleep. Don't you hate that? I went to bed at my normal time (10-ish) and woke up about an hour later, and I was up and down from then until 3:30 a.m. or so. Olga asked to go out twice, which is very unusual in the middle of the night, and I don't know whether she didn't feel well or simply did it because I was awake. Otherwise, I just lay there, mulling things over.

I wasn't even worried about anything in particular, but of course if you lie awake for four and a half hours you're going to find something to worry about, or get annoyed about, or some injustice to replay in your mind over and over on a continuous loop. As always, now that it's morning, I feel completely removed from all of those thoughts, as if they happened to another person.

One thing I did worry about yesterday were those dogs (above). I was walking to work and I passed them on Finchley Road, and they seemed completely unattended. They had no visible collar or identification and were foraging through the trash. As you can see, they look pretty healthy, and ultimately I just kept walking. But I wondered if I should have called 999 (the British version of 911) and stayed with them until help arrived. It would have made me ridiculously late for work, and I'm not sure how I could have corralled them, being one person with no leashes or collars. In fact, I was afraid I'd spook them if I hung around -- but I know if someone found Olga wandering on Finchley Road I'd want them to look out for her.

So I probably screwed that up. Hopefully they're OK. They seemed like they knew what they were doing, unlike that panicked little dog I saw running loose in Buenos Aires.

Here are some other oddities I encountered yesterday on the sidewalk. First, a fragment of a doll from Provence, in a very fancy but faded costume. I assume she was discarded because she was so faded. She has also headless, but still had one slender arm protruding from beneath her blue shawl.

And I found this neck pillow on a pile of debris in St. John's Wood, color-coordinated with the pallets and bins around it. Doesn't that make a nice still life?

I didn't keep either of these items. In fact I didn't even touch the pillow. Too much ick factor.

When I got home I cut down the rest of the teasel forest -- at least the ones in the middle of the grass. I really didn't want them to re-seed. As you can see, we still have a second generation coming, which will grow tall and bloom next summer. And I kept the ones in the center flower bed and a single one in the bed to the left, so the birds can nibble on those seeds. Striking a balance!

Oh, and I wound up not going to that photo exhibit at the Royal Geographic Society. The event was cancelled because the presenter (I didn't even realize there was a presenter) had Covid. C'est la vie.

We got some rain last night. That was one tiny benefit of lying awake -- I could hear the rain pattering down, hopefully reinvigorating our grass and all our dry plants.