Since starting his studying for the priesthood, my husband and I have had very little quality time together. So we decided that once a week on our day off, we would go out for the day and do something different from the normal everyday stuff.
Today is the first of these days, we also decided that one or other of us would choose where we were going as a surprise to the other. My husband chose today's place which turned out to be Gilbert Whites house in Selbourne, Hampshire.
It took a while to get to it and from the outside it looked like any of the other houses along the road! Once inside however you could see how much land there was at the back!
We wandered around the rooms looking at the displays, upstairs is also a large room dedicated to Captain Lawrence Oates, the Antarctic explorer who famously said "I am going outside, I may be some time" as he walked to his death in a vain attempt to save his fellow explorers.
Gilbert White was a priest and naturalist who was the first person to record in detail much of the natural history of the English countryside. Once we had walked around the inside of his house we had a cream tea in the tearoom before heading out into his gardens, which were amazing! we spent a long time walking around the acres of gardens and wild areas, and saw lots of birds and insects. As we were almost back at the house we found a labyrinth, well of course we had to walk it. My husband told me about them as I literally walked in his footsteps around it.
We had a really relaxed day together and both enjoyed it, roll on next weeks day together!
This morning I got Flower up for school as usual, we always have her over on a Monday night, and then once she had been picked up I went quickly to get some shopping before going to her school to watch the sports day. It was very warm and all the children had a sports bottle full of water with them. Flower was in the Yellow team so I together with her mum Sam, had put yellow tee shirts on i support. Go Yellows!! There were loads of races for all the year groups, Flower did her first race which was the obstacle race, Sam and I went to the finish line so that we could get photos, she did really well and came second. Then came her second race which was the "egg and spoon" race, well what can I say!!..... she pretty much ran with it, she didn't drop it once and as she crossed the finish line the others were still only half way down the track! One of the mums said "she's glued it to the spoon, but just as she said it Flower tripped on her way over to see us and I caught the egg just before it hit the ground! It wasn't a real one though. When all the races had been done the children came over to their supporters and had their lunch, lots like us had brought a picnic, which we sat on the sports field to eat. What a lovely time we had. My husband had asked one of his parishioners if he could visit, as she had not long come out of hospital, (she together with her husband are very dear friends of ours), so when she told him she would love to see him she also asked if he would bring me and Litlun and have dinner with them. It was a lovely late afternoon and evening, we all chatted then later we sat down to eat. MrsY we had a fab meal, and wonderful company thank you so much.
For some time now, whenever I have applied the fly repellent
to Mouse the sponge has got dirtier and dirtier, she really needs a bath, so today I decided to give her one. I did wonder who was going to get the wettest! I decided to fill her large water bucket with water before mucking out the paddock that way it would have a chance to warm up a little, as it is yet another hot day, much hotter than yesterday. I brought her in and tipped jugs of water over her mane and tail then added shampoo, then did the same for the rest of her body, after ten minutes of trying to rinse the shampoo out of her mane I decided there was nothing for it but to use the hose! Now Mouse is 3 years old and hasn't had a bath in the 2 years and 3 months that I have had her, I don't know about before that. So this was going to be quite interesting... or so I thought, I began doing her legs as she has had them hosed to get the mud off in the winter, she was fine so I went up to her shoulder, across
her back over her rump down her tail, round her udders then back along her back up her mane..... in fact the only time she showed any emotion was when I accidentally stuck the hose up her nose! she turned round and sniffed the jet of water!! then her ears showed surprise (it was rather funny) she even tried to drink from the hose! After using a sweat scrape to remove the excess water I put her back out in the field, no rug or anything as it really was hot enough to dry her off. She didn't roll either! as for me, I just got wet arms and feet, quite amazing really as I thought I would be in for a battle.
Today we went to the rare breeds show, Mum came over with her dog,then the two of them together with Flower, Litlun, me and my dog (my husband and Beth were working,) set off to the show.
We had, as usual got a picnic with us which we left in the cooler box in the car.
We wandered around looking at all the cows, sheep and pigs, my dog was quite unfazed by any of the animals including a huge pig which tried to taste her foot, where as Mums dog was quite scared, we had to walk round the animal free stalls for a while she got so upset, she doesn't like goats!
It was lovely and warm but not so hot that we needed to worry about burning, at 1 pm we went back to the car to have our lunch, putting the dogs in the crate with the boot open and plenty of water, they were happy to look out of the back window for most of the time.
Usually I prepare the picnic but this time Mum said she would do it, there was a huge salad, ham, chicken cold sausages in bacon, eggs salmon bread rolls, crisps, olives and feta. After which we had dessert which was Apple pie and custard. Yummy.
When we had all eaten as much as we wanted, we went back into the show, we wandered around the rest of the stalls, went and saw the rabbits, chickens and ducks, then some alpacas, then Litlun found a stall with ferrets on it, having had several ferrets I couldn't help having a cuddle with a lovely albino Jill ferret, even Flower held it, they were so docile, lovely animals.
We sat down and had ice creams mid afternoon, before heading back home for a cuppa, then Mum and her dog went home whilst I prepared the dinner.
I thought I would have a little look through my old blogs, starting from the beginning, just randomly and read a few. I am beginning to wish I hadn't now.
What on earth has happened to me? The blog used to be funny in parts with the odd joke or funny blog but now its drab and flat. May be my outlook on life has changed, as my husband has just suggested. I suppose in the last year and a half I have seen and had a few life changing experiences...
Maybe I should have more fun maybe I should change my job for something more fun, there is no fun in our job any more management have ensured that it is totally impossible, yet I read a newspaper report last week that stated work force performance was almost doubled if the workers were happy. I know that we now do all our obs and paperwork at the scene now as opposed to on the vehicles en route to hospital, just to give us time to think.
Yes I think its time for a change, but as I am no good at anything other than monkey skills I have no idea what I could do!
I got home from work at around 8am and couldn't believe how tired I was! Although we didn't have a great number of jobs we had quite a few cover moves, so I still had to be awake!
I decided to go to bed for a couple of hours before taking the dog to the swimming pool, that was a mistake! I was woken by my husband at ten past eleven, I was supposed to be at the pool at eleven thirty! Ahh well, we got there at 11:35 (speeding officer, me?? Never) Where I met my Mum and her dog and a man with another collie, the three have all swum together before and got down to the serious business of chasing tennis balls which we threw in for them.
Having got them out half an hour later and dried them off I returned home for some lunch. Storm rang to see if I would like to take the dog for a walk with her two today, we often walk the three dogs together. I collected them and drove to one of our usual walking places, it was quite cool today, although I may have felt it more being so tired. There are two paths we can choose from in this area, and today we took the shorter of the two.
Back home having done the dinner and sent my husband on his way to work, I settled down to a nice read before I went to sleep.... I'm not sure I reached the end of the page.
The above post appeared on our notice board at work. A little rude but rather amusing......and probably true!
This morning my husband got up and went to church in time for the 8:00am service leaving me to sleep on, when he got back he woke me up with a cup of tea, ahhh.
Then we both went to the 10:00am service where I sat with Flower and Sam, whilst my husband got dressed up in all the vestments for the service.
Afterwards we had a glass of wine and some birthday cake as one of our friends was celebrating her 90th birthday.
Back home I prepared everything for dinner, as my mum and her dog are coming over for the rest of the day.
After a cup of tea we set off with the dogs for a walk in the woods, its not easy walking then in this heat as they are both dashing around all over the place getting hot and then find it difficult to cool down, at least its cooler in the woods! We stopped off to do Mouse on the way home then sat and chatted whilst the dinner cooked.
Yet another chilled out calm day, I am starting to enjoy this . . . unfortunately I am back to work again tomorrow, that will be anything but chilled and calm I'll put money on that!!
Today my husband and I both have the day off, we decided to go down to our local market and get some veg and have a wander, its been months since we have been to the market.
We walked down, it was boiling hot again! once there we were surprised by how few stalls there were! one of the vendors told us it was because the pitch price has gone up so much its stopped people coming!
We got our veg and a few other bits then wandered home again, stopping en route for some cheese straws and scones from the bakery.
After lunch I went down to do Mouse accompanied by Litlun and her friend Jo.
Back home we got ready for the wedding then drove, My husband is working tomorrow so he said he would drive and not drink (yippee)
The bride and groom looked fabulous, the bride was wearing a long sheer white dress with a train and tiara, she said it took two hours to do her hair too! The groom was in his family tartan and looked very smart, I usually see him in white!!! (a ghi, he belongs to the same Aikido club as me). There was a hog roast and loads of salads in the evening.
It was a lovely day, and we wish the Bride and Groom all our very best wishes.
Today the temperature is supposed to reach 30 degrees. Nice for my dog and my mums dog as we took them to the canine swimming pool again, so they were able to cool off a bit. They were swimming with a third collie this week and all seemed to get on well, each (as is the norm for collies) chasing after a tennis ball. Although it was cool for them in the pool it was very muggy for us!Once back home my husband and I went into town to pick up a copy of the church times as my husband is appearing in it this week.Almost as soon as I came home Storm rang to see if I would like to take the dog out for a walk with her two dogs. I would usually keep mine in until she had dried off completely but today it was so hot that I thought it would be fine, she drove round and picked us up then drove out to a wooded area we often take them walking. We walked through the woods chatting then as we came back out again the heat hit us! I hadn't realised just how much cooler it was in the woods seeing as we still felt quite hot but back in the full sun again was almost unbearable.Once back home I had to prepare an early dinner for my husband as he has to go into work for his second night shift.Litlun and I went down to do Mouses fly spray and muck out the paddock, and even at half past six it was really too hot to be doing it!Apparently it was hotter in the UK today than in Spain! I don't doubt that for one minute.
This set of shifts (tour) is one of two tours before my proper annual leave, I have just had a weeks annual leave, which I had swapped with one of my work mates so that I could be at my husbands ordination and all that went with it! so it seems strange knowing I only have two tours before having my proper summer leave.The first day and first night were not too bad, we did little cover moves and most of the jobs were genuine and fairly straight forward. The second day and second night were completely different though and I am sure some of the many unnecessary cover moves that we did were down to the staff who work in the dispatch centre, but the jobs!! any one who knows me will know that after a certain job about 15 months ago, I hate jobs involving babies (paediatrics) and both the day and night we got one, the day job was almost a carbon copy of the bad job except we managed to get this child into hospital in a stable state. I have not and will not find out the outcome of this job, I choose not to know. the other was an over anxious mother but all the way to the job we were wondering what we would be met with!Still one tour down one to go.On Monday morning my travel tickets arrived for my coach trip to see my friend up north, (8th August straight after a night shift) I can't believe how cheap the coach fare is and I don't have to do any driving after my night shift!Ahh well five days off now.
This year I did a shift with a private ambulance service at the festival of speed, we had to be on site for 7am we were given radios and maps and a briefing of how the management wanted the ambulance service to deal with the patients it received. We were also given a meal bag and as much water as we needed.
It was really hot and sunny which made the day a really enjoyable shift, even if it did run over by an hour due to a car dumping oil on the track!
I was put with a girl I hadn't met before which didn't matter as she was really nice and we spent most of the day chatting, there were quite a few patients to see but only one or two had to be shipped off to hospital.
The Red Arrows did an air display as did a couple of helicopters. There were loads of bikes and cars as usual and plenty of celebrities, one of which was Dougie Lampkin who I saw two weeks ago at the Moto GP at Silverstone. He rode over to our ambulance and chatted to us for a while, he is as I said before my favorite biker of any discipline, I think what he can do with his bike is wicked!
My daughter Beth also had a job there and as she was going to it she ended up following Dougie up the track crossing, she got a short film clip and a couple of photos, one of which I have posted here.
All in all it was a good day, I just wish it had been the Saturday then I would have been able to spend a little more time with Litlun, who's birthday it was on Friday. Happy Birthday Litlun.
Today my mum and I took our dogs to the canine swimming pool. Mums dog has only been once before and really hated it, she couldn't wait to get out! Where as , on the other hand my dog loves it and can't wait to get in! Once there we showered off the dogs just to make sure they were not too grubby before they went in, then the lady who owns it put mums dog on a lead to ensure she did go in, she guided her round the pool for a couple of laps whilst my dog just kept going in after the tennis ball and bringing it back for me to throw in again. Suddenly mums dog saw the ball and made a bee line for it, that was the turning point, we found another ball and threw one for each of the dogs, ten minutes later mums dog was off the lead having as much fun as my dog.
