A lesson he didnt know he was having!

Today Rafi and I were invited to the Dog barn to walk in their large fenced in walks, by my friend Nic.
When we arrived Nic was already there and as we were slightly early we waited in our cars until the person before us had finished their time slot. We drove in and parked on the tarmac then just shut the gate and opened the crates, both dogs jumped out and began sniffing all the interesting smells that were in the pen.
Nic and I had some work to do so we sat on the bench and did ten minutes of catch up on TRiM cases we were covering. All the time Rafi and Corky were sniffing and playing with a tennis ball, when we were ready we walked round the pens letting  the dogs play or just sniff. Every now and then I called Rafi back to me for a treat making him sit. ( RECALL) the rest of the time he was playing with tennis balls and sniffing all the new smells in close proximity to Corky. (SOCIALISING) When our session had ended we put the dogs in the back of our cars and went our separate ways, Corky gave one little grumble to put Raffi in his place, and there was one lip lift which was acknowledged by Rafi and he stopped bouncing at Corky.
Really good play date for him and  great for me to be able to see just how good he is off lead and recall.
Good teacher good student.

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.

Deflated

Today the boy managed to pop his favorite toy, at first he seemed a bit put out as he likes to actually roll over it and now he can't, but then he discovered he could actually carry it around with him. That was a whole new 'ball game!'

Unless he completely trashes it, he can keep tha burst one, I shall however have to get him another one as watching him play with it makes everyone smile.

PAWS IN THE PARK ARDINGLY

http://www.pawsinthepark.net/

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!

Partay!

Jukebox party tonight was great, one of my husbands co-workers has a jukebox in their front room, its fair to say and I know she wouldn't mind me saying,   this lady is obsessed with records.
Periodically she has jukebox parties and they are always fun, she is a good host and there is a diverse group of family, friends, neighbours and co-workers. My husband and I walked to her house which is only five minutes from ours we chatted to friends and people we had never met before whilst everyone (except the designated drivers) got slowly merrier. Its fair to say everyone had a good time.

Escape..

A little bright window, other than the weather that is, today I went and rode mouse in a bridle, traditional style for the first time. . . she was brilliant, and I loved it. An hour of escapism, before re entering the real world again.

Mouse trip!

Yesterday Mouse went away for two weeks.

A friend had broken her in for riding using the Pirelli/natural horsemanship methods, sadly I can not get the hang of it and the combination of green horse and novice "natural" rider doesn't work very well. Add to that the cost of ongoing lessons, just for daily hacking and its a recipe for financial as well as body disaster! To mention nothing of a very confused horse! So I decided to have her re broken in the way that I have been riding for 40ish years. One of the girls from the yard offered to take me in her horse box so we met at the yard and bundled all Mouses tack and a sweat rug into the box then added her! Then with the owner of the box Cilla, and another friend from the yard, Sarah we set off. On arrival at our destination we got out and one of the stable girls showed us where Mouse was to be stabled, Well!! Mouse and I both stopped dead in our tracks, the stable had to be bigger than my kitchen diner it was huge!, I was just about to tell the stable girl that when ever Mouse goes into her stable she will roll, when she did exactly that! Everybody thought she was beautiful, and such an unusual colour, I suppose I am biased as she is mine and as for the colour I guess I am used to it now. Having had a cup or tea, and met the yard people and funny furries (lamb who thinks its a human and a grumpy donkey as well as the horses) we set off back to our yard to tidy up and do Cilla and Sarah's ponies. What shall I do with myself, no stable work for two weeks!

FIRE trucks.

Today I got up early drove 32 miles to collect my friend and my Godson then drove then back here where we went to church, then for a walk in the surrounding countryside, before going to the fire station where my husband works, to let my Godson see the fire trucks. My Husband got the truck out, and let him squirt water, look through the thermal imaging camera and sit in the front of the fire engine. He had a huge grim on his face and was really interested in all things fire. Before he left my husband found him a few bits and bobs to take away with him, I hope both he and my friend, his mum, had a good time as I certainly did.

My good boy

Today I was at the museum, I had decided to work the Old Fella as tomorrow there is a timber extraction course and the Big Boy is doing that, also I am not happy about driving the Youngster yet as he is more than a little spooky still, and the horseman has not given the OK for anyone to work him yet. When I got to the field I was so glad to see the choice I had made was a good one! The Big Boy was covered in mud, but my lovely Old Fella was as clean as he could be. What a good boy. On top of this was the fact that the sun shone all day. I couldn't think of anywhere I would have rather been today.

Aikido

After about six months away, I went back to Aikido last night. It was excellent! there were a few new faces and one of the old regulars has had to give up on health grounds which was sad..( I will get to see him next week though as we are having our Christmas party! . . . yes that's right you read it right, our Christmas party! Last year they even put Christmas crackers and things on the table for us it was great.) Well last night was the first of many more I hope, I really enjoyed it and think I will go even if my back gives out again.

Mixed up day

Today is the first day that the Northern Bird is here.
Unfortunately the first thing we had to do today was not a nice thing!
My lovely Hedgehog is still very ill and now hasn't eaten for four days, even with the vets intervention on Monday. So sadly we have to take her to the vets to have her put down, although it is very sad and I don't want this to happen, I know she won't pull through and that a slow death is not what I want for her.
After this we went to mums then took the dogs for a walk on the beach which was nice, bright sunny and windy but nice.
we came home had dinner then thanks to Beth, we got free tickets to go and see Gnomeo and Juliet
in 3D we took Litlun with us, and thanks to Beths discount we had some nachos and popcorn too.
A nice end to a mixed day.
Still London tomorrow.
RIP Twiglet x

How the tip cart should be driven.

30 minutes

Thirty minutes is how long I have left until my jacket potato is ready, and I am starving!
I have a solitary minnow in my fish tank! He is a white cloud mountain minnow, he used to have a little shoal of five friends but over the years they have all passed away leaving this solitary little chappie, unfortunately over the last few years its not only been the fish that have passed on, the plant has gradually died too.
Yesterday when I went down to do Mouse I had a look in the river to see if there was any plants I might be able to bring home and use in the tank, I managed to collect some kabomba, (with out falling in too!! you should see how steep the banks are. Once back home I washed it thoroughly and treated it with something to kill any snails that might be on it I really hate snails in the tank, this evening I have put it in now all I have to do is hope that I washed it properly so that there is nothing harmful on it that may damage the fish and also none of those dreadful snails!
Good luck Minnow, enjoy your new plants.
(Oh good grief, that only took five minutes to write! still 25 to go)

Work rest and play

Ahh four day shifts over! This week, had I had enough leave left, I would have been on annual leave, I didn't which meant I had some shifts to do anywhere, usually we get to cover shifts on our own station but this time I was given shifts on three different stations with three different crew mates none of whom I had met before and all of whom I enjoyed working with, especially the last one with whom I spent two shifts, he was very easy going and we had a lot of laughs even though we were so busy. Then Today I went to the museum to work with the big boys. The horseman is getting the newest and youngest of the boys up to speed so he took the little fella and the filmstar (there's another story!) to do some chain harrowing, whilst Nic and I hitched the old fella into the tip cart to do the bin emptying round and then muck out the field. I am hoping to have some big news soon regarding the big boys but at the moment I am not allowed to say..... I'm such a tease!! Back to the filmstar, that is not a true title but here's the story. Some very nice people came to the museum from Microsoft, they wanted to stand, with a video camera, in the back of one of the waggons and film the horses movements, they filmed from lots of angles to then copy for a computer game.. which means he is famous, or will be.

The big boys

Twice a week, shifts allowing, I help out at an open air museum. To be exact I work with their three shire horses. Today was the first time this year that I have been up, last time the place was white in a thick carpet of snow, today however it was green again and the boys looked quite content to eat either the hay put out for them or the grass. We decided to work the eldest member of the team today, at 21 years old and a tonne in weight he is a beautiful old boy, he happens to be my favorite one also! We gave him a good groom, as anyone seeing him would think we were trying to get a cart over a pile of mud! then harnessed him into a small cart for doing the museums small jobs, we use it for going round and emptying the bins, and mucking out the horses field (well they make the mess its only fair they help clear it up! Old boy was eager to work and having had some time off during the Christmas period he raced on, it was quite a job to just keep him at a walking pace as I have to drive him from the ground on this particular cart! Once all the work was done and he was happily out with his field mates I left to start again with Mouse, Having mucked out her stable, hayed and watered I brought her in for the night, apparently its going to be cold again tonight!

Sports and Welfare

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.

Bath time

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.

Rare Breeds Show.

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.

Hot Hot Hot

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.