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Start of summer ♥Jun. 7th, 2020 // 04:33 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, garden, horses ] Bob started the week with a wobbly front tooth, and was anyway overdue for his jabs and checkup, so I booked a visit for him. The tooth came out before the visit, but we went ahead with it anyway, which involved waiting in the car, speaking to the vet by phone, and then putting Bob’s lead onto a wall hook and stepping away while the vet took him inside on a disposable lead (repeat in reverse order afterwards). He’s got a clean bill of health, and the tooth was probably just bashed when he was chewing a stick or playing fetch. He has, however, rather scraped his nose trying to get his muzzle off, so we’ve gone back to just his (newly tightened) head collar and being careful. Things do seem to be getting quieter again, with not so many strangers about, which is presumably a combination of the weather changing and there being more things for people to do now. (Oddly, the dog vets were pretty relaxed about his jabs, saying that he only needed to start from scratch if they were more than three months late. In the horse world, you can’t even be a day late before you have to re-start the sequence.) In good nature news, the swallows have hatched at least five chicks. In less good nature news, the horse flies have arrived (although the change in the weather seems to have slowed them back down). The change in the weather? It has indeed gone colder and grey, although I was hoping for something a little better than the 8mm of rain we’ve had this week. The garden work is starting to slow down a bit, with the last of the squash planted out, the damaged polytunnel plants replaced, the pruning up to date, and the weeding much more leisurely than it was. (The tomato side shoots that we put in water are starting to root, but we also realised that we had a couple of the right variety in the spares tray, so the new ones will probably go in pots in the conservatory.) We even shared a strawberry, but have strong competition from animals domestic and wild so I’m not sure how many more we’ll get.... Today, we moved the horses up the hill to their summer pasture. They seemed quite pleased with all that grass! Link 5 kisses // Who loves you?

I could do without the excitement.... ♥May. 24th, 2020 // 06:14 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, garden, going out, horses, quilt club ] In the garden, everything except the autumn squash and the sweetcorn is either planted out or in final pots. Fenced off from the beans, Zu Zu is taking it out on the tomatoes and has managed to kill at least one plant; I’ll have to figure out a way to keep her out of the polytunnel, at least until they get bigger, which is annoying as I want the runners in there (and in the veg bed, really) for pest control. We ate the last of last year’s squash this week, and are near to the end of the passata. I’m hoping to pick a few broadbeans soon, as there are a few plump pods. We were very hopeful about yesterday’s thunder storms, but in the end we barely got a quarter of an inch of rain (and hail). They were sharp but short. (My mother has potted on her tomatoes. I’m still getting photos twice a week and detailed updates on how they’re doing!) GB’s been looking quite stiff, which is worrying: it won’t be long before he has to walk up and down the hill to the summer field, hopefully he’s still up to it. We had a bit of drama in the week, when Bob slipped his head collar and went for a couple of dogs. We were very relieved when all that came of it was a tiny cut on one of them, because it looked like it was going to be bad, but we’ve taken to walking him with his muzzle on for now. The woods are much more crowded than usual (both with locals who don’t usually go for walks and with people driving here) and seeing lots of strange dogs seems to be making his behaviour go backwards. A shame, given how much progress he’s made over the years. We went to Costco in the week (no part-baked bread or vitamin D, still one-per-customer on pasta), and to the garden centre (vain hope of getting aubergine plants). I was wondering how my sewing group ladies were doing so I emailed around and got them to send me updates, which I’ve put into a little newsletter and sent out for them all (didn’t want to risk them sending photos to the whole group, which was definitely the right call based on what they sent me). Slightly alarmed that one of the ones I know is good with email didn’t reply, but hopefully there’s a benign explanation. Link 3 kisses // Who loves you?

It’s raining! ♥May. 10th, 2020 // 03:50 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, food, garden ] Only a tiny bit, but it is rain. I’ve been doing a lot of weeding, again. Nearly at the end of the first big pass around the garden, so hopefully it will slacken off a bit now. We’re thinking that we’ll start to plant out the non-hardy stuff next week, weather forecast permitting. After several weeks of being unable to buy sacks of flour (despite all the reports saying it was just a packaging issue with small bags), Mike managed to score sacks of white and wholemeal bread flour. The former we buy regularly anyway, but wholemeal doesn’t have a great shelf life: we bagged half of it up in 2kg bags and Mike very quickly sold it to people in the village. Interestingly, unlike the last couple of times he’s offered them, there was no interest in boxes of eggs, so I guess retail eggs are now back to normal. We have many eggs. We had One Of Those Days in the week, or rather One Of Those Fifteen Minutes: I broke a joint on the outside water pipe (local out of work builder came and fixed it the next morning) and Mike dropped a bottle of balsamic vinegar on the kitchen floor, which went everywhere; I even found glass on the dining table. Not fun, but Bob seems to have learnt that, when things get dropped and smash, he’s to go and wait in the hall until we go to fetch him. Link 3 kisses // Who loves you?

I ent ded ♥Apr. 5th, 2020 // 11:25 am♥ [Tags | bob the dog, ducks, foraging, garden, house ] I've had a couple of tellings off for the lack of updates: sorry chaps. We're fine, life is going on much as usual for us, other than a bit more use of the farm shop and a bit less supermarket delivery. I would quite like some self-raising flour, though. We've been doing lots of gardening now that it's dried out and warmed up, and I've been inspired to stick some spuds in the mix this year: if nothing else, we're unlikely to be driving around nearby farms buying new potatoes fresh out of the ground, this year. The horses are doing well, although Benny's a bit unfit after the horribly wet autumn and winter (and, just when the weather has improved, the BHS is advising against hacking, which makes sense). Bob had a little lump removed from his leg at the start of the year; it was cancer, but incredibly low-grade and it's not spread anywhere. Unfortunately, the wound got infected, so he's had a much slower recovery than he should have done, but he's almost back to normal now. The ducks are pottering happily, laying an egg or two a day, and I've been trying to decide if I want to get some more eggs for ZuZu to hatch, and if so what breed. The bluebells are coming into flower and the anemones are looking lovely. There's a pair of jackdaws building a nest in our disused chimney, which we've not had for the last couple of years. The seagulls seem to be flocking inland, which is presumably a reflection on the lack of chips to steal at the seaside. The wild garlic is going over now, but I have several tubs of pesto in the freezer. We had our drive re-done, the work was finished just in time. Hopefully this will be the end of the winter mud bath at the end of it. The delivery drivers all look pleased about it. Frequent visitors beware: there is now a step down from the drive to the garden path! Link 14 kisses // Who loves you?

Guest Post: A Dog's Life ♥Sep. 23rd, 2019 // 03:25 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog ] My humans sometimes say that I have a hard life and they are quite right, even though I think that they don't really mean it when they say so. I thought that I would tell you about how hard my life is, so that you all know about it. My humans helped me with some of the words, but only a little bit because I am a very smart dog. My humans never feed me enough, and when they do they don't give me their food, which is much nicer than my food. That is very bad, and means that I am always hungry. Luckily, I'm a smart dog and sometimes when they leave food on the table I can eat it. They never seem to notice, as long as I do it when they aren't looking. They also don't let me have the corner of the sofa when they're both sitting on it. This is very mean, because the corners are the best bits. I have to go in the middle, and that's not as good, or go on the other sofa, which is a long way from the humans and makes it hard to cuddle them. Sometimes one or both of the humans goes away for ages and ages. I don't like it when that happens, because the pack is supposed to stay together. How can I look after them if they aren't here? Plus, it makes me worry that no one will feed me, particularly when the female human is the one that goes away. The female human has been behaving strangely for a few days. She spends lots of time looking at the big screen on the wall, instead of the little screen in her hand, and pressing buttons on a thing. She says that this is a game, but I don't think that she is right because a game is what we all play together in the field, when the humans throw my toys and I run and catch them and get given sweeties. She is very boring when she plays her game, and forgets to cuddle me. Yesterday, instead of going for our normal walk, we went in the car. I don't like going in the car, because once I went in a car and a bad thing happened. That was when I was in a pack with some different humans, but I still don't like to go in the car. Half way through our walk, the humans stopped and looked at some trees, but they didn't seem to be very happy about the trees and said that people would be sad at Christmas. I think Christmas is when lots of people come to join in our pack for a few days. I like Christmas because the people cuddle me, and there is nice food that they give me bits of. Today, we went in the car again, which was very bad. The humans looked at even more trees, and said that they were much better than the trees from yesterday. Then they stopped and stood there for ages, pulling things off the trees and putting them in bags. I thought that the things might be food, but when I tried to eat one it tasted bad and was very hard. After that I had a nice roll, but then I was very bored. Eventually, the humans said it was time to go, but they only went a little way and then they started to pull more things off trees. They kept doing that. It was very boring. Humans are weird. Then it rained lots and lots and lots, and I went and hid inside the trees because I didn't have my raincoat on, and then when it stopped raining the humans said it was finally time to go back to the car but wouldn't run all the way, which meant I had to go very slowly. On the way back to the car, we met an evil dog. I wanted to kill it, but my humans wouldn't let me. Instead, they made me go past it and then sit and wait until it had gone away. They did give me food, though, so it wasn't too bad. I'd still have rather killed the evil dog, but they never let me do that. Then we went home in the car, but we stopped at the field. The horses are mean and won't play chase with me, but my human found me a stick, so I chewed that for a bit. The humans were going around the field collecting all the horse poo. I'm not sure why they do that, but I always help by eating the tasty bits. Then I had to stand and wait while they put all the poo into big bags. They do this all the time, and sometimes the bags go away. I hope that they aren't collecting it to give to another dog to eat. That would be bad. That is what I did today, and I think you will all agree that I do have a very hard life. Now I'm going to cuddle my human on the sofa and try to go to sleep, so that I forget about how very very hungry I am. Link 6 kisses // Who loves you?

Still busy; fewer eggs ♥Jul. 15th, 2019 // 03:37 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, ducks, garden, house, pictures ] As anticipated, the weekend before last involved hay being delivered. This is half of it, all now safely stacked in the barn: The village fete was significantly better than the previous year, in as much as we stayed for a good half hour and had lunch, but then we're not really the target market. We've had a wee bit of Bob trouble, including a couple of trips to the vet. He was chewing one of his feet, so we took him in after a few days but the vet couldn't see anything wrong. A few days after that he was chewing again and when I went to stop him I noticed a raw and slightly oozy bit, so we took him back to the vet and we're now cleaning it and putting cream on it, plus the Cone of Shame has come out of the cupboard. We're unsure whether he cut it and then stopped it healing properly by chewing or had a splinter or similar, which industrious chewing managed to force out of the skin, but either way it's healing nicely and we can hopefully put the Cone away again soon. In between everything else, we've finally finished painting the bedroom, at least until we have the shutters installed. We went carpet shopping this morning, so that should be done in a week or two as well. Hopefully we'll be able to get on with the neglected garden jobs, now. The ducks are mostly having a bit of a rest after their epic couple of weeks, but we're still getting a couple of eggs a day. The direct sown beans are coming up and not getting instantly eaten, so I'm moderately hopeful that we'll get some sort of harvest from them, but it would be good if it could warm up a little (it's only 16C and cloudy today) and/or rain a bit (we've not had more than half a mm since the middle of last month). Last year, I started picking tomatoes on the 17th July, but then last summer was very strange all around. Link Who loves you?

Starting to harvest ♥Jun. 28th, 2019 // 07:48 pm♥ [Tags | birdies, bob the dog, ducks, garden, horses, house, pictures ] It's not terribly impressive. A couple of weeks ago, we had similarly-sized crops of broad beans and mange tout, and that's probably it for the broad beans. The peas and french beans have just been destroyed (slugs, bunnies, maybe pigeons too; we netted off all the legumes this year, to keep the muscovies from the peas, but I think we need to re-think that next year to get better slug control), the runner beans are spindly but at least alive. We have had a couple of courgettes, though, and the courgette and squash plants are just starting to attempt world domination. Lots of green tomatoes in the polytunnel, too, so that's good (and needed: Mike -- whisper it -- used a jar of shop bought passata this week). More encouragingly, the ducks are continuing to do their job, and we're getting three or four eggs a day (Zu Zu, having laid enough for a clutch, is having a rest while she tries to figure out what happened to it). Our riding instructor has a B&B; when we give her eggs, she always makes a point that they're not going to be for the B&B guests, but we're hatching a plot (ho ho) to possibly sell her eggs for the B&B once the ducklings come into lay. Speaking of the ducklings: Middle Duckling has developed a distinct brown patch above her beak, and both she and Pale Duckling seem to be coming through with cream feathers on their bodies (as well as the patch of whatever she was sleeping in: this is a pre-morning bath picture). Although there are only four baby swallows in this picture, we counted seven (five babies and the parents) flying around this evening as we were putting the boys to bed: The boys are doing well, although when I rode Benny yesterday and today he was being a bit of an idiot about the wind. It has been very windy here, although nice and sunny with it (except on Wednesday, when we had inexplicable fog for much of the morning). Tomorrow is supposed to be horribly hot, although not as bad as it is on the continent. Still, the vet came out to give them their 'flu jabs the other day, and to give GB a quick check-up: all good, and she was particularly impressed to hear that he'd managed to rear the day before, but then so were we. Bob, sadly, has discovered the delights of badger poo. On the plus side, he's an awful lot easier to bathe than Jodie was. Mike's been busy doing prep work for decorating the bedroom. This seems to involve a lot of trips to B&Q, as well as putting lots of polyfiller on the walls for me to then sand off. I'm sure it makes sense really! Annoyingly, when we moved one of the chests of drawers I found this: Some spot checking in the rest of the room, and the other bedrooms, suggests that we've found it before the moths really got established. We were planning to replace the carpet as well at some point, but that's now more of a priority than it was and in the mean time we'll have to keep pulling the chest of drawers out to vacuum underneath. I need to pull all the clothes out and check them, but it's mostly my riding and pilates stuff in there: mostly synthetic fibres, so I'm not too worried. Link 6 kisses // Who loves you?

Experimental dog walking ♥Mar. 22nd, 2019 // 12:06 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog ] Someone I slightly know from the internet messaged me recently to ask about fabric shops in the area, as she was coming over for a trip with her other half and dog. I idly suggested dog walking, but warned her what Bob is like around most other dogs, and she was entirely up for it, so we've just got back from an experimental dog walk. Normally, if Bob sees another dog then it's either one of the handful he's fine with (in which case I stop to chat to the owners for a bit) or it's a strange or Known Evil dog (in which case we go a different way / get off the path so that they can get past us ASAP). Today, we met up in the woods and waited while he tried to kill her. She wandered off (Newfoundland x, chill as anything, reminded me a lot of a more-confident Jodie) and he calmed down a bit. Over the following 45 minutes or so, they mostly ignored each other (she was having a great time roaming around the woods, while he was on the lead as usual. They had a couple of dubious sniffs at each other. Three times he suddenly lunged at her and got his mouth around her head while growling, but he didn't actually hurt her, and by the third time both owners were of the view that it was definitely getting more playful. So I *think* that with time and supervision he could learn to get on with other dogs (on an individual basis), at least ones that are incredibly chilled out and neither aggressive back nor afraid of him. And my internet acquaintance got to see at least four bluebells, after I'd said not to get her hopes up, so she was happy [g]. Link 7 kisses // Who loves you?

Things I have been doing rather than update DW ♥Feb. 28th, 2019 // 07:55 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, craft, ducks, eastercon, fandom, fanzines, garden, pictures, quilts, riding ] - Setting up a Top Sekrit Grow Room in the study. The tomatoes are doing well, but the germination rates for the chillis have been pretty bad (we're now experimenting with soaking them overnight in camomile tea, which apparently both softens them and is mildly anti-fungal). - Eating duck eggs! Zu Zu started laying last week. Hurrah! Poached eggs, and tasty pasta, and yellow cakes! (This is daylight-related, rather than temperature, although I'm sure the sunny days helped with the light levels.) - Hatching (ho ho) a plot: muscovies are supposed to be good mothers (as opposed to runners, who just lay an egg wherever they have to be, including in the pond); fertile runner duck eggs are about a pound a pop on eBay. Ella was particularly dutiful in her attempts to hatch a fake egg last year (I had to take it off her in the end), so I'm going to wait until she starts getting broody and then order her some eggs. - Writing, with lots of help from various people, biographies of past-Doc Weir winners, with varying degrees of difficulty: some of the early women winners are almost cyphers, some of the early men required a huge amount of editing of their many recorded achievements. On the other hand, many of the recent winners, who I thought would be easy ("I know her!") are actually quite tricky to write anything substantive about ("And the only fannish thing that she does is faithfully do that one job every year without fail or fault"). See the recent Eastercon PR if you'd like a paper copy of it. - (Possibly) destroying Doc Weir mythology: a decade or so back, the cup was valued at about £4000 (because you can't buy an equivalent today and so would have to get it custom made; a source of some stress to winners as they then had to pay to add it to their insurance). The paperwork was lost, though, so I contacted a local auction house to ask if they could do a valuation. When I sent some photos and the history of it, their silver expert said he could buy one tomorrow for £250-£350 so it wasn't worth paying for a formal valuation. - Riding in the weird weather: very odd to be going out, shivering in a t-shirt, to the frost-covered school and being too hot fifteen minutes later when the sun finishes rising. Benny and I went down the lane and back, for the first time since I had that fall. Planning a tiny little hack on Saturday. Benny is shedding (this is also daylight rather than temperature); on recent form, that means GB will start shedding some time in about June. - Doing a bit of gardening, mostly tidying up last year's dead perennial growth. The wild garlic is just starting to poke leaves up, and the early irises are now just about over but were lovely a week or so ago: - Taking Bob to the vet, where he unsuccessfully tried to fake the vet out and pretend that he didn't have a limp on his front left leg (worried I'd leave him there if he showed weakness, maybe?). Nothing obvious wrong, so metacam and rest, and trying not to identify too many parallels with this time last year. - Working on an experimental quilt. I have no idea if it will completely fall apart, or just look crap, or actually work as planned. - Failing at email (sorry, Carl, Juliet and others not on DW). Tomorrow, we're going to take the DW cup to another auction house for a third opinion and then collect a new, white runner, provisionally called Letice (but better suggestions are welcome: I don't remember any of the witches being famous for dressing all in white, does anyone else? One day I will find someone to sell me a pure black duck, and she will be called Tiffany). Link 10 kisses // Who loves you?

Ah, dogs.... ♥Dec. 29th, 2018 // 02:54 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog ] The normal morning routine is that I put Bob's breakfast down for him and then go outside to see to the ducks and horses. (Bob used to come with us, but when the weather got autumnal he decided that the sofa was a better bet.) This morning, I was slightly delayed going outside, so I was there and able to open the back door when he started retching. He went outside, threw up, and then promptly ate it again (chewing this time) before coming back in and heading for the sofa as though nothing had happened. I can't help but wonder how often he does this without my being there to let him into the garden. And I think I might get him one of those bowls that slows down the eating speed.... Link 4 kisses // Who loves you?

Definitely autumn now ♥Nov. 4th, 2018 // 03:13 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, garden, weather ] We had a couple of -3-4C nights this week, so even the tomatoes in the polytunnel got frosted. The dining table's now covered in green tomatoes, some of which have started to change colour enough that they will ripen over the next week or so, and this afternoon we've taken the cover off the polytunnel for the winter. Today we also took Bob to a training session for reactive dogs, with two other dogs, which might have been moderately useful if we only ever walked him by ambling around in a large, path-less field in which all the other dogs kept a good distance away and were on leads. I struggle to think of how that would be a normal dog-walking situation. The trainer pretty much ignored everything we said about Bob and how / when he reacts, and showed us a *marvellous* method for keeping his attention, which worked brilliantly but also got him so hyped up that he drew blood pawing at her hand and then started to jump up at her, like we've spent six months training him not to do. Oh, and only worked if you were in a large, path-less field, and wouldn't actually be useful if the thing you were trying to do was 'walk past the other dog', you know, like people have to do when they're walking down the road or along a path. I don't think we'll be back. Link 4 kisses // Who loves you?

The lighting doesn't matter on the radio.... ♥Oct. 31st, 2018 // 03:45 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, ducks, going out, pictures, radio ] Last night, we went to see a recording of The Kitchen Cabinet, in the banqueting hall at Dover Castle. Fortunately, the lighting doesn't matter on the radio: The show will air on Saturday week, and neither of us appears on it (except in the background noise). It was fun to see the recording, well worth the £0 ticket price. We really must actually go to Dover Castle some time to look around. Today (boo, hiss, I got caught for customs charges, which are fine except that the handling fee is larger than the actual tax), Bob's onesie arrived from Australia (the woman half an hour away who'd said she could make him one having then gone silent). It's a good fit (I ended up getting it from Aus because I was pretty sure none of the many greyhound / whippet ones would fit him, and I could only find two people who were doing customised ones with more than a couple of measurements), but quite difficult to put on and take off, presumably because of the extra bulk in his chest compared to the standard pattern. I've ordered some velcro, so I just need to decide whether to put the cut on his back or his chest. Chest seems more logical (as I can cut straight through -- it leaves his belly bare), but the struggle is getting his front legs in / out, so back might give more extra play. (And, now I've got it, I can make myself a pattern to make some more....) There's Something Wrong with Esk, who's taken to faceplanting while running along, and seems a bit subdued generally. Vet in a few days if she doesn't improve, I guess. Link Who loves you?

Hanging around with Bob ♥Jul. 17th, 2018 // 07:50 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, pictures ] Too hot! Link 4 kisses // Who loves you?

Busy busy ♥Jun. 27th, 2018 // 01:57 pm♥ [Tags | benny, bob the dog, carpal, family, horses, pictures, riding, visitors, weather ] We had Mike's family visiting over the weekend, so it's all been a bit busy. Still, it seemed to go well. Bob did very well, once he'd settled down after people arrived. He's very noticeably more barky at men, especially if they have beards. Fortunately, the dog-phobic visitor found the combination of howling and wagging tail to be very amusing, and even brought herself to feed him a treat, so that was good. The kids made a huge fuss of him, which he seemed to enjoy tremendously (at least, he didn't get up and walk off after a few minutes, like Jo would have). ( The Bob theorising bit ) ( The horse theorising bit ) Before that, I'd ridden Benny in the school, just some dressage basics in walk. He was being a bit of an idiot about going into one corner, by the orchard, which makes me wonder if our grass snake is back. I'm very pleased if so, because it can help the little owl to keep the rodent population down: (Ok, it's a bit Sammy The Brown Pixel, but he's quite shy so I took that from the house! Click to embiggen. Which is now a word!) After I'd ridden, while we were waiting for the Back Lady, I shut the gates to the field and the road and left them by the school, where the grass is in need of a trim. When I went back half an hour later to get them, GB was mooching around in the school (he quite likes to have a little run around in there for old times' sake, and he *loves* to have a good roll on the nice big, flat, soft surface) and Benny was... standing in the middle of the field eating grass. I suppose, if he's going to jump the gate, it's better that he goes into the field rather than out of it...? (I'm reminded of the way he tried to jump into the field when we first got him.) Other things? I've been saying for a good year that there's something wrong with a couple of keys on my Macbook keyboard, and a couple of weeks ago the spacebar started to go iffy as well, which is good timing as apparently they've now admitted that it's a Thing and will (hopefully, as this is the original and worst design) give me a new keyboard: handy, as I've now had this for long enough that the keycaps are wearing off! My wrists are misbehaving. They were really bad a couple of weeks ago (I always struggle at this time of year, from weeding), but seemed to have improved. I am finding that my right hand is going numb whenever I drive or ride, which is annoying. I've been off the sewing, because of this (and visitors), but have done two swans so far. My mother said the other day (from Greece) that my sister said that their lawn was all brown, because it had been so dry. I woke up today to the news that the moors are burning, so I guess it really has been dry there. Hope they manage to get it under control. I'm quite glad that my brother-in-law is retired from the fire service. Link 9 kisses // Who loves you?

Choose Your Own Dog Walking Adventure ♥Jun. 17th, 2018 // 11:57 am♥ [Tags | bob the dog ] You are walking in the woods with your four large dogs pottering along around you. One of them barks, causing you to look around and see two people and a dog a little way behind you. The people are standing with their backs to you, between you and their dog, but you can see that they are talking to it and getting it to sit. Do you: a) think "They don't want their dog to meet other dogs, for whatever reason," call your dogs and and keep walking; or b) turn back and go to have a chat with them. You chose b! As you and your dogs get closer to the people and their dog, you see that they are having increasing difficulty keeping their dog sitting quietly. You make a vague and fruitless attempt to call your dogs to you but also, reassuringly, tell the other people that your dogs are all friendly. When the people reply to tell you that their dog is not good with other dogs, do you: a) call your dogs, turn around and keep walking; or b) see if you can start a conversation with them about their dog. You chose b! The people seem a bit short with you, and more interested in making their dog sit and pay attention to them than in having a chat. You put one of your dogs on a lead, explaining that you're walking it for a friend, but leave the others where they are, creeping closer and closer to the strange dog and occasionally barking and growling at it. Suddenly and without warning, the strange dog leaps, snarling and with teeth bared, at the closest of your dogs (the one that was growling, as it happens) and is only stopped by the owner hanging grimly on to the lead and then grabbing the dog's head. At this point, the other people turn around and quickly take their dog back in the opposite direction. Do you think: a) "Oh dear, maybe I should have made different decisions earlier"; or b) "They weren't terribly friendly, were they? And you'd think they'd do something about stopping their dog trying to go for other dogs!" Sigh. Still, no harm done, other than to my trousers (which Bob tore a hole in with a stray claw). In fact, Bob is doing really well. Today, for example, I was watering the plants in the back garden and he was pottering around with me. There were people talking next door, but he didn't bark at them. When I was weeding the front garden, TWWOTV came outside with her noisy rats pugs, and while he *did* go over to the gate to bark at them it wasn't as full on as it has been, and not only did he come when I called him but did so straight past the runners, who were running around in a flustered fashion at the time. We also seem to be making progress on the doorbell: while I was out in the garden and he was inside, I rang it a couple of times and Mike reports that he barked and ran to the door but then just sat quietly. I've also tracked down a nest belonging to Zu Zu and containing two eggs. I'm carefully not saying "Zu Zu's nest," because there's every chance that she's got several, but I'll keep an eye on it.... Link 4 kisses // Who loves you?

Antihistamine time ♥Jun. 14th, 2018 // 06:33 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, horses ] The horse flies have arrived for the summer, which is as delightful as ever. Mutter. This afternoon, we went to get things ready in the summer field, ready to move the boys up there tomorrow. It went much faster with Mike's giant new strimmer, but I fear that the woods are starting to encroach on the edge of the field: brambles and saplings are starting to appear, mixed in with the ever-present nettles and thistles. Bob is also on the antihistamines: he had a lovely time in the field, charging around the undergrowth sniffing for bunnies, just like Jo used to. Unfortunately, Jo had a substantially thicker coat than he does, and those nettles I mentioned...? He's a bit uncomfortable still, but at least he's stopped charging around the house at full speed trying to find the perfect surface to roll on and stop the stinging. Poor lad! Something, probably the same black and white something that was digging up the squash plants, has now dug up the slug traps as well. Which, I suppose, is preferable, if likely to lead to a hung-over badger! Link 3 kisses // Who loves you?

Well that explains that.... ♥Jun. 11th, 2018 // 10:15 am♥ [Tags | bob the dog, pictures ] Even though it's well over a week since Bob had his stitches out, we'd still been putting his pooch pants on him because he kept worrying at the scabs. We did stop using the cone a few days ago, with no problem, and last night he managed to get his pants off but didn't do anything too drastic, so we left him to it. He was having a bit of a lick at it this morning, while I was mucking out, and when I went to check he wasn't doing any damage I saw that he'd got the scab off and revealed this: ( Almost entirely non-gory picture of Bob's almost entirely healed wound, just pink skin and a little scab ) Which explains why he's still been fussing at it. He's now re-empanted, and we're back to the vets tomorrow to have the remaining stitch removed.... Link 3 kisses // Who loves you?

Bits and Bobs ♥Jun. 6th, 2018 // 04:37 pm♥ [Tags | benny, bob the dog, garden, riding ] Bits: - We have tomatoes in the polytunnel! Nowhere near ripe, yet, but there are plenty of fruit starting to set. Since those first two courgettes, we've not had any more (they didn't like the grey damp weather), but there are now a few mange tout and a couple of pods of peas, and the runner beans are shooting up. - My leg is now almost entirely back to being leg-coloured but is still very swollen, so I still can't fasten my riding boots properly. On the plus side, it's much less sore, and I'm pretty much back to normal riding again, because... - ... Benny is getting over his pulled whatever-it-is much more quickly this time, presumably because he was more muscled up in general, and is now almost back to normal. and Bobs: - Bob's leg is healing nicely, although not as nicely as it would be doing if he didn't keep catching one of the scabs when he's rolling around in the grass. For now, he's still wearing pooch pants, but only because of that little surface wound. He's back to walking, zooming and jumping over stiles as normal. - We had a good session with the doggy shrink last week (although I got rather sunburned: I'm used to walking in the woods, not at the seaside!), and she gave us various tips for getting / keeping his attention when there are other dogs around or when people come to the house. - Over the weekend, Bob walked to the pub and met lots of dogs, often very abruptly, on the way but was good with all of them. - He's also improving with people around the house, but he's by no means where we want him to be. We had visitors at weekend, and he got a bit over-excited when they were arriving, but nothing too bad and he calmed down after a zoom in the field. - Today, we've had a visit from a man to look at the boiler and another to read the electricity. The first didn't even merit a huff, the second he barked at constantly until he was off the property. I suspect that the difference was largely because we were on the drive waiting when the boiler man pulled up (he'd phoned me, twice, fifteen minutes apart, from the same spot, to get directions. And then drove straight past the house...) but the electricity man rang the doorbell. This suggests an obvious training opportunity! Link Who loves you?

Variations on a theme ♥May. 31st, 2018 // 05:51 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, garden, pictures, weather ] Mike bought me some veg-box irises today, and I thought they'd look nice with some ox-eye daisies (which grow wild behind the barn, and are having a fabulous year). While I was out with my trug and scissors, I went to get the year's first vase of sweetpeas and picked a few other flowers for the house as well. It was only later that I realised I had a bit of a colour theme going! Also in the garden, Mike (fortunately) noticed this morning that something (probably a black and white something) had dug into the pile of manure that the squash are planted into, burying one of the plants. He excavated and re-planted it, and now we have our fingers crossed that it will survive. Bob's stitches came out this afternoon, and tomorrow we're going to see the doggy shrink behaviourist, to see if we can start to make some progress on the idea of not trying to kill Evil Dogs on sight. In fact, he was very good at the vet, even though there were plenty of other dogs in the waiting room, possibly because we made sure to keep him a good few feet away from them at all times. The weather here has been very odd this week: warm and foggy overnight and for much of the morning, occasional thunder showers, hot and steamy when the sun manages to burn through the clouds. I didn't ride this morning because I could barely see the far end of the school, and didn't ride this afternoon because we had a downpour so he'll be soggy. We've cancelled tomorrow morning's riding lesson, because the rain warning has been extended and even if it is dry then I'm sure that the fog will be back. Still, it's good grass-growing weather! Link 3 kisses // Who loves you?

First fruits! ♥May. 25th, 2018 // 06:26 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, garden, pictures, sewing ] This evening, we're having courgettes for tea! (Also asparagus and the first new potatoes, from the veg box. My asparagus plants have produced about two spears each this year, but They Will Grow!) And I have been sewing: Bob was at the vet today, and we didn't get too much of a telling off for the way he's been fiddling with his stitches (he will keep licking at them, through the t-shirt). They're coming out at the end of next week, but he isn't allowed zoomies for a few days more after that: poor Bob! The Aga had a service today, and got a clean bill of health, which is good, but less good is that the door seal on the dishwasher has gone, so I'm going to have to wash up by hand until Thursday when they come to fix it: poot. Link 7 kisses // Who loves you?

Encouraging animal news ♥May. 24th, 2018 // 01:25 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, benny, bob the dog, ducks, horses ] This morning, after a couple of weeks off, I had a quick go on Benny and he was barely hopping at all, so fingers crossed that he's recovering much more quickly this time than he did last time. I didn't stay on for long, because my leg is still not right and -- based on last time -- he's always more hoppy when he's tired, so I didn't want to do too much. The vet popped in to give GB a blood test, and said he looks well. We did talk about his problems having a wee, and she agrees it probably is a bladder stone and therefore not something we can really fix. (Given that he takes months to heal a little scratch, cutting him open doesn't really seem viable.) He's happy in himself, though, and as long as he is we'll leave him be. We also had a phone call from Bob's vet, to say that the lab report on his lump is back and it's entirely benign, which is what we expected but is always nice to have confirmed. Bob's going a little loopy from lack of exercise, as he's still not allowed to have zoomies in the field, and indeed is currently wearing the Cone Of Shame as well as his pooch pants, because this morning he was zooming as much as he possibly could on the lunge line while we were getting the ragwort out of the field, and the wound is now oozing slightly again. I think we're going to have to go back to just the lead, as the lunge line lets him get up a bit too much speed. (Yesterday morning, while I was poo picking, I left him tied to the gate on the lunge line and turned around at one point just in time to see him do a mid-air forward roll as he reached the end of the slack....) I've given up on the bird 'flu rules: in the last few months, there's been nothing but a couple of dead buzzards two counties over, so I'm not sure why they're still keeping it going. Anyway, we're not feeding the garden birds any more so now that the adolescent crows have found the food bowl, the swallows have started nesting in the stables, and the wagtails are spending all day on the muck heap it's not like there are more wild birds in the garden than in the stableyard. We're still lucky to be getting one egg a day, usually from Magrat (traditionally the worst of the layers, which is very odd; Esk, our 'oh, I thought I'd lay two today' girl, still hasn't managed any that we've seen). If something *isn't* going in and stealing them before we let the girls out in the morning, hopefully the more varied diet will get the others going! Link Who loves you?

Couture de chien ♥May. 20th, 2018 // 03:46 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, pictures ] After several attempts to do things with darts, bits of string and safety pins, Bob continued to look like a teenage boy wearing trousers several sizes too big, complete with regularly tripping over them. I went for a more radical re-design, which has given him an oddly piratical air but seems to be working (even when he spent ten minutes rolling around on the lawn). Fingers crossed! Link 6 kisses // Who loves you?

Baggy trousers... ♥May. 19th, 2018 // 11:22 am♥ [Tags | bob the dog, pictures ] My t-shirts don't fit Bob as well as they fitted Jo: Better than the Cone Of Shame, though! Link 2 kisses // Who loves you?

Dog smells ♥May. 18th, 2018 // 11:26 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, jodie the dog ] Quite apart from his flatulence, which is considerable, Bob smells very different to Jo. Except when he's quietly *seeping* from a surgical incision. Then, he smells just the same in a mix of veterinary cleaning product and... IDK, plasma? It's very evocative, whatever it is. And unhappy. Link 2 kisses // Who loves you?

Woozy pooch ♥May. 18th, 2018 // 02:25 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, garden, pictures ] Today, Bob's been to the vet to have the lump on his leg removed. (We're pretty sure that it's benign, although will get it checked, but were worried that he'd catch it on things, especially given that he does tend to worry at it.) He was almost entirely a very good boy: he did lunge at one collie as the nurse was taking him through, but he was good with the two dogs in the waiting room before we saw her, and they say that he was good while he was in the back. Oddly, just before he lunged at the collie we were starting to relax because he was looking at it and wagging his tail; not sure what that means. (When we went to collect him, the nurse brought him out of the back door rather than risk there being dogs in the waiting room. He then tried to go back inside again rather than come with us, so I don't think he was too traumatised by the experience.) He's currently curled up on the couch and a bit stoned, but hopefully he'll be feeling more normal later on. It's very odd actually being able to see a square patch where they've clipped him, rather than just a slightly less dense area of fluff. In general, I think that we are making some progress. He's still barking for far longer than necessary when someone comes to the door / drives past the house / is visible, but I think not for quite so long. He also saw some dogs we know and was fine with them, even when one of them bopped him on the nose for being too interested in sniffing her bum. It's just going to take a while. We're meeting a dog behaviourist in a couple of weeks (scheduling issues), and we're going to do it down at the beach so that we can guarantee lots of other dogs so that we can get a feel for things like safe distances and maybe even what it is that causes other dogs to be Evil. We've been very busy in the garden, and I've now planted out my new flower bed (in what was the veg patch). Mike has a new chainsaw, so he's been having fun chopping things down. The first courgette is now of a size that you could pick and call it a baby courgette, but one baby courgette isn't really much use so I think we'll leave it a bit longer! Edit: The drugs are wearing off, and he doesn't understand why he can't go for zoomies in the field. And he wants to lick it better, so now he has to have a Cone Of Shame (the inflatable isn't enough to stop him getting at it, unfortunately). And he is very unhappy. Link Who loves you?

Animal magic ♥May. 13th, 2018 // 03:09 pm♥ [Tags | benny, bob the dog, ducks, riding ] I've not really ridden since Monday, as my leg's still sore (it rained last night, so I couldn't just go around in my trainers this morning. After an attempt to get my boots on I gave up and wore an old pair of Mike's: ankle and foot are still rather swollen), but Mike's had a few goes on Benny. He's started hopping again, which probably means that when I came off him he re-tweaked whatever it was that he tweaked to make him go hoppy in the first place. Sigh. Hopefully it won't take so long to get better this time. We're trying out clicker training with Bob. He's now excellent at dropping his toy to have it re-thrown, with much less trying to play tug-of-war. He's a bit better at coming when called, although he's still crap if he's busy with an interesting smell. We're having a bit of success at stopping him from barking, but not a huge amount. Yesterday, we left him in the garden while we moved lumps of concrete across the stableyard to the skip. Unfortunately, next door's cat came into his view and the next thing we knew he'd jumped the gate, run across the stableyard, and jumped the wall onto the road. Fortunately he lost sight of the cat at that point and stopped, but annoyingly he now knows that he can get out. Even more unfortunately, when we got him back into the stableyard he was still excited and decided to play with the ducks. No harm done, but he spent the rest of the time we were out there with his muzzle on, and being busy rolling around trying to get it off was enough distraction that he left the girls alone. The local dog trainer's been on holiday, but I'll be giving him a call next week. (The rescue assured us that they'd tested him with cats and he was fine. Then again, they also said he'd been chipped and vaccinated, so.) We also have a bit of an egg mystery going on: Zu Zu laid consistently for a fortnight, then stopped and hasn't laid for a couple of weeks now. In the gap, Magrat laid for about four days and then stopped. This morning, Agnes had laid. I had some rubber fake eggs, which I was trying to convince Zu Zu were really hers without much success, so I bought some apparently very realistic sand-filled ones. I popped one in the nest this morning, when I took out Agnes's, and left the other two, along with the two rubber ones, on a pile of bricks in the stable. When I went to feed the girls at lunch time, the two realistic ones and one of the rubber ones were gone (although the realistic one in the nest was still there), which rather makes me think that something is stealing them, and possibly that Erzulie has been laying all along and we've just been missing the eggs. As she tends to lay late morning (unlike the runners, who usually lay before they come out in the morning), I'm not sure how we're going to stop it happening, short of popping out every five minutes to look for an egg (and disturbing her from laying in the process). Link 2 kisses // Who loves you?

Bob has discovered the joy of badger poo. ♥May. 8th, 2018 // 06:35 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, garden, pictures ] And our resident badger seems to have an upset stomach. On the plus side, more work in the veg bed this morning (before it got too hot), so now the mange tout and beans are planted out. So are both of the pea plants that actually did anything, out of about sixteen planted from a brand new pack of peas: I may complain to Suttons, especially as I had very bad germination from the french beans as well. I suspect that we'll have courgettes in a few days, as they're already flowering. The bales of hay are for the squash: they've got an empty space in the middle, which we're filling up with (raw) manure, and then we'll put small heaps of compost on top and put the plants into those. Apparently works very well as long as you keep the hay bales damp so that they break down (we've been hosing them down), and will have the added benefit of providing a load of nice organic matter to spread over the bed for next year. Link Who loves you?

Getting Things Done ♥May. 4th, 2018 // 09:50 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, garden ] As a result of the re-fencing work that Jobbing Farmer and His Mate did, we've now got a small heap of concrete lumps and breeze blocks, as well as coils of old fencing wire. Yesterday, I had a skip delivered, so that we could get rid of it. I didn't really think it through: we're quite busy with garden stuff right now, especially as we have New Veg Bed that hasn't had the winter to quietly digest a load of manure and so needs compost moving onto it, and I'm off quilting tomorrow afternoon and all day Sunday, but on the other hand it's a bank holiday on Monday, so Mike's here more than usual. It'll be ok, right? As part of the garden stuff, we spent a while yesterday afternoon getting the polytunnel ready to go. Shh, don't tell DEFRA, who have still not lifted the bloody bird 'flu restrictions even though there haven't been any cases (other than a couple of buzzards) in three months, but that involved moving the ducks' food and water outside, where wild birds can get at them. (OTOH, they're now in the same situation they were in last year, when there actually was bird 'flu, so meh.) This morning, after a riding lesson, we were going to start on moving enormous lumps of concrete to the skip, but I really wanted to make sure that Zu Zu wasn't hiding her eggs somewhere in the ducks' stable. When we moved in, we noted that the previous owners were really crap at estimating how much Stuff they needed for each of their many refurbishment projects: the ducks' stable is made up of a small partitioned area, which I roofed with chicken wire to make it safe for the girls to sleep in, and a larger space full of Stuff, much of it leaning against walls or other Stuff to make hard-to-check nooks where Erzulie has laid at least one egg. We re-stacked the stone slabs (left over from the conservatory floor, and pretty much enough to entirely re-floor it), stuck the part- and un-used packs of laminate flooring in the skip, along with a few misc bits of other Stuff, and put the random bits of wood on the bonfire, left the random piles of bricks where they were, and now it's much tidier and there's more space for Stuff of our own. Didn't find any eggs, though. (And *why* are the runners still not laying? Are they on not-allowed-in-the-garden-because-of-bird-'flu-strike?) Then we went around the property and gathered up all the coils of wire, and stuck them in the skip as well. Then the skip was full. Mike has hopes that piling lumps of concrete on the wire will squish it down.... In the afternoon, we put up strings in the polytunnel to tie the tomatoes to and then planted them out. While we were doing it, some chaps from the window cleaners (I phoned them on Wednesday, and was told someone would come out to do a quote but probably not until next week) arrived. Almost the first words out of the lead chap's mouth, as Bob started objecting to Strangers, were "He can't be as bad as those two alsatians", from which I gathered that he used to clean the windows for the previous owners, which meant that he didn't need to look around before going "thirty quid?". (Bob later settled down and made friends with them all, pausing only every thirty seconds to bark at them.) Two minutes later they were up their ladders, and half an hour after that they were gone with promises that another chap, with different kit, would be along soon to clean the solar panels as well. He gave me a ticking off for the state of the gutters and weatherboards in passing, and when I actually looked at them I did go 'wow, they're quite green, except where they're still wood and god we must get the wood weatherboards replaced'. The windows are lovely and clean, though! In amongst all that, Mike heroically played with his new toy tackled the regrowing brambles with a brush-cutter, which seems to be much more useful than the strimmer (although I fear that, as with the strimmer, I won't be able to use it for five minutes and still retain the ability to, eg, use a knife and fork that evening). And now we're quite tired. And I'm contemplating phoning Mrs Farmer and saying "You know your son who's got a baby due any day now? Would he like some cash for a day of casual labour over the bank holiday weekend....?" Oh, and some bastard bitey thing must have got under my top yesterday when we were doing polytunnel things, because I've got over a dozen little bites all around my waistband. Itchy. Still, BBQ chicken for tea, summer's not all bad! Link Who loves you?

Soggy ♥Apr. 30th, 2018 // 12:53 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, craft, ducks, pictures, visitors ] In the last 24 hours, we've had 8cm of rain, and it's not due to let up until close to midnight. It is rather unpleasant, but the ducks are happy with their newly acquired water-feature: The boys, being stuck in their stables, are less happy, poor things. Bob is perfectly happy, as long as I don't make him go outside: I had enough trouble getting him to the stableyard this morning that I don't think I'll bother with a walk. Instead, I'm going to be mostly curled up on the sofa with my new quilt, which I finished off over the weekend: We had visitors over the weekend, which was nice but tiring. Bob got a bit over-stimulated when so many people kept arriving, and spent an hour or so barking and growling at the last person through the door (but only when he stood up; Bob was perfectly happy to go and have cuddles from him when he sat down!), but a run around the field fixed that. Bob was generally very pleased with the visitors, as he is a complete tart, especially when he worked out that visitors meant that people were sitting on his sofa and cuddling him. We did have an unfortunate Bob incident on Sunday, though: while we were walking him, he went for a perfectly innocuous black lab that was sitting quietly by the path waiting for us to go past. Whenever he's gone for other dogs before I've been able to excuse it (at the kennels, at the vet), but I think we'll have to accept that this means he'll need to have a muzzle when we start letting him off the lead. (There are, I know, ways to train dogs out of this kind of behaviour, but I'm not sure how you do it when it's only occasional random dogs that set it off, unless you can convince the owner of the random dog to help. I may speak to the vet nurse about it next time we're there.) Link 11 kisses // Who loves you?

Animal Magic ♥Apr. 22nd, 2018 // 07:57 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, benny, bob the dog, ducks ] Bob went back to the vet today, for a fairly general check/catch up. "Do just check that you can find his chip, now that he's had one put in," I said. Three chip readers later, she put another chip in. "And, while I'm here, can you check that the vaccinations he was given were right? I was surprised that he didn't need repeat jabs to start with," I continues. We have re-started his jabs, and will be going back in a couple of weeks for the repeat ones. On the plus side, he's put on half a kilo since we've had him, and hopefully he'll manage to do the same again. (The posts posts having finally arrived from Chile, Jobbing Farmer and His Mate are out in the garden doing the fences. "Our cocker spaniel was 21kg," Jobbing Farmer said. "It took us two years, but we've now got him down to where he should be, 12kg." Boggle.) After a few days of laying, Erzulie realised that her eggs were being stolen each morning and went looking for a safer nest spot. She did try the barn again, but seems to have given up on it after Bob followed her inside and tried to investigate her. I heard the scuffles and rescued her before anything worse than a wet back happened. I remembered later that I still had a couple of fake eggs in the house so the next day, when she laid in her new nest (actually in their house, even!), I swapped one of those in. I did the same today, and hopefully she can't count higher than two. I haven't updated about Benny recently, but that's because it's good news: he's pretty much entirely stopped doing his hoppity thing, it just very occasionally comes back if he's going faster than his balance can cope with. He's doing very well, and Mike is now cantering him, which is marvellous news. GB remains his usual charming self, now with added "The flies are bothering me, do something. Eww, why have you put this horrible thing over my face? When I said 'do something', I meant you should stand next to me and wave them away!" I continue to be a little concerned about his bladder, because I do think that Something Is Not Right, but there's nothing I can realistically do to fix either of the two most likely causes of the problem, so there you go. Our non-fancy cherry tree is a mass of blossom this year, it's looking lovely. The fancy crab apple and cherries are just about to open as well. Sadly, the weeds have greatly appreciated the recent weather. Must get out in the garden. Link Who loves you?

Our Dog Bob ♥Apr. 18th, 2018 // 07:51 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, ducks ] Yesterday, we went to the rescue to do the paperwork on Bob. And then we went back to the kennel where he used to live, to get his paperwork and have a microchip put in, because rescues are less than organised. (They didn't realise that they'd forgotten to chip him until we told them that our vet couldn't find it....) So, he's now our dog, and we can proceed to start beating him, etc. Er, I mean, talk to the vet about getting that lump removed. That's the one. He's doing well, although he continues to be a bit more interested in Erzulie than we would like. On the one hand, eggs are great. On the other, I wish she'd stop being so sex mad and just give him a good telling off! Speaking of Zu-Zu, Ex-Mrs Up The Hill was here a few days ago and said "Oh, you've got a Muscovy Duck!" and we said "No, she's a Magpie," and she said "No, pretty sure she's a Muscovy...". I checked t'internet after she'd gone, and yes, she's right: Erzulie is actually a Muscovy. This led us down some fascinating online rabbit holes: Muscovy's are the only domesticated ducks that aren't actually mallards (which rather explains why she's never properly been accepted by the others), but they're sufficiently closely related that they can cross-breed (although they prefer not to, and produce sterile offspring), which means that they count as being kosher, even though they're from the New World and so not in the lists of things that are kosher, which is a marvellously pragmatic rule (as ever) but doesn't explain how they managed to argue for turkeys also being kosher. They're also tremendously broody and very good at it, which does raise the prospect of getting a male runner and using Zu-Zu to hatch the runner eggs... I suspect that that way lies madness. So it's probably a good job that I didn't manage to find another magpie to keep her company; guess I'd better start looking for a muscovy. Insert obligatory complaint about the temperature here. Yesterday was just lovely.... Link Who loves you?

Who's a clever Zu-Zu? ♥Apr. 14th, 2018 // 01:30 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, ducks, pictures ] (They're even, helpfully, a different colour to the runners' eggs.) I had my first poached duck egg of the year for lunch! Hopefully she'll be a bit happier now that she's got the first one out of the way. Hopefully, that will manifest itself as hissing scarily when Bob comes sniffing at her, rather than adopting the 'would you like to have sex' position. She's a bit mixed up, is Erzulie. Bob is a smart lad, and has realised that he needs to come when called if he's on the lunge line but that we can't really do anything when he's off it. Unfortunately, he's not smart enough to realise that he can't go off the lead until he comes all the time. Sigh. Link 2 kisses // Who loves you?

Not actually *on* the People Sofa.... ♥Apr. 10th, 2018 // 06:48 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, pictures ] (He's actually being a lot better than we thought about it. Obviously we've been being too soft!) Link 8 kisses // Who loves you?

Reassuring animal news ♥Apr. 10th, 2018 // 01:54 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, bob the dog, ducks, pictures ] GB had a wee overnight! Hurrah! T'internet suggests that Erzulie is hoping we'll mate with her (scrunching down and spreading her wings slightly to give the drake somewhere to stand when they're in the water), which is a bit disturbing (she thinks we're going to...?) but basically fine and (hopefully) leading to eggs soon. Bob was fine when I went out without him this morning, which was a relief. When we walked him, he had a little growl at another dog, but nothing major. We took him to the vet this afternoon, where he did try to go for two other dogs. The first one was swiftly removed to the car, the second was at the other end of the room and, in fact, Bob settled down fairly quickly when he realised we weren't going to let them get near each other. The vet's happy with Bob, says he seems healthy. She says that his lump is almost certainly just a lump, but also wants to have it removed when he's settled down. We also had a chat with the psychology nurse, who says we have to be much more strict with him or we really will have separation problems. He's currently on the Dog Sofa, looking the picture of wounded, neglected poochness after we both ignored him and wouldn't let him on the people sofa. (I'll go and give him a cuddle in a minute!) We've got special food for him, to see if we can get his tummy settled. It turns out that he's a fair bit heavier than we'd guessed - 27kg, and the vet would be happy if he gained a couple of kilos - so we'll be increasing his food as well. Link 2 kisses // Who loves you?

Animal news ♥Apr. 9th, 2018 // 07:48 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, bob the dog, ducks ] Bob continues to be quite clingy, but he coped ok with Mike going to London today. We'll see how he copes when I go out without him tomorrow morning.... He's having great fun zooming around the field, and just chased (but didn't catch: mean old fences) his first bunny. I think I'm going to try getting his attention with a squeaky toy when he's zooming tomorrow, see if that makes him notice that I'm offering treats if he comes back! Erzulie's being a little odd. Yesterday morning when Mike was letting them out, she sort of flopped down on the doorstep and stayed there for a minute, even when he came and touched her. She did it again on the way in this evening, so I picked her up and had a feel, in case she's egg-bound (she's starting to look like she's going to lay soon), but she seemed ok. Not sure what's going on there. Also not sure what's going on with GB, who only had one tiny wee overnight the night before last and none at all last night. Unfortunately, due to Bob-wrangling, I didn't think to check this morning until he'd been out in the field for a bit. If he's dry again overnight tonight, I'm going to keep him in and see if he has a wee in the morning; if not, I'll get the vet out in the afternoon. I spoke to the vet this afternoon, vaguely expecting him to say "It's probably a UTI," but actually he led off with bladder stones and then went on to kidney failure and cancer, which wasn't very reassuring, but he also said that if GB wasn't weeing at all then you'd would expect him to be colicky, which he's not. The vet did say that my plan to keep him in tomorrow was the right thing to do, so we'll just have to see what happens. There's always an outside chance that Benny's taught him not to wee indoors, but it seems unlikely. Link 3 kisses // Who loves you?

Bob day 3 ♥Apr. 7th, 2018 // 04:35 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, garden ] Less good today, sadly. Last night, he didn't settle downstairs and in the end Mike brought him up to our bedroom, where he jumped onto our bed several times before settling in the dog bed that Jo never liked but he seems happy with. Not sure if that's because I didn't accidentally leave my jumper on the sofa for him to cuddle like the night before, if he's more bonded to us and therefore less keen to stay alone, or because we had brief overnight guests (I think this is least likely, as he's not been here long enough to know that they're not part of the household; he was otherwise very well behaved with them). Probably as a result, we've had much more trouble keeping him downstairs today, to the extent that when I went upstairs to do post-visitor tidying I shut him in the living room with Mike. He proceeded to stand by the door looking mournful, with occasional scrabbling. While we were doing the horses this morning, he was thoroughly getting in the way, so I tied him to the barn on a shorter line, which he was also very unhappy about, but this afternoon we've been out in the garden* and he seemed reasonably happy about not being able to get to me (up a ladder, so didn't really want him too close!), at least after he'd run and caught a squeaky toy a few dozen times. * We lost February and March, in gardening terms, because of Jo and the weather, so were now trying to catch up. I fear that the crab apple blossom won't be as good as usual, as that was my project for today and it was already starting to leaf and bud. Only managed half of it, because I am both out of shape and full of con crud. While Mike was having a nap earlier, I tried leaving him alone in the living room while I did some kitchen tidying and then a bit of sewing. I started at two minutes, went back to calm him down and then backtracked to thirty seconds. It takes a while to empty the dishwasher in thirty second increments! I did eventually get it up to five minutes with him just calmly curled up on the sofa (leave alone, go back and sit with him with no fuss, leave alone for thirty seconds longer, etc) but then he suddenly got stressed again. After a break to let him calm down, I tried just going and doing some sewing but leaving the door open. He did follow me through immediately, but I wasn't fussing him and he doesn't like lying on the floor, so after a stern 'no' to his speculative look at the sewing-covered sofa in there he pretty much gave up and went back to the living room, although he did come and check on me every few minutes. This is worse than Jo was even towards the end, so even though I hope he'll be better when he's settled I'm very glad that as well as an appointment to get the vet to give him a general check-up and have a look at his lump** I also made an appointment on Tuesday with the nurse who's a psychology specialist. ** The rescue say it's just a skin tag, and it might well be, but even if it is entirely benign I think it needs to come off: he's worrying at it, and it sticks out so much that I would worry about him catching it on something once he's off-lead in the woods. On the plus side, he's barely tried to lick my face all day, his recall is much better in the field (at least when there's a bag of treats involved), and on walks he's coming on from interesting smells when you ask him to, rather than when you tug him away. We may try letting him off the lunge line in the (double fenced) field tomorrow, if this evening's recall practice goes well. Link 2 kisses // Who loves you?

Bob ♥Apr. 6th, 2018 // 10:49 am♥ [Tags | bob the dog ] Bob seems to be settling in quite well, after a day with us. Yesterday, he was rather over-stimulated but did eventually settle down. He was quite unhappy when we tied him up in the barn while the horses went to bed, possibly because he thought he was spending the night in there, but was much happier when we then took him for a run in the field. (He's even starting to learn how long the lunge line is, and not getting quite so yanked to a stop when he goes tearing off!) Overnight, he slept in the living room quite happily: no banging or scratching to get out, and when Mike came down this morning he was awake but still lying on the sofa. This morning, he had his first experience of our morning routine. He was fine while we were mucking out and riding (fortunately: some dogs freak out the first time they see someone climb onto a horse) but he was very unhappy when we were poo picking. We'd tied him to the garden gate, so that he could see us without being in any danger from GB (who is *not* impressed that we've got another of *those things*), but by the time we'd finished he was whimper/howling. I'm wondering if the way he was dumped was by being tied up somewhere and left, but I'm afraid that he does have to learn to cope (and that we'll come back). He is showing no signs of doing a runner, though, and is getting much better about not lunging at me, open mouthed and aim uncertain, to lick my face. I think we'll be fine! Link 1 kiss // Who loves you?

Operation 'tire Bob out with a long walk'... ♥Apr. 5th, 2018 // 01:50 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, pictures ] ... didn't really work out that well. Mike and I are tired... He does seem to like his extra-tough teddy bear, though, having barely put it down since he walked into the house and found it, except to drop it on my keyboard. Mmmm, slobbery. Link 4 kisses // Who loves you?

A visit from Bob ♥Mar. 25th, 2018 // 01:53 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog, pictures ] This morning, we went off to the kennel and brought Bob away for a visit to our house. We clipped his harness down to the floor of the boot, Just In Case, and after a couple of tries at sticking his nose over the back seat he settled down nicely, which was good. We stopped off in the woods on the way back, and he had a grand time sniffing around through the undergrowth. The first anemones are just showing their faces, but we didn't see any bluebells (although we didn't go to the place where the earliest ones are). We met four labs, who were very well trained and sat neatly in a line off the path while we went past. Bob was slightly interested, and would have gone to bump noses if the labs had been allowed to do that, but showed no sign of either going for them or running away. When we got home, we swapped his lead for a lunge line and took him for a wander around the garden and field. The ducks obligingly behaved as much like helpless prey animals as possible (running away, flapping, quacking) and he wasn't at all interested. He met the horses (through the fence) and was cautious but not terrified. When he was calmly bumbling around the field, his recall was much better than we'd found it to be previously, which is good news. He was very interested in everything, outside and inside the house. While Mike was cooking lunch (no begging, yay!), I went and sat on the sofa in the living room. He pottered around for a bit, checking underneath all the furniture, and then looked speculatively at Jodie's the dog sofa, so I went and put a blanket over it and patted it, and he jumped up and stood there for a bit before jumping down again. When I went and sat back down, he made it clear that he felt the dog sofa was far inferior to the human one: The only slight issue that we had was that I tried giving him Jo's squeaky duck, which he was very impressed with (and which he actually squeaked for himself, something Jo never managed). He carried it around for a bit, and then put it down on the grass and ripped it to shreds. Ok, no soft toys for you, mate. And we'll be keeping an eye on the stuffed-animal-doorstops for a while, as he then immediately came indoors and tried to walk off with the badger! (Jo also liked the badger, but all *she* did was carry it around!) Link 8 kisses // Who loves you?

Doggie news ♥Mar. 19th, 2018 // 01:31 pm♥ [Tags | bob the dog ] Belatedly, today we had the home check visit from the dog rescue. She's a little concerned that we don't have six foot fencing, but only to the extent of saying that we'll need to keep an eye on him after first, and other than that everything is good. We're going to go and see Bob again a couple of times this week to go for a walk and let him get used to us, and then over the weekend we'll try and bring him here to check how he is with the ducks and the horses, and then we'll try to get to see him again next week and then argh it's Easter already how did that happen? Link 2 kisses // Who loves you?

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