A Norfolk in Norfolk

 

My humans took me to Norfolk for a short holiday this autumn when we were able to go away from home. This lockdown thingy they have had been switched off or something so we could go. Anyway, we went in my campervan and stayed in a place called Weybourne. The campsite was right next door to lots of good walks. There were woods, walking trails, a hill and best of all, one of the paths led to the beach.

I love beaches, They're great to run on, walk on, sniff on and generally explore. Some of them have rock pools and I like going in those for a paddle. But there were no rock pools on this beach, just lots of pebbles.

Before I could get near the sea and the smooth bits of the beach, I had to climb up a big bank of pebbles. It was OK, I managed, but omg my paws got a bit of a work out and it wasn't always nice walking on those bumpy things. 

The beach was empty and there were only a few other people walking on it. There was a big stone building which my humans thought was a defence look-out used in the war. (What's war?) Anyway, it looked a bit manky and nasty inside so we walked away from it and I ran along with one of my humans, which was good fun.

 

You can see there's hardly anyone about, and the beach was very, very long. The sea was rough and noisy and the waves were crashing in along the shoreline. I went to look at them but didn't want to get my paws wet; it looked just a bit scary.

Next day we drove to a birdy place near somewhere called Blakeney Point where there were supposed to be seals. I don't know what seals are but we didn't see any and it was too far to walk to the Point, so we went on  the marshes to see birds - well, my humans saw them but I couldn't get very excited about seeing loads of black and white birds. They were Brent geese in case you wondered, and they had flown to Norfolk from a long way away to spend the winter here. My humans liked them and watched them through those round things held up to their eyes. Called binnocs or something like that.

The humans made a few jokes (nice ones) about me being a Norfolk terrier in Norfolk. I didn't know I was named after this place, and maybe that's why we went there. But it doesn't matter because it was very nice and I just loved the big beaches.



 

Three bridges, no river!

3 bridges, no river, just roads

It's true to say that when my humans take me out in my campervan, we're  likely to go somewhere that's interesting. 

 

Very often it's more interesting for them, but sometimes it's just as interesting for me too, especially when there are beaches, good places to sniff and good walks involved, preferrably with a few other dogs to meet along the way to say hello to.

We went away to Norfolk last month in my campervan (more on that to come when I get my paws on the keyboard again) but on the way we stopped at a place called Crowland (and sometimes called Croyland - don't ask me why!) in Lincolnshire.

Well, there was a rather nice ruined Abbey there which they wanted to see (not too boring because there were trees and it was sniffy). Then we went into the town and found something really strange - three bridges all joined together but no river nearby. So all we could do was walk up the steps to where the bridges joined together, and then back down again. Weird. 

 

There had a been a river there or something, but it got moved. Even weirder! Anyway, the bits around the Abbey were better as there were trees, grass to walk on and it was a whole lot less peculiar than the bridges (although one of humans really liked those bridges).

The Abbey was more my kind of place!

 * The River Welland and one of its tributaries used to flow beneath what is known as Trinity Bridge. The river was moved and re-routed in the 17th century and the bridges were left in place. More info here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goyt Valley Awayday

They (the humans) have gone into this lockdown thing again which means we're not supposed to go far from home (how far is "far"?) but my humans kindly took me out for an awayday in my van just before this happened.

We went to the Goyt Valley in somewhere called Derbyshire, and very nice it was too. They had lunch when we got there - they heated up soup, I got a carrot to chew and a couple of biscuits - then we went for a walk.

It all looked rather pretty. There were lots of leaves on the ground to sniff and rustle in, and there yellow leaves falling on the ground when the wind blew. 

There was water - big lakes - and we walked by one of them and my humans kept stopping to take photos. Boring.

 I wanted to keep exploring, but to be fair, we did do  fair bit of walking too, and the lakes looked good (or so they said...)

On the way back to my van I saw some mushroomy things which smelled interesting, but they wouldn't let me get near them for a good sniff in case they were poisonous. They took photos of those too.

 

Then we had a drink in my van, but first I had to have a rub with the towel (it's awful damp these days) then it was back home. Shame we couldn't stay and have a van sleepover, but all the campsites were closing the next day so no chance of that. 

The lockdown thingy again. When will it end?

Winter Camping

Well the dark days are here and I'm not quite so keen to go and hang out in the garden in the dark. It's damp and it rains a lot too, and it's sooo cosy and warm by the radiator in the room where I telepathically dictate my blog posts to my human.

The best place to be when one is winter camping!

Something odd's up. They're having another lockdown but this time it's not quite like the first one earlier in the year, which was very very quiet. This one's a bit noisier and there are nore people about - lots of them not keeping their distance too well, which makes my humans a bit narky. They just want to stay safe.

We did manage to go away for a short trip in my van before this new lockdown thingy started, but now we can't go away at all at the moment as campsites are closed. So I can snooze and dream of our wintry trip in February  months ago, (cos it is sort of wintry now) and share that with you - but in truth, it was pretty muddy and chilly.

And to be honest I think it would be muddy and chilly again now, even though we can't go away. But it was good to go away in my van, it always is. 

Why I moved from WordPress to Blogger

There's been rather a lot of muttering lately from the human who feeds me and writes my blog for me, and the other human who does "School" with me. They both use WordPress for their blogs, and mine too, and it's recently changed.

Changed in a big way too - instead of being easy and straightforward to use, it's become a lot more difficult, clonky, techie and confusing, and it takes my human who writes this for me a whole lot longer to get a blog post together because she now has to use what's called the Block Editor ( all fancy tech stuff with buttons and bits to click on to get anywhere with it.)

Frankly, she's fed up with it, so she's creating a new blog for me with Blogger because it's easier to use and doesn't have all the fancy techie stuff that this Block Editor (Idiot more like) thing has.

With Blogger she can just write down what I'm telepathically transmitting to her without pushing any extra buttons, or fiddling around getting something like the good old Classic Editor they've discontinued and ditched in favour of this new Blockhead thing. Oh she can get at the Classic one, but it's not like it used to be and yes - there are buttons and links and fiddy bits all of which drive her doolally.

So watch this space because we'll be moving over to my new blog soon and waving goodbye to WordPress, although I'll leave my pearls of wisdom and thoughts on this blog for the time being so you can read some of the things I've been up to.

 

A trip to the hairdresser's

Before

 

                                                                         After

 I had quite an interesting time a week or so ago. I went away in my campervan with my humans, and they took me back to say hello to my breeder - that nice doggy person whose house I was born in. 

The human who feeds me and grooms me had arranged to have a thing called a tutorial with my breeder (her name is Jackie I think). That meant I had to stand for TWO WHOLE HOURS on the grooming table while Jackie hand stripped my coat (it doesn't hurt btw) and my human watched very carefully as she wanted to learn how to do it properly.

She's been stripping my coat by hand ever since I was little, but she always said I was like an eel and wouldn't stay still for long (what's eel?). But I've got better at it, and so had she, but she wanted to make sure she really understood what to do and how to do it.

Well, it took a long time, as I said, and I was pretty tired by the end of it. But guess what? I look fab now, with much shorter hair and a sleeker look to my rather handsome body (although I say it myself).

My human had to really pay attention because at the end, Jackie sort of tested her and got her to explain back to her all the things she'd been taught.

You know what? I needed a serious snooze after all that, but if you look at the "Before" and "After" pics of me, you'll understand it was worth it.

Here I am on the grooming table - thank goodness it was all finished then as I needed a pee!

 

Built-in Walking Poles

Now I might look a bit grumpy in this picture, and that’s because I’m waiting to be let off my lead on this huge, enormous, wonderful beach. It was rather windy when this was taken too, so my hair doesn’t look at it’s best. All in all, I think I look like a grumpy windswept miseryguts, which if course I’m not.

 

Well, truth is I was a bit tired and a bit worked over. We – that is me with my two humans – had been walking on some very steep up and down narrow paths on the cliffs and headlands in this place called North Devon. For several days I might add. So I was tired, yes, and I was on my lead waiting to be let off, but this couldn’t happen until we’d walked past a big rock on the beach (weird rules). So when they called me and I looked at them, I wasn’t at my best.

However, I did have the edge on the humans with all this walking. They have 2 legs and have these things called walking poles to help them on the steep bits of the path. I have 4 legs and have my own built-in walking poles, so I can go at a good pace up and down and keep my balance well.

Their walking poles do the job nicely for them, my built-in ones do even better for me!