Rafi on Tor 30th July to 1st August

30th July
Really this is three days worth of blogging in one post as the internet signal was way off, very intermittent.
We left early on Tuesday morning for Somerset and arrived just before lunch. Even though the journey its self is only about two and a half hours we had a long coffee stop to allow Rafi half an hour out of his crate, as he decided he didnt want to go to the loo before we left.
After setting up the caravan and having a cup of tea we went and got some shopping then andy went to Hamwall nature reserve while Rafi and I set off on a 'one and a half hour walk', we took a photo of the 'map' that was at the site suggesting walks in the area and left. Clearly some of the paths were extremely over grown and the map was definitely not to scale! It was very hot but looked as if it was going to rain again so I had my waterproof so added to the temperature I had the extra bonus of a jacket! I mentioned at the top of this post that internet was a tad sketchy well so was any signal. Periodically I would get a signal and be able to get a map up on my phone which allowed us to eventually get back to our campsite.
When we arrived back, three hours later, my husbad had just pulled in, in the car.
The rest of the evening was spent relaxing and reading ...and watching the sheep steal apples and leaves from the trees in the orchard.
31st July
Woke up early, due to me forgetting to turn off my alarm! Doh! I got dressed and took Rafi for a quick pee walk while my husband did tea and breakfast.
When we were ready we got in the car and went for a drive, amoungst other places we went were Cheddar Gorge and another nature reserve which I forget the name of, Rafi found a hollow tree to explore and was "buzzed" by several drone like Dragonflies of various colours and sizes.
Back a the campsite we had a cup of tea and gave Rafi his dinner before heading out to Glastonbury Tor, we parked in the town and walked up the Tor to the Oratory at the top, the views were incredible, probably made even better by the strange smells we kept getting whiffs of coming from small groups of people sat along the pathway!! Once we had walked back down again we got fish and chips and sat eating them with  the Tor as our view. Once we had eaten we wwnt back to the caravan and sat reading and drinking.....Somerset Cider of course.
Great way to spend a Birthday.
1st August
Lazy morning, I remembered to cancel the alarm, then when we were up and had breakfast I decided to go for another walk, this time taking a photo of a real map! Rafi and I set off while my husband went back to Hamwall again to see if he could see one particular bird.
Our walk was both more and less successful than the first days walk as in, I had a great map and knew where I was going but the footpaths on some were obviously rarely used and seriously overgrown with Stinging nettles and brambles meaning both Rafi and I struggled to get through. Once back we had a cup of tea and sat out reading in the sun. When my husband got back he had bought some scones and cream, we already had some jam, we had a cream tea for lunch then packed up the caravan and set off for home.

I'm forever blowing bubbles!

Its raining! Off and on throughout the day we have had liquid weather.
I am extremely pleased to find that Skye was not my only dog who enjoyed walking in the rain, Rafi loves it! As we were going to take Mia to the Aldingbourne country center and he would be on his own for a short while until my husband got back I gave Rafi a long walk, in the rain and he loved it! I am dying to let him off the lead but until his recall is spot on I am not taking and chances.
When we got back from the Aldingbourne center we put Mis's new bubble machine in the center of the garden and let him chase bubbles.

Borde Hill's Sculptures

Its been years since I went to Borde Hill, and as they are dog friendly I thought it might be nice to go today with Mia and take Rafi with us. Its about an hours drive away and I couldn't remember what catering facilities they had so we took a pack up for lunch.
We wandered round the gardens looking at the flowerbeds and sculptures some of which moved in the wind, one of them frightened Mia, although I don't know why as it was literally 5 feet long metal rods which swayed slightly when the wind caught it! She loved the water tipping one though, so did Rafi we stood and watched it for quite a while.
We found somewhere to sit for lunch then had a walk through the woods. Rookie mistake I thought how easy it was to push the pushchair through, not realising it was down hill slightly, that is until I had to push it back again! Doh! It was nice though.
Our return journey took an hour and a half thanks to massive traffic build up at Arundel. Mia slept for most of the drive though and I suspect Rafi did too.

Rare Breeds

Its been over 3 years since I was at the Weald and Downland Museum, except for one day when I went to say goodbye to the lovely Bayleaf Neville.
It felt quite strange walking in, it felt even stranger having to pay! I was a volunteer there for over 10 years, helping with the three shire horses and the other animals and being first aid cover for the many events they held.
This time I was a member of the public, taking my two granddaughters for a day our to their rare breeds show.
The first stop had to be the stables to say hello to Mac, the only remaining shire on the site, they now have two Percherons called Ollie and Kash to help Mac with the work load.
It was a lovely surprise to bump into another of the volunteers who I used to work with, she was also at the show socially and wandered with us for a while.
Rafi was very well behaved considering there were so many people, new animal smells and stalls selling food. He was interested in other dogs but didnt get over zealous with them and was quite steady with the livestock both the four and the two legged varieties.
Once back home however he just flopped into his bed and slept.

Meet and Greet

Its not often I get to the stables and am met at the farm gate by my horse. Clearly she had been practicing her Houdini act again.
After putting her back where she should be I drove into town bought a new battery and some more extra tall fence posts then went back to the farm to sort out my perimeter fence. Hopefully she should stay where she is supposed to be now.
Little Minx. I have staggered the taller posts untill I can get enough to

Go Team Ginger

Tonight Rafi and I went to misper for one of our team members who has a Vizla, we call them team Ginger due to the colour of the dog.
Mispering, means hiding in the woods waiting for the dog to find us, (missing Person)
Team Ginger needed to do a night mock assessment in order to go to the Nationals and qualify as a Path and Route Search dog and be able to go out on live call outs, they have already passed their day mock so we all had our fingers crossed.
It takes a good two years plus to reach this point so the whole team were routing for them. I was one of three Mispers who had been put out ready for them to find. I can tell you that at night in the dark and quiet the sound of harness bells (Hawk Bells by any other name) and the appearance of collar lights and harness lights can be seen and heard from quite a way off so I was worried that she had gone passed and missed me until I realised the sound was coming from the other side of the bend in the track.
Suffice to say team ginger made the grade its off to the Nationals for them.
It was lovely laying on a mat in the dark, the sound of Night jars chirring and owls hooting was lovely, the sound of buzzing followed by a sharp pain by my right ear wasnt so nice though! Bloody Mozzies!
We finished training at 11.35 pm and I got home at 12.07am yawn.

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.

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PAWS IN THE PARK ARDINGLY

http://www.pawsinthepark.net/

Blackout Friday!

A post with this title should really only have a one word body... DON'T!

This is the night that Ambulance services across the country (World maybe, who knows) get totally crippled by people who :-

Can't hold their drink,

Think of nothing but themselves,

Spend a week or more's wages on alcohol in one night,

Embarrass themselves in front of their co workers, friends and possibly family

Kill someone or cause them suffering. Yes I did mean to write that. When someone gets so drunk that they become unconscious or their "Friends" (Inverted commas as real friends wouldn't let them get that bad!) are worried because someone has had their drink spiked!!! or isn't responding properly due to the amount of alcohol consumed, an ambulance gets called, an ambulance which will then be tied up for an hour or so dealing with some stupid person who has caused their own situation by stupidity, when it could be attending to someone who has life threatening condition and needs an ambulance through no fault of their own!

This is the night which sees Ambulance service and Police personnel assaulted  in the line of duty due to intoxicated people.

Is it OK to go out of control when so much is at stake?

One last thing... DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE, STAY ALIVE, And let everyone have a Happy Christmas!

Image from The Telegraph.

Five go down to the beach

Today was supposed to be overcast and cloudy! The Northern Bird and I decided that the forecast was going to be wrong again, just like it was yesterday.
We were right! It even started off lovely. We made up a picnic lunch grabbed swimming things, towels and buckets and spades then set off to our closest beach.
Having been here quite a few times I know that there is a streach of beach which never seems to get crowded. We decided to walk the short distance to get to this part of the beach. Once there we sorted everything out and the girls immediately ran off to play in the sea, which is pretty much where they remained for the whole day only coming out for their lunch then returning to it straight afterwards.
Northern Bird and I sat on the sand in the sun and had a good natter.

The secret seven!

I know, I know, bare with me here!
Today the not so famous five became the not so secret seven (Gotta love Enid Blyton) with the addition of  Seal and Logan! we met up and had a wander to a play area where the kids all immediately ran off and played together as if they had all known each other for years, when in fact, Logan and Northern Chic were meeting for the first time!
When they had had enough we walked the short distance to the Lifeboat station. We looked round  for a while then sat on the beach so that the three kids could paddle.
Suddenly there were lifeboat crew running in all directions,(we later found out that there was an empty kayak found and the crews of both the Tyne class and the RIB were mobilised to help search for a possible man over board!)
We all go to watch both vessels launch and head off to search. Talk about putting on a show, the kids had front row seats!
Later in the afternoon we went for a wander along the shoreline and managed to pick a rather large bag of black berries, Black berry and apple pie for dessert tomorrow me thinks!

Five on a secret trail!

Well, why not stick with the Famous five theme!
Today the five of us went for a walk in a country park.This country park has separate paths for walkers, mountain bikers and horse riders. We packed a picnic lunch some squash and set off.
It was supposed to be a five mile walk, but somewhere along the route we missed a turning and managed to cut the walk probably in half by walking down the cycle path! It was still a nice walk and with a list of things to look out for put together by my husband we wandered the girls pointing things out and crossing things off the list. Once we had arrived back at the car we broke out the picnic and relaxed, well Northern bird and I did together with the dog! Blossom and Northern chic ran off as soon as they had eaten, to go and play on the rustic climbing things.
All in all a good day even if it wasn't quite a "Secret" trail.

Stick!

Today Blossom, Seal, Logan and I took the dog for a long walk in a nearby woods, its the only way to walk the dog in this heat really, under the shade of trees! We walked for about a mile then decided to have our lunch, we had already decided to have a picnic.
After eating Blossom and Logan decided to build a bridge then a den. Just as the den was finished the rain came down. Lovely big splatty drops of rain lovely!
Really good day chatting and putting the world to rights whilst the kids played.
As for the stick..... The dog had one in her mouth 90% of the time and both the bridge and the den were made of sticks!

Croquet

Today after work I drove over to a friends house, she was having a get together there were about twelve of us, She had cooked some delicious nibbles, and served a selection of soft and alcoholic drinks. (Why aren't alcoholic drinks called hard drinks???) The thing with this get together was we were going to play croquet.
It was hilarious and everyone spent the evening laughing and chatting, even though several of us didn't know each other.
Getting back to the Croquet, I won the first game!! Not bad since I have never played before! Then I came third. I has a great evening, Thank you Mrs N!

Day off

Today my husband and I had a day off together, we have been looking forward to this day for weeks. Since changing my job, tha amount of time we have off together is so little.
We got up early, made a picnic, went and sorted Mouse out then set off for a National Trust property which is about an hours drive from home.
The thermometer in the car said it was 25 degrees, we wandered around the gardens then found a quiet spot to have lunch, talk about a private air display, we sat where no one else was walking and were given a fly past by Buzzards, fly catchers catching flies to feed to their young, black birds and an Apache helo!
When we had eaten we walked through a meadow which was heaving with butterfly's, literally hundreds of them. At the other end of the meadow we found a river which we walked along until we found ourselves back where we started.
After a cup of tea we set off for home stopping on the way at a lovely little pub for a drink, (I only had a lime and soda!) Then on to feed and water Mouse for the evening.
To top off the day we got take away fish and chips and a lovely bottle of red (Which I am enjoying as I write this!!)

Don't stop me now. We're having such a good time.....

What a fantastic
day.
Blossom and I went over to pick up my friend Seal and her son Logan then the four of us went to the beach.
We had a huge picnic, and loads of sun cream.
When we had found a suitable place we sorted ourselves out while the kids ran off to paddle and dig holes in the sand... at this point I have to add that whilst they were digging a random Jack Russell terrier came along, saw what they were doing and joined in! digging in the same hole as them. We confirmed the friendliness of the dog rather quickly then watches as Logan pointed at a spot on the sand and the dog dutifully dug! This caused a great deal of laughter from ourselves and the owners of the dog.
When both kids had managed to get soaking wet and covered in sand they decided they were hungry, so we broke out the food and drink. Seal had provided most of the food and did she do us proud. Once fed the kids got sun blocked up again and went off to get more wet and more sandy. Then it was off to my mums for a sand free cuppa and piece of lemon cake before heading down to do the horses and take Seal and Logan home.
That in its self would have been a fab day but one home and showered Blossom and I were off out again, this time to a barn dance with a group of other friends, and again with a picnic, this time a picnic supper. I am so glad we took 5 or 6 bottles of lemonade and 4 cartons of orange, as it was a warm evening and we all got quite hot dancing. Thanks to Blossom I had to dance all but one dance, she on the other hand danced them all!!! I hope this helped with my weight loss! (or at least help to prevent all the picnic food having too bad an effect on my diet!)
We got home at half past ten and when I looked in on Blossom ten minutes after she went to bed she was fast asleep!

Arty Farty

Today we found some random street art, all very strange and surreal but interesting to look at!
After getting a few photos we went for a drive to a bike cafe and had a few cups of tea. Several of my friends were down there so I introduced them to the Northern bird. Sadly we didn't get to sample their legendary bread pudding! Maybe next time!
Back at home we had tortellini with home made sauce and home made herb bread.

401

This, according to the dashboard is my 401st post on this blog. Hence the title.

I had intended to call it something else but I can't remember what, my memory is totally shot at the moment!
I could do with a holiday ha ha shame my bank statement doesn't agree!
Well, what can I say, My Husband is at work, Beth has gone away to stay with friends for a few days and Litlun is out...as usual. So I am again home alone.
Yesterday I was taken by some friends to Walsingham, it was a good day the weather held out until it was time to leave and the "boycotters" were let down as the procession was diverted so they couldn't shout abuse at us, which is what they apparently have done each year.
There were thousands of people there, but even so there were less than in previous years due to the mass exodus to Rome earlier in the year by many priests and their whole parishes.
I should write more on this but have lost the ability to think right now.