Mum's birthday - she's "35 again" and who are we to doubt the word of a lady? She's enjoying it so far, and tonight Mum and Dad are off for a restaurant meal. Tell you more about that tomorrow.
Dad is working strange combinations of shifts at present, and works through last night, so he's home asleep this morning and awake and available for a good walk this afternoon. We head for the beach at Seasalter, where we meet up with "brainless" (according to his Mum) whippet Jupiter, and 3 month old whippet pup Phoebe. She's lovely - like a gangly softly drawn version of a whippet, and so , so gentle. We all make a big fuss of each other.
Great fun when we get back. Dad decides to tackle a pond-plant thug which we should never have planted in the first place - "branched burr-reed". Take it from us, this thing is un-stoppable and will eat up your open water in a season, wading across the deep bits with impunity and throwing up leafy blades from the depths. Dad hauls it out in bits, armed with secateurs, and frogs jump for cover in all directions. Great opportunities for dogs to get thrir noses and paws really skanky in the balck mud!!!
Get fresh at the weekend!
Deefs
Showing posts with label Seasalter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seasalter. Show all posts
Friday, 29 August 2008
Saturday, 6 October 2007
Biscuit, Pickle and Edie
A beautiful, sunny, breezy day and we got our nice long walk at Seasalter, along the beach. We met a lady out with three Border Terriers, 2 boys called Pickle and Biscuit, and a recent rescue-bitch, Edie. Edie has, apparently got "issues" where she is playing one minute and attacks the next, without any warning signs, so she was on the lead to start with. We all started a 6-dog walk along the beach and Edie seemed to be going ok, and Dad could tell the lady desperately wanted to give her a chance off the lead. She's only recently rescued, and they are hoping to fully socialise her.
So Dad encouraged her with "Go on - I'm willing to risk it, if you are...." (Cheers Dad! It's not likely to be you that gets bitten!). So then we were all running around together, and nobody got killed by anybody. There was one anxious moment when Biscuit and Pickle chased me towards the water, and you could see Edie's ears go up "Yee hah! Fight! Fight! Fight!...." like kids in the playground, but I'm pretty good by now at doing "submissive" (ears down, tail down and run like hell!). B and P veered away and Edie with them
So it all went well - we walked together for 30 minutes or so till the lady decided to turn back, and nobody fought with anyone. We carried on walking westwards and killing a plastic bottle (Coke - 500 ml size) till we, too turned back and headed for the Old Sportsman, and the car.
Dad's since been up to the allotment and planted garlic and broad beans, so he's all pleased with himself, saying that the 2008 growing season has officially begun!
And Mum and Dad's "Abels' Acre" wine and wisdom went well to, so now they are relaxing with wine, and it will soon be bed time
Deefer
So Dad encouraged her with "Go on - I'm willing to risk it, if you are...." (Cheers Dad! It's not likely to be you that gets bitten!). So then we were all running around together, and nobody got killed by anybody. There was one anxious moment when Biscuit and Pickle chased me towards the water, and you could see Edie's ears go up "Yee hah! Fight! Fight! Fight!...." like kids in the playground, but I'm pretty good by now at doing "submissive" (ears down, tail down and run like hell!). B and P veered away and Edie with them
So it all went well - we walked together for 30 minutes or so till the lady decided to turn back, and nobody fought with anyone. We carried on walking westwards and killing a plastic bottle (Coke - 500 ml size) till we, too turned back and headed for the Old Sportsman, and the car.
Dad's since been up to the allotment and planted garlic and broad beans, so he's all pleased with himself, saying that the 2008 growing season has officially begun!
And Mum and Dad's "Abels' Acre" wine and wisdom went well to, so now they are relaxing with wine, and it will soon be bed time
Deefer
Friday, 5 October 2007
Free Weekend
Ahhhh.... a free weekend. One of those where we don't have to visit anyone, and no-one's coming to us, so we're free to chill out. I predict some nice dog walks, especially if the weather stays as sunny and warm as this. There is even talk of Dad persuading Mum to drop us all at Seasalter, so that we can walk home along the creek bank and sea wall. Some good lie-ins for Megan too; she does like her slow mornings. Really she should have been Mum's dog, and Haggis should have been Dad's, with all his leppin' out of bed and straight into action. Me? What ever humans are doing is alright by me as long as I'm not left behind!
In our town there is a nice bit of banked up rockery at the main "entrance" which was always maintained by the corporation and owned by the town. It was admired far and wide for it's lovely flowers and flowering shrubs, all well maintained; a real eye-catching beauty spot enhancing the town. In fact the main gardener at the time was a guy called Walter Abel, and the local nickname for the rockery is still "Abel's Acre"
The town moved on, the corporation got swallowed up in the borough, and the careful gardening ceased. the shrubs grew to tree size, the flowers gave up the ghost, and when Meg and Haggis were pups it was just a scruffy eyesore. But then grand-daughter of Walter Abel, who has an allotment up on Dad's site, decided to do something about it. Volunteers were mobilised and the serious task of clearing overgrown shrubs, re-invigourating the soil and re-planting began, and has gone on ever since, to the general delight of town's people
Even Dad has dug the odd spadeful up there, but his main contribution at the moment is to host "Wine and Wisdom" table quizzes in aid of the "Friends of Abels' Acre". There is one Saturday night, so our spare room is a maze of question sheets, answers, pictures, flip chart, stationery and general preparation. One good round is always the "dog walk" round, where Dad takes us for a nice walk through town and notes down things he notices - brass plaques, shop names, odd signs or eye catching adverts. These he converts into questions; some straight-forward ("What shop is to the right of Woolworths?"); some obscure (What cute view is to the left of the "Chainstore Massacre?").
Usually quite entertaining!
Have a good weekend
Deefer
In our town there is a nice bit of banked up rockery at the main "entrance" which was always maintained by the corporation and owned by the town. It was admired far and wide for it's lovely flowers and flowering shrubs, all well maintained; a real eye-catching beauty spot enhancing the town. In fact the main gardener at the time was a guy called Walter Abel, and the local nickname for the rockery is still "Abel's Acre"
The town moved on, the corporation got swallowed up in the borough, and the careful gardening ceased. the shrubs grew to tree size, the flowers gave up the ghost, and when Meg and Haggis were pups it was just a scruffy eyesore. But then grand-daughter of Walter Abel, who has an allotment up on Dad's site, decided to do something about it. Volunteers were mobilised and the serious task of clearing overgrown shrubs, re-invigourating the soil and re-planting began, and has gone on ever since, to the general delight of town's people
Even Dad has dug the odd spadeful up there, but his main contribution at the moment is to host "Wine and Wisdom" table quizzes in aid of the "Friends of Abels' Acre". There is one Saturday night, so our spare room is a maze of question sheets, answers, pictures, flip chart, stationery and general preparation. One good round is always the "dog walk" round, where Dad takes us for a nice walk through town and notes down things he notices - brass plaques, shop names, odd signs or eye catching adverts. These he converts into questions; some straight-forward ("What shop is to the right of Woolworths?"); some obscure (What cute view is to the left of the "Chainstore Massacre?").
Usually quite entertaining!
Have a good weekend
Deefer
Monday, 9 April 2007
Seasalter
Bank Holiday Monday, and Dad only has to work till 10 am. Then we are FREE to go an enormous walk. Mum drops us of at the Old Sportsman pub in Seasalter, and we walk back home along the sea wall. 2 and a half hours nice and flat to suit poor aul' Meggie's tired old legs. She ambles along with a rolling gait, like a slow rolling run which she's favoured, I gather, since she went through the Cushings episode and her hips got a bit weak. She's Ok now on the daily Vetoryl, but never got back into that loping dog-trot that the rest of us use.
Dad took the binoculars to see what sea birds we could see, and watched 4 marsh harriers wheeling and soaring over the fields in the thermals, 2 pairs apparently squabbling over territory. Nice
Back at the ranch our old friend Cyril the Squirrel is back. He (or possibly she) sneaks up the fence line and launches himself into the Albertine rose growing all over the back of our house. We go mad at the scritching and scratching noises but to no avail. He's 10 feet off the deck and well surrounded by Albertine's wicked thorns. Megan can wheedle and plead all she likes but he will not come down for a game of chase.
He tends to stay there, once cornered till it's nearly dark, and then scurry off back to the old railway bank and the thick tangled sycamore woods. he's almost stopped coming once the building work started out the back of us, presumably put off by the diggers and cleared ground, but now he's back. The humans sometimes see him first, and whisper to each other "The "squ**" (pronounced "skwuh") is here", but we suss it fairly quickly anyway
We have foxes too, out the back, screaming their yowling-yappy bark at 2 in the morning and sending us racing downstairs to be let out to repel boarders.
Hope you had a good Easter
Deefer
Dad took the binoculars to see what sea birds we could see, and watched 4 marsh harriers wheeling and soaring over the fields in the thermals, 2 pairs apparently squabbling over territory. Nice
Back at the ranch our old friend Cyril the Squirrel is back. He (or possibly she) sneaks up the fence line and launches himself into the Albertine rose growing all over the back of our house. We go mad at the scritching and scratching noises but to no avail. He's 10 feet off the deck and well surrounded by Albertine's wicked thorns. Megan can wheedle and plead all she likes but he will not come down for a game of chase.
He tends to stay there, once cornered till it's nearly dark, and then scurry off back to the old railway bank and the thick tangled sycamore woods. he's almost stopped coming once the building work started out the back of us, presumably put off by the diggers and cleared ground, but now he's back. The humans sometimes see him first, and whisper to each other "The "squ**" (pronounced "skwuh") is here", but we suss it fairly quickly anyway
We have foxes too, out the back, screaming their yowling-yappy bark at 2 in the morning and sending us racing downstairs to be let out to repel boarders.
Hope you had a good Easter
Deefer
Tuesday, 13 February 2007
Seasalter Beach
A new walk tonight - well new to me anyway. Dad gets home from work at a sensible hour, and there is, as Mum says "a grand stretch in the evenings" now, so we're loaded into the car and taken to Seasalter Beach, out beyond Graveney, just west of Whitstable. The Old Sportsman pub, a few beach-huts, the high concrete sea wall, tide way out, bait diggers (lugworm?) and a million new smells to chase around and sniff at
It's a gorgeous dry balmy breezy evening, with no trace of the forecast rain. One or two people are also walking dogs - we meet two very muddy Springers. The beach, westward from the pub is a narrow strip of sand and broken up sea shells, only about 20m wide, but below that miles and miles of goo-ey tidal mud. Not a good thing to romp across when you have legs only a few inches long, unless you want to look like you're wearing majorette boots
It's nice to hear the calls of the wading birds - we see curlews, godwits and some kind of tiny ones - knot? sanderling? we're not very good on waders. We walk out for about half an hour and back for half an hour. Very pleasant indeed. The path from the pub out to the start of the beach is a bit muddy, so we sneak back to the car along the beach hut bit, which is signed "Private Beach" as there's no-one about
Busted, by the way for crimes against hair dryers. The cable was mysteriously chewed right near the plug and right near the dryer itself. My name was in the frame for some reason.... moi? Mum doesn't use it very often, so I think I may have done it a while back when I was a new pup..... maybe..... officer. Anyway, Mum is wearing a frown and the hair dryer is in the wheelie-bin
Deefs
It's a gorgeous dry balmy breezy evening, with no trace of the forecast rain. One or two people are also walking dogs - we meet two very muddy Springers. The beach, westward from the pub is a narrow strip of sand and broken up sea shells, only about 20m wide, but below that miles and miles of goo-ey tidal mud. Not a good thing to romp across when you have legs only a few inches long, unless you want to look like you're wearing majorette boots
It's nice to hear the calls of the wading birds - we see curlews, godwits and some kind of tiny ones - knot? sanderling? we're not very good on waders. We walk out for about half an hour and back for half an hour. Very pleasant indeed. The path from the pub out to the start of the beach is a bit muddy, so we sneak back to the car along the beach hut bit, which is signed "Private Beach" as there's no-one about
Busted, by the way for crimes against hair dryers. The cable was mysteriously chewed right near the plug and right near the dryer itself. My name was in the frame for some reason.... moi? Mum doesn't use it very often, so I think I may have done it a while back when I was a new pup..... maybe..... officer. Anyway, Mum is wearing a frown and the hair dryer is in the wheelie-bin
Deefs
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
