I find the reason for the smell

Ok so for the past few days there has been a strange smell in the bedroom.  John has absolutely no nose for smells and just claims he cannot detect anything - I wonder if that is because he doesn't want to find whatever it is that is the cause!!!  Anyway it was a strange smell - sort of something like if you had a rush mat that was wet and drying - that sort of earthy fusty damp smell.  I could not find it to begin with and then when I got down on the floor for deep dark investigation I sensed it was coming from the rat-gate drawer under our bed.  Our bed has four pine drawers in underneath which are great for valuable storage but the cats like to squeeze in them and sleep.  Several years ago one of them had brought in a rat which was happily decomposing in the depths of that same drawer and unnoticed until the maggots started to appear - strangely though that didn't smell ever - I would have sniffed it out.  Anyway in said drawer I found the regurgitated remains of a bird - I know it was a bird because the foot was clearly visible and I can guess that it was Boris that evacuated it.  Deep joy - lots of bodily fluids soaking into my shorts - they all had to get taken out and I had a bumper load of washing and thereby a bumper load of ironing to follow.  Still smell tracked down and eradicated thank goodness!

I was recounting this story on my very early morning walk with Rachel but I had forgotten she has a super sensitive nose and an aversion to smells so it made her wretch!  We met at 7.45am because it was tipped to be a super hot day up our end of the island and the forecast wasn't wrong.  We were doing our Machu Pichu walk in the reverse direction in the hopes that we might find some shade and walk down Big Dog Hill although we had forgotten that there are several other hills equally as steep that would still be left to negotiate.

If you wonder why we call it Big Dog Hill then let me introduce you to Big Dog who is generally accompanied by two smaller hunting type dogs.  We could hear those two before we saw them as they wear collars with bells.  Big Dog is big and silent and stares at you from a distance.  He looks scary but actually seems to be a gentle giant.  He watched us puffing and panting our way along and then just ignored us.  He is the size of a small horse!

The Machu Pichu view was as glorious as ever with the terracing springing into life with new vines.  This particular valley still looks green and lush thanks in the main to plenty of trees.  We were about three quarters of the way round at this point, feeling hot and sticky and looking forward to completing our walk but glad we had made the time to do it.  It is important for Rachel as she gets a couple of hours to herself and we have a right old laugh en route.

I was glad I had parked the car in the shade of the picnic area - because two hours after we started the temperature was ramping up.  I dropped Rachel off and made my way back home.  No rest for the wicked as John had decided that we should give the swimming pool a deep clean and try and get rid of the lime scale around the top where the water level dips.