Dog walker

Had   a busy week this week mostly mending garden fences, for the third time Chips has pulled the willow trellis apart for the third time. , well I suppose it keeps me busy.

I went to a dog show on Sunday in Essex, got up 4.30 am travelled 120 miles, didn’t do much good, but then when you’re too lazy to train the dog any more, how can you, I enjoyed the day, meeting up with old friends and having a chat, left around 4 pm got hom 6.30, boy was I tired. Tango had on his nosy head in the ring, and didn’t perform well.  That’s the last show I’ll be enteri ng, well this year anyway, I’ve got a couple of judging appointments in October, so I’ll at least have control over what happens in the ring.

Went for a nice walk on the beach to-day, now that the grockles, that’s holiday makers, have gone we are actually allowed on the beach with our dogs, it was fun and they loved it, the weather was quite nice., it made a difference to the usual sports field.

it looks as though summer, such as it was, is over, the swallows and martins are gone, and the blackbirds have returned, saw a nice skein of geese over the marshes last week, and the blackberries are turning into little nobs. There are lots of sloe berries on the blackthorn bush, I toyed with the idea of gathering them and having a go at making sloe gin, but nah, I don’t drink anyway, so why all the hassle, read how to make it though, you either have to wait till they get frost on the berries, or put them in the freezer, split a bottle of gin into two bottles and fill them with berries and sugar and water, they must be shook and turned each day, but apparently it’s a nice liquer.

I thought I saw what was a rare yellow butterfly , but it wasn’t, t was a common or garden clouded yellow, not a Bergers. bang goes my mention in some paper or other.

I’ve only just noticed that there aren’t many earwigs around, in fact I haven’t seen any for a long time, plenty of slugs though, my resident hedgehog isn’t making much inroad into eliminating them.

Decided to go to a hotel with daughter no 2 at \christmas, then pop into daughter no one on the way home, Boxing day daughter no 2 is having us all for a buffet on boxing day.

I should have gone to dancing club this evening but too tired, will have an early night.

tags, dogs,walks, beach, summer, swallows, butterflies, yachts on solent,piper and dancer, christmas.

Dogs and other things

Chippie & Tango

Hi there My name is Arlene and I have two collie dogs, and being a good person I wlk them twice daily, some walks are b o r i n g , and some are eventful, but most are quite normal.

The dogs are Tango who is almost ten and Chippie who is almost two, he was rescued from Wales as a puppy, and boy was he one handful, I don’t think I’ve got one intact ornament or one piece of whole fencing in the garden. I occasionally walk them on the cliff top near my home in the south coast of England, whilst walking there the other day I met a nice couple and got chatting, he put me on to this site to start a blog,  I was taking a photo of a nice yacht gong past the needles, at the same time he was, bet mine’s best <smile> his wife runs a garden business www.gardendesigner.co.uk lots of interest there too.

Daughter no 2 phoned to-day to discuss Christmas, WHAT? I’m still waiting for summer, however, instead of trying to feed the five thousand this year with daughter no. 1 and her daughters, plus various boyfriends [the daughters] they pondered going to an hotel instead and having a slap up meal and no washing up or preparation, so it puts me in a quandary, go to daughter no 1 for trad meal or no 2 ???? I’ll toss a coin on it.

I thought I’d made the garden totally dog proof, but no, that Chippie squeezed through a space widening it as he went, ran round the back, jumped up on to the veranda via the fuchsia in a pot, breaking the stems, then leaping down to get in the front garden, for what?? Lord only knows, but he had to have a stiff telling off, again. Tango looks uncomfortable as he is the personification of all things good, When Chips is naughty Tango scurries indoors peeking round the door and looking a me to let me know.

I enjoy gardening, when the weather is good, and it has been lovely, so I managed  to catch up on things, the Rudbeckia is flowering well as are the geraniums, Batchelors Buttons are going over a bit losing their freshness. I’ve planted some grasses for the first time in gravel, so we’ll see how gthey fare, no doubt Chips will use them as a piddling post at some time. 

I also do some painting check out me website www.colliepaintings.com  I’ve jsut finished a German Shepherd dog called Brodie, he lives way up in the Orkneys I’ve [hopefully] posted up a pic of him, I’m waiting for the final bid on an auction to do anothr dog, Heaven only knows what I’ll get, I do a lot for charity auctions, nice to think that something you can do gives pleasure to one person and helps out another in some way, and I’d like to think when I’m gone from this world, something I’ve done will live on in a nice way. right I think I’ve blethered on enough for to-day.Brodie