Home Alone

Our cruel and heartless parents abandoned us at the weekend, leaving us to the tender care of the Angel B and Jim. Where's that RSPCA number?

They were off to France for an over-nighter, to give Dad his birthday meal (they went a bit mad and had it in a very nice restaurant in St Omer, called le Cygne

http://www.restaurantlecygne.fr/

... not cheap, but very very good - more of that later, when I've finished discerning the 7 courses from the smells on Mum and Dad when they came back)

From there they were off to La Chapelle d'Armentieres, the town near Lille which gave Dad's project 2CV to Birchington in North Kent as part of the twinning celebrations 20 years ago. The town wants Dad and his cronies to bring the 2CV back for a carnival to celebrate the 20th anniversary, so they were over to meet the main contact lady and sort out the details.

So... we were left all alone from midday Saturday round to about 3pm on Sunday, but we coped, and we are now extracting maximum sympathy (raw pork ribs and multiple fussings) due to guilt on their part.

All's back to normal here-abouts though - they're back at work, so we're into the 4.30 dog-club routine out on the Rec. Everybody's out there. We meet Misha, and Finzi, Ben and a new choc lab belonging to an Ozzie lady. The dog's called "Ciccio" (Italian for "chubby-cheeks" allegedly) and we meet again that 4 year old Shar-Pei called Monty we've mentioned before.

More soon

Deefski

Deck Beams

Never let it be said that I don't post a goodly variety of pics on this blog. Tonight you have a couple of land-mark stages on the barge - the fittibng of the first cross-ways deck-support beam. A big curved baulk of oak, 23 feet long. The guys have finished the framing now, so we are starting on the covering in phase.

The pic below shows the beam looking towards the bow of the barge, and the other pic, above, is taken from far-right on that pic, looking from outside the barge. from Starboard quarter towards port quarter.

The flowers are a magnificent arrangement supplied by local shop Botanica (in whom we have no vested interest, but who have so impressed Dad that he's happy to provide the link

http://www.botanicaonline.net/

They were actually ordered by Mum for the Pud-Lady, but Mum has nipped off to Portmarnock to see Steak-Lady, and Dad collected them from the very nice ladies in the shop this afternoon. Pud Lady will be only delighted we know.

It's a lovely warm Spring weekend, and we've been out on the Rec where the world and his wife were out walking their dogs - we met so many regulars (Finzi, Misha, Ben) plus a new kid on the block, little 4 month old red terrier "Reg".

Have a great weekend, and all you Mums, have a great Mothers' Day

Deefski

Bugsy and Billy

Out in the dark again we have a great run around with our Bichon Frisee friends Billy and (to a lesser extent) Bugsy. Billy is 1 year old and full of beans, and loves to chase around with me, while Bugs is 7 and prefers to stand looking up at his Dad, shouting with impatience to get moving again. Dad is in the Autumn of his years and starting to slow up, so he likes to sit on the Rec benches, not "getting moving again", so it can be a noisy group to meet up with!

Also, their Dad is frightened to let them off the lead, using instead very long versions of those extending leads, so Billy can swoop in great circles with other dogs, but keeps winding the lead-string round rubbish bins, prams, passers by and our own Dad's legs if he stands too close. Makes for some entertaining "Dad-dancing" as he hops over the string when it scythes across the scenery. Billy's Dad holds the handle sufficinetly high up that we dogs rarely get entangled.

Billy's Dad was, in his past, an ecologist; specifically a beetle-expert (Coleopterist). There's little he doesn't know about beetles in Kent, and in his past has been called on as expert witness in forensic evidence giving, or to make statements about the ecological importance of parcels of land for the EEC.

This got us thinking, about the interesting stories you could tell about the "ordinary" people we meet out walking. "Mick the Window Cleaner", for example, who owns westie Misha, and used to have Jack till recently (sadly passed away). He has worked a lot in Stockton on Tees and was a "wood technologist" researching new uses for wood and wood products. At one stage he was involved in inventing a metal-cored, wood skinned household door which became very popular as a blast-proof door in Belfast during the "Troubles"

Just goes to show....
Deefer

It's No Good

A nice shot of Megan standing guard over the spot where she'd buried the latest raw-bone when we were visted by Asbo at the weekend. We're not very subtle, we dogs, so we stand where we "never stand" in the garden for any other reason, and it's obvious (apparently) to humans where we've buried the bone, even though we try to look nonchalant

And it's no good Dad slipping off to Citroen Car Club, and pretending it's all innocent car people. We could smell the new Labradoodle Pippa, of the old Austin-Seven restoring couple Dick and Molly. 6 months old and full of puppy bounce, she had the body of a golden lab, but the longer snout of the poodle, and starting to get the rougher poodle coat. She fell in love with Dad and tried to stick her tongue down his ear, much to the amusement of the rest of the pub.

Nice walk in the Rec tonight, and much throwing and retrieving of the yellow frisbee, plus we met up with westies Misha and Jack, of Mick-the-Chammy fame. We love those dogs and much gossip is exchanged before we are dragged off in separate directions. Dad nearly wins 4-nil (instead of 3-3) when Misha decides to come home with us, and only Jack follows Mick home!

Deefs

Crystal Palace Colours

What a change from yesterday - it's tanking down and blowing a gale, so we don't get a walk first thing. Dad is out most of the day playing with the Sailing Barge Cambria, getting filthy and soaking wet all morning, then filthy and drying out for the afternoon. When he comes in Mum makes him strip to the jocks before he's allowed in the door. (OK, not quite, but you get the picture).

Warm and dry again, and coffee'd up, he's fit to give us a walk, so we head for the Rec armed with my yellow frisbee. We straight away meet up with a Springer "we've" known since he and Haggis we're pups (Barney-Boy), plus the smart westies of Mick the Window Cleaner, Misha and Jack, today replendent in their claret and blue new coats.

"Westham" colours? we ask. No no no... says Mick, Crystal Palace. What Dad knows about footie can be written in capitals on the back of a postage stamp BUT (he claims) would include this one fact because when he was at Junior School (Elphinstone Road, in Hastings, in case you ask) his school colours were claret and (pale) blue, so, to a man, his fellow school-kiddies either supported Westham or the Palace. Mind you (he says) it was the 60's and according to Dad, Westham made up "half the England team". Shows how much he knows.....

Under their coats, Misha and Jack are (as always) bright white and spotlessly clean. We go in for a more "lived in" beige colour. Misha is apparently in a coat because she's had bad colitis and has had a big operation at the vets, so is bald down one side. Jack has a coat because Misha has one.

Look after yourselves
Deefer

Isobel

What a dog! Tonight on the Rec we came across a beautiful female mastiff called Isobel. We are told she's not a Bull Mastiff, "just an English Mastiff - not quite as huge as the Bull version". Big enough though, and all soft and soppy at only 14 months old. She was on her way to dog-training classes where she does very well we were told. All three of us dogs, and Dad made a big fuss of her, as she wagged her lazy ol' slow tail and slobbered as only mastiffs know how!

Dad tells me that Meggie went to pup classes - held at the top of Detling Hill and organised by a police dog training guy. The well equipped training set-up included a fenced off field with gate, where you could let dogs off leads without any risk of them disappearing over the horizon. No sweat. Megan was, allegedly, a little star - top of the class for her sits, downs, long-downs, long-distance stays and then racing back to Dad on the command "come!". Teacher's pet

Till they left the field!

Once out of the gate all Dad's pride in his well behaved pup evapourated as Megan refused all instructions with a look that said quite clearly.. "Oy! No way! We do all "that" in there; not out here! Schools' out as far as I'm concerned!"

Also in the Rec we met Window Cleaner Mick's pair of westies, Misha and Jack. As usual putting us to shame with their immaculate Daz-white coats and neat trims. We have a theory that he cleans them with his window cleaner stuff, or maybe uses them as a chammy, or a squeegy!

Deefs

Misha and Jack

It's hot hot hot. Again. Yesterday, we hear, London made 33 degrees C. We get walked later in the evening. We meet, on the Rec, Misha and Jack, the westies of "The Window Cleaner". They are similar ages to Meg and the H and the four have been friends for ever. We always draw smiles and comments when all 4 (now 5) westies are charging about; sometimes it's even more, when various other westies join us

Tonight's walk is the two-bridges loop and , no, I still haven't got used to the short bridge's wobbles and vibrations. I still slink across all low-bellied and droop-eared. My tail is down as I scurry across, anxious to get to the relatively stable stairway at the far end.

Well, we thought we'd got away with the bath and that the humans had forgotten the Frontline. But, no, they got us tonight - all 5 animals rounded up and sprayed. They do Missi first because she gets in such a tizz seeing anyone else go first, it's easier to take her by surprise and get her over with. We dogs though, know that there is a payback - there are rules. One rule says that any brushing, grooming, cutting, buzzing or in any way interfering with our coats, results in a dog treat each. Tonight's treat was a chunk of raw chicken-spine, Dad scissor'd off a chook when spatch-cocking it.

Almost worth being Frontlined.

Deefs