Lockdown Walks

Since we’re in lockdown (again) here in the UK, it’s not been possible to venture too far from the old homestead. In fact, the farthest I managed was a six mile car trip to get my COVID-19 vaccine!

That said, we have had some lovely and interesting walks in our local area. Having lived in the village for almost 25 years, we prided ourselves on knowing it quite well, but with the release of a new book by a local author detailing twenty circular walks within easy reach of our village, we have discovered some new and fascinating routes. Each walk has a short version and a longer version and every one of them features a route by either a lake or river, which has pleased our water-loving Vivvy no end 🙂

We’ve encountered some interesting characters on our new walks and have learned a lot from them about the countryside as a whole and the local area in particular. I didn’t know there were quite so many different types of gates and stiles, or that our area held quite a number of intriguing stone circles each with a fascinating, and sometimes lurid history. Ghost stories abound, as do sightings of strange and mysterious creatures that appear to unsuspecting walkers, often as dusk falls. You can imagine how my writer-imagination fires on all cylinders while listening to these often tongue-in-cheek accounts by the locals. They have certainly given me food for thought for future stories. I’ll need to do some further research, which means revisiting the places from which these strange tales emanate. But I’ll be doing that in daylight, of course, and will make sure to be home well before the light fades!

Testing…testing…

It’s been a cold and wet autumn and winter here in the UK, and the dark evenings and chilly nights call for the comfiest duvets and throws, and not just for us humans. I’ve had my eye on one of those plush donut dog beds for Ms. Vivvy for ages, but since her current bed is not that old I couldn’t really justify a new one.

Well, that didn’t deter my mum from spoiling her beloved grand-dog, and so a special Christmas present duly arrived. The box it came in was so small we thought mum had made a mistake with the size, but then this monster popped out! Vivvy, who is a real creature of habit, and really does not like change, took one look and promptly ran for the safety of the kitchen.

To be honest, it looked so comfortable we felt like claiming it ourselves, and when I lay down on it in the hope of coaxing Her Ladyship to try it out, I could have easily enjoyed a very pleasant nap. We tried everything from gentle persuasion, hiding her favourite treats, and settling her beloved teddy in there. But nope, nothing seemed to work. Then, after several days when we were wondering if we could return it and get my mum’s money refunded, we came in from the kitchen and found this:

Then this…

And finally this…

Those photos were taken on consecutive days because, well, a girl has to make sure there’s nothing in there that will pop up and bite her, doesn’t she? And while our golden girl loves her luxurious new bed, she still favours the old one. Ah well, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Be More Dog…

So, I was sitting having coffee with AJ this morning and we were pontificating on everything that’s happening in the world and bemoaning the fact that ‘things ain’t what they used to be‘. Watching the news, everybody seems scared or angry or just plain tired of it all. The news is filled with doom and gloom.

Then, from across the room came a small contented moan and a happy little yip. We looked over to see this:

Flat out and happily exhausted. She’d been walked, had enjoyed a game of ‘chase the cat’ and a bark at next door’s dog in the garden She’d been fed, watered, was safe in a warm, dry home where she’s loved, adored and thoroughly spoiled.

In that moment, the message to us was ‘chill out’ and focus on the good stuff. As always, our girl manages to help us put things back into perspective.

And we can always switch off the news…

 

Blooming Lovely…

Having more time during lockdown has meant that I could finally get around to working on the garden and make some headway on the plans I’ve been mulling over for several years now.

Every year, inspired by Kit’s garden, I’ve always planned to get more colour in our garden. But the season passes and I’m still no further on with those plans, blaming lack of time. No excuses this year. As a result, the garden is starting to look more colourful.

I’ve done a lot of digging and replanting to make way for new plants, most of which I’ve been lucky enough to get locally from a man who sells small plants he’s propagated from those in his garden. I’ve also acquired lots of cuttings from neighbours after admiring their plants while walking Vivvy around our village and the local allotment. I’ve always found gardeners to be a generous bunch – always keen to discuss plants, share knowledge, and of course hand over those cuttings!

So, here’s a small selection of the plants I’m especially loving this year. My current favourites are the hydrangeas, anemones, and peonies. I also love cutting a selection of flowers and foliage to bring into the house. My offerings are still a bit meagre, but I’m getting there – and having a whole lot of fun doing so.

And of course when the digging, planting, and tidying is done for the day, a girl just wants to find a shady nook for a well-deserved afternoon nap:

Whatever you’re doing this summer, have fun!

***

Check out Faye’s author website at www.fayeavalon.com
and find her on Facebook

Did someone say biscuit?

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends across the pond. While we Brits don’t celebrate the way you do, we can all appreciate being thankful for our many blessings.

With that in mind, I thought it was about time for a ‘Ms. Vivvy’ post and a few photos. She’s five now (where does the time go?) and a constant source of joy in our lives. A real character; life with her is never dull  🙂 She loves food, sleep, her daddy, food, walkies, food, visits to grandma, the beach, and…food. As long as there is food on the horizon, she is a happy girl.

This is her waiting for a biscuit/treat face – when she’s at her  happiest!  There isn’t much she doesn’t like to eat, but her favorites are blueberries, slices of apple, and peanut butter. Top of the list though is cheese. She will do anything for cheese!

She also loves being at the beach, especially digging in the sand. And after a long walk on the beach, a quick swim, and playing with lots of other dogs, there’s nothing like a really good rest back in grandma’s back garden, always with a weather-eye open for something edible that might be on offer.

A daddy’s girl, she is quick to show her displeasure if he dares go out for the day and leave her behind. After giving me the evil eye, she grabs her favorite teddy, trots out into the garden, and lies with her back to me as if it’s my fault that her beloved daddy has disappeared for a few hours. It’s really like she’s giving me the cold shoulder! And it’s only the shake of the biscuit tin or the click of the cheese box that will bring her around, and she’ll trot back inside wagging her tail and all is well in her world again.

As I said, she’s a real character and keeps us on our toes. But we wouldn’t have it any other way. We certainly love our little princess, and she has us very firmly wrapped around her paws.

 

 

Smarty Pants

Smarty Pants … the new nickname AJ awarded Ms. Vivvy after she passed her Kennel Club Good Citizen’s Gold Award last week. She is incredibly pleased with herself, and I swear she knows that she’s done something of note, LOL.

It was quite a gruelling assessment (if not for the dogs, it was for the owners – phew!). We started at 10am and completed at around 11.45am. The tasks included: walking to heel along a busy road and not getting distracted by cars, people, noise and other dogs; A free run on the field where they had to come to an emergency stop when told (Vivvy was brilliant, and stopped immediately even when a swift decided to swoop down across her eye line at precisely the moment I shouted ‘stop’); and to retrieve a toy and bring it back to the owner. It also included being handled by someone unknown to the dog, leaving a bowl of food until given permission (which she’s been trained to do since puppyhood), and weaving in an out of bollards while staying close to heel.

There was also a two minute stay, thirty seconds of which required the owners to go out of sight of their dogs – something we’ve been working on for a while with little success, because usually as soon as I go out of sight she comes to find me, LOL. But bless her, she didn’t move an inch on the day.

So, our golden girl now has the hat-trick: Bronze, Silver and Gold. We’re very proud of her.

Where to now? Well, we’ve been thinking about applying for her to become a P.A.T dog (Pets as Therapy). When my late aunt was in a care home, we took Vivvy and she was absolutely amazing. Lots of the residents wanted to make a fuss of her and she absolutely loved it. She was very calm and it was lovely watching her bring a smile to people’s faces. There is also the opportunity to work with children who have problems reading. It’s been discovered that when children read to dogs their confidence and reading ability greatly improves. So there’s much to think about and many options open to explore.

Whatever she does next, we know she’ll be a little star. We couldn’t be more proud of our Golden Girl.

Taking a well earned rest!

Puppy Update

It’s been a while since I did an update on life here at Puppy Central and the comings and goings of our guide dog puppies. Last year we seemed to have wall-to-wall puppies for boarding, with only a few breaks between to grab some time away. Not that we’re complaining, as we adore every moment – well almost. So I thought you might like to know what’s been happening to our little charges:

Remember Woody? Well, he went into training and took to it like the proverbial duck to water. At first the trainers had problems with his recall. He was never one to come back when there was a better offer around, like another dog to play with. But they managed to train that out of him and he is now a qualified guide dog. His new owner adores him and they have made a lovely team. Well done, Woody!

Then there is our lovely Ushi. She was a sensitive little girl when she was small, but matured into a confident little lady. Like Woody, she qualified fast. Now she is working with a lady who recently lost her husband and older guide dog. She says that Ushi is her precious companion and it seems the two are inseparable. Ushi still has her lovely smile to greet people, and is much loved.

What can I say about our lovely Whispa? Other than AJ spoils her when I’m not looking? Well, she is very spoil-able, and such a sweetie. Whispa is due to go into advanced training in June. Like Woody, she also has problems with recall but I’ve every confidence they’ll be able to train that out of her. She was recently spayed and didn’t have too good a time of it. We couldn’t free run her until she was healed, of course, and she struggled to cope with the lack of exuberant exercise. She is a high energy girl and loves to run and play. Having got the all clear from the vet, she is now happily off on her adventures in the fields and woods again. We’re hoping for another visit (or several) before she goes off to training.

Then there’s our little princess, Vivvy. Our cheeky girl! Nine months old now and too adorable for words. She’s always up for a cuddle and a play, but can be a stubborn little madam. I love her with a passion.  She’s just come through her first season, so is due to be assessed for advanced training in a couple of weeks. The only problem will be her sensitivity to noise. She gets worried about unusual or unexpected noises and backs away. The problem is that she doesn’t react to any noises in particular, so it will be difficult to pin down. She also shies away from going into the pet store, and makes a dreadful fuss about it. We’ve got our fingers crossed that she might grow out of it.

Sandy, Beauty, and Emily are all in training and appear to be doing well. So no doubt we’ll have good news about them soon.

We’re so proud of all our little charges. They do such an amazing job.

New Year – New to the Community

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Hi Everyone,  I’m Marie Tuhart and I’m very happy to be here at Over The Back Fence blog. I’ll tell you a little bit about me, I’m a native Californian born and raised there until 2012, when I retired from … Continue reading →

Warming up with Walkies

Since last April, it seems as if we’ve hardly gone a few days without being rained on here in the UK. Many places have seen flooding during the unprecedented rainfall, with homes and businesses being flooded over and over again. I can only imagine how depressing that must be for those people caught up in this miserable cycle, replacing carpets and furniture only to have them destroyed again as another deluge descends. Thankfully, the rain seems to have abated, and while we’ve had the coldest March since 1963, at least it has dried up a little and at times the sun has even peeked through.

We woke up to pretty chilly temperatures again this morning and they’re set to continue throughout the Easter weekend. Our favourite way to warm up is a visit to our local animal rescue centre where we are volunteer dog walkers. On the journey to the centre, we stop off at a farm shop for coffee/hot chocolate, sometimes accompanied by a tasty cake or bun. This morning we resisted the cakes as we’re both trying to shed a few pounds 🙂

When we reached the centre, we were greeted by Daisy, the German Shephard, and CeeJay, a Westie, two delightful sisters who are always eager to get out in the country lanes for their walk. They came to the centre when their elderly owner died and are absolutely devoted to each other. On the walk, if one of them stops to sniff or do the necessary, the other one waits patiently until they can both walk on together again. They are absolutely delightful, even if they refuse to look the same direction when having their photo taken 🙂 We were so pleased to know that they will soon be going home with their new owners who are thrilled to adopt them both. Such good news for these lovely girls.

We also took Tor, a two year old Springer Spaniel and a real force of nature. Tor is very bright and gets bored very easily, so out on walks she’s all over the place searching for the next interesting thing.
Then there’s Enzo, who AJ has nicknamed Ferrari, because when he sits waiting for his walk, he’s like an engine revving for take off. He’s a beautiful two year old boy who is incredibly affectionate and really loves to be cuddled and stroked. A real delight.

What I love about these rescue dogs is that, regardless of the reasons they’ve come to the centre, often too harrowing to contemplate, they live in the moment. Even more amazing is how even after being ill treated they have this ability to let go of the past and put their trust in another human, often showering their love and affection even after a moment of meeting people. To continually put themselves on the line by giving their trust away so readily after it’s been broken, perhaps time and time again, is quite a thing and perhaps one of the reasons why dogs so easily capture my heart.

Oh, in case you’re wondering, our guide dog puppy, Vinnie, has now entered full time training as it was decided that he’s basically too bright for his own good 🙂 We weren’t too surprised, believe me that boy is Oxford University equivalent material, but we were sad to say goodbye. We’ll be doing some boarding for guide dogs throughout the summer, so hopefully it won’t be too long to wait for our next charge.

Hope everyone has a lovely Easter weekend, and that the sun shines on you wherever you are.

The magic of a movie

We heard this week that Vinnie, our current guide dog puppy, has to leave us for four weeks because of ongoing behavioural problems. You can imagine how disappointed we are, but we really want to give him the best chance of fulfilling his future as an assistance dog, so we know it’s for the best. It doesn’t stop me from feeling a bit down in the dumps though, and while we’ll enjoy the break (he’s not been the easiest pup in the world) we’ll really miss the little chap.

Today we’ll drive him over to his temporary home for the next month. On the way back, we’re planning to stop off for lunch and hit the shops for a little retail therapy. I think my hubby wants to keep me occupied as I get really attached to these pups and find it hard to let them go, even if only temporarily. But while lunch and some shopping is lovely, when I’m feeling a bit low the best remedy is losing myself in some feel-good movies. The movies of choice at these times are the ones where it’s possible to put reality aside for a couple of hours and enter into a world of movie magic.

Have you seen the movie, Love Actually? If so, you’ll recall the scene between Liam Neeson and the young actor who plays his stepson. The boy is feeling miserable and Liam suggests that they need Kate and they need Leo, meaning that scene in Titanic where the characters are on the bow of the ship and enjoying the freedom of the elements. Well tonight I’ll need Howard and I’ll need Jane and the fabulous movie that is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I think I was about eleven when I first saw it and fell desperately in love with the colour, the dancing, the singing, the costumes and … the brother in the red shirt  It has never once failed to lift my heart. Having fallen in love with films from an early age, I always wanted to be a movie director. My cousins still talk about the time I made them recreate scenes from Seven Brides in my parents’ living room, and insisted they use the correct dialogue and actions. I don’t think they’ve ever forgiven me.

Aside from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, other go-to feel good films are Field of Dreams, The Phantom of the Opera, Out of Africa, You’ve Got Mail, Dead Poets’ Society and all the Indiana Jones series. Of course, there are other movies in my favourites list, such as The Last Samurai, Shawshank Redemption and Saving Private Ryan but these are grittier, hard-hitting films that, while amazing, don’t qualify for my escapist requirements in times of need.

How about you? What are your favourite escapist movies?