Saying goodbye to a friend

We came home from Glastonbury early as I wanted to attend the celebration of the life of Ann.
Ann, a loving wife, a devoted mother and grandmother.
Ann, my friend.
I will send the last words you said to me Ann, back to you.... You are in my Heart Ann. ❤❤❤

Attempted Drowning.

This morning I took Rafi to the dog swimming pool again. We arrived just in time for our session, having been stuck behind a slow moving vehicle all the way there.
This is Rafi's second session and he remembered it very well hardly waiting for me to take his harness off and give him a shower. Once he was in he swam brilliantly. jumping from the side and walking down the steps, all to fetch his turtle toy.
Then in comes a golden retriever puppy with only one thought on its mind..... Dum Dum Duuummmm!! Murder!
Whilst Rafi was swimming the retriever lept off the side of the pool straight on to Rafi, it then twice tried to climb onto his back  pushing poor Rafi right under the water. It was decided to get the retriever out to let Rafi have one more swim before we got out for the end of our session.
Please note:
 1)Rafi was unharmed and unphased by the events.
2) The retriever was not being nasty it merely wanted to play, but was twice the size of Rafi.
3) I was very traumatised by the whole situation, my poor Rafi!!

Yin and Yan .....or little pink flowers!

Today didn't start well, I got up at the usual time let Rafi out, and went and did the horse everything was fine all were behaving themselves but everywhere I looked, little pink flowers seemed to have popped up overnight. This is nothing to get worked up about, but, in April I lost my beautiful Skye dog, shortly after this we went away for ten days, when we got home the place in the garden where the skye dog liked to be the most was marked by a clump of little pink flowers! Add to this the fact that while we were away my husband bought me a bracelet which had a charm on it depicting the very same little pink flower. For them to suddenly appear everywhere reminds me how much I miss her and what an incredible companion she was.
This afternoon I took Rafi out for a rather long walk, longer than he usually has, I lost track of the distance we had walked. He doesn't seem to be any worse for it and I almost let him off his lead he was so good. A sudden panic that he might choose that moment to run off made me change my mind. His excellent behaviour had brightened my mood a little too.

You can follow Rafi on Instagram

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A shocking story part two

Alas, poor Mouse!
Well to bring you up to speed, its not only Mouses fur that is thick! Apparently its her hide too, even whilst wearing the rug she still managed to go through the electric so with this in mind and the fact that a whole yard belonging to some friends came available, We decided to move Mouse as well as another friend with her horses.
The fields have proper fences now and although I still have to put an electric strip round to stop her rubbing herself silly she can't escape every day.
My friends horses are in the adjoining paddocks so she has company all the time.
We also don't have a footpath right beside us which means we no longer get people telling us we are being cruel to her. Did I mention I had to get a new bigger girth for her as she is doing so badly (not) that she has put on weight this winter!

Here and Back

Well, The Northern Bird has flown, she is at this moment winging her way north again back to her family.
We have had some fun whilst she has been down, although not our usual out every day type visit we have still packed things in!
Crazy Golf, Coffee mornings, films, and lots of catching up!
Next time we will do our homework and make sure all the places we want to go to are actually open! Oops!!
Today is super foggy too, so I hope it doesn't cause her too much trouble on her 300ish mile journey home.

The Inn Keeper

I have just been talking to my brother on the phone, he suggested that we should be celebrating the Inn Keeper at Christmas as he showed the greatest humility by allowing Mary and Joseph to stay in the stable rather than not have anywhere to go.
He also thinks we should celebrate the Inn keeper by helping him...(You can see where this is going I am sure!) As I was saying, helping him by frequenting his business at Christmas. I think my brother is thinking of a few pints and a good meal. Hmm, I may have to google what drink and food would have been on offer 2016 years ago, I have a sneaky suspicion it wasn't anywhere near what my brother has in mind!

Marmite sanswiches

I thought I should post a few updates as there seem to be a few things going on at the moment.
Firstly Mouses Sweet Itch is getting better really quickly! Her mane is starting to grow back her rump looks better and the sores on her tail have healed. I am slavering her in baby bum cream every morning, spraying her with Avon SSS oil, and citronella spray twice a day, giving her Global Herbs Itch powder in her feed and one slice of Marmite sandwich a day! (Oh yes!).
Secondly one of my count downs is now at 8 days, This particular countdown is for the Northern Bird and the Northern Chick coming down to stay with us. Even if we live hundreds of miles away from each other as soon as we get together its as if we saw each other yesterday! That's what friendship is!
The other countdown is at 40 this one I still can't say much about except, next Wednesday all will be revealed.
I have just laughed out loud. Lets face it, who actually reads this?  And who of those who do, really care what is happening in 40 days, and then again, doesn't the one person who does read this already know whats going to happen in 40 days!

Scones.

When ever we go to National Trust properties they have scones for sale in their café's. They have plain ones with jam and cream, and cheese ones and sometimes watercress or caramelized onion in them. Both my husband and I love scones, he prefers the jam and cream ones but I prefer the savoury ones. Today I decided to try and make some, I know this is a simple thing to bake, but I'm not very good at cakes and things like that I prefer cooking meals.
Anyhow, I made two batches one for jam and the other with cheese in. And even though I do say so myself, they are really nice! All I have to do now is work out how to say it! Scon, or Scone??? Any ideas which is the correct way to say it?

The waiting game. . . .Again!

So now I know the answer is YES! I am playing the waiting game to find out when! I should be happy but I am so desperate to know the When, that my mood seems to be in an undulating space!

Nothing lasts for ever! or Life is a roller-coaster

I have just wandered through the pages of my blog and realised I have been writing this for over five and a half years, there have been a few large gaps but its still going. Its quite odd looking back through some of the posts, things that have happened and family who have passed away. Nothing lasts for ever!
I often wonder if anybody actually reads my blog, I don't care if they don't but it would be nice to think someone does occasionally!
So much has happened in this time, good and bad, funny and sad, ups and downs.
The above picture
is a small snippet.

16/06/62 - 04/07/04

This will mean something to someone. It means something to me!

10 Years

Almost ten years ago I joined the Ambulance service, since then I have had my fair share of laughs, and tears.. most of these events have been done with my regular crewmate. Today we spent our last shift as crewmates, if I get the bank position I hoped for I may get another shift with him, but if not that will be the last time we work together, I have to admit I cried when I left the station. When you go through some of the things that we have been through there is a bond of friendship which can't be broken. He has saved my skin on more than one occasion, either by dragging me out of harms way or intervening when something is about to "kick off".
Tomorrow I start my new job working in a maternity unit, I am anxious that I have perhapse not made the right decision but I think that at the moment I am still emotional from leaving Tepic and the others who I have been working with, lets face it ten years is a long time and it hasn't been all bad jobs!
Tepic, I raise my glass to you, I hope you get a crewmate who is fun and will have your back no matter what, thank you for being the best crewmate I could have possibly had. x

Books

Today I am just going to post some photos of the covers of books I have just read or have just got, the ones I have read are brilliant the others I am sure will be!

Slow down.

Today is the first of May!
When I turned the calendar over this morning my husband said "Its not May yet!" I just gave him the 'there, there, there' look, he grinned and checked the date. Then he looked up at me and with a strange look of mingled fear and excitement he said...."I'm being ordained next month!"
Is it because we try to fit so much in to our day, week, month now that time seems to have sped up or am I just getting old! Good grief!
Sometimes I think it would be nice to look at the calendar and say, I have a free day (actually I would like a free week but that is really asking something. Even when we go away on holiday we try and fill the days with sight seeing and keeping the kids amused. I could never understand why people took three or four books and just sat on the beach reading all day (and I am a book worm).
I think I get it now though, I don't think its all about catching the sun, not completely, I think its about recharging the batteries and slowing the pace down. The fact that I will never be able to sit on the beach all day for a week, because I want to explore the surroundings is beside the point, maybe when I am old and can't climb the nearest mountain just because its there or ride into the desert on a camel just because I haven't done it before, maybe then, just for a day or two, I might sit on the beach and read a book.

191

Today when I arrived at work I saw that we had got our new ambulance back (191), I say new loosely as 13 months ago it was new, but it was hit through no fault of the crew, on its way back to base, by an elderly man who lost control of his car.
The damage was estimated at £43,000 it has taken all this time for the vehicle to be repaired!! My Crew mate today was one of the crew members who were involved in the accident, he was actually collared and long boarded from it last time he saw it.
We are glad its back though as we have been getting loads of spare vehicles which no one has looked after so they are looking battered.
I was hoping to write about at least one of the jobs we went out to today, but unfortunately we didn't have any! This is unheard of, we sat on base and watched The Matrix, and Love Actually and several bad day time tv programmes and I was able to nearly finish reading my book.
What a random but strange day, I dare say I will pay for it tomorrow or on nights!
For now I will savour the thought that I had a very chilled day and got paid for it! don't think we often have instances like this, normally we book clear from a job to go straight out on another one.
( the head lights flash left then right as do the grill blues, we don't have a bulb out!)