Hunkering down

I don't know about you, but this chilly weather and these dark days, I'm not very keen to leave my cosy cushion, or bed, or sofa, or lap to go out very much or very far. The humans make me go out every blooming day for a walk - seems like it's at leaaaast 5 times every day [Ed. it's not].

I have to admit that today's walk wasn't too bad. That's because they took me in the car and I didn't have to walk to the park, and of course, I really like the park - it's called Tattern or something [Ed. Tatton Park, National Trust] and we can walk there from my house, but it's a looong walk if we do that and then walk around the park and back home again. I like it best when we go in the car, not that I'm lazy or a wimp or anything. Perish the thought.

Anyway, it was all dark and gloomy and grey outside today but I did enjoy my walk and saw a few deer (got steered away from them though). It was good to go out because it's been pretty busy at my house with visitors coming to stay. All week.

The human's daughter, who I adore, came to stay with some person called a boyfriend. He made a real fuss of me and to be honest, I rather liked sitting on his lap and being walked by him. The adorable daughter was a bit miffed because I didn't give her so much attention. Must make it up to her next time she visits.

They went home and then another visitor came, a friend of the human who does school with me. He liked me and played with me and talked a lot to my humans. He seemed to have known them for a long time and they talked about things they did a long time ago at something called a yooneeversity. No idea what that is but it sounded like a lot went on there.

Now it's back to just me and my humans and keeping warm and snuggling down. Oh yes, one thing I really like at the moment is dog TV, which they put on for me to watch for a while before they watch a human TV thing. Although I have noticed they both watch the cats and dogs on dog TV too and seem to like it.

Humans are a bit odd at times, but where would we, or I, be without them?

 

A dog's eye view of 2020

2020 was quite a year wasn't it? Made me remember what I'd been up and how it was for me - dog's eye view and all that. The humans seemed OK but I do recall times of them saying they were getting a bit fed up, but the mood passed when they hoisted me up on to the sofa or their laps for a bit of fuss and a cuddle. I think (hope) I've been doing all I can just by being there. I do love the fuss too....

January

Visiting family from other places (one of them is in somewhere called the US), with grandchildren who adore me, return home so it's just me and the 2 humans again. We go to watch birds and it's very cold. Another dog there is as bored as I am. We go in my campervan for a couple of nights to a place by the sea. It's still cold but I get lots of walks, so it's more interesting.

February

We go away for a few nights in my campervan to a place called Rutland. The humans watch birds again. It's very, very wet and muddy, cold too. We go for a VERY cold walk in a big country estate. I liked that because it wasn't raining. Then we had to go home because there was a big storm on the way.

March

The humans go to stay with the family in that US place and leave me behind. I stay with Uncle Steve and Auntie Donna and have a whale of a time but the humans come back early, so I go back to my home. The humans have to rush home before all flights (in plane things that fly) were cancelled. I think everywhere was starting to close down very fast because of this coronavirus thing that suddenly everyone was talking about. Hmmmm. Well, now we know what that was all about. It's not gone away yet either. Everywhere goes into lockdown just after we all get home. My humans sort of keep themselves to themselves and don't see anyone for a couple of weeks in case they've got this virus thing. We go out for one walk a day (all we're allowed) but we go very late at night when no-one is about and there are owls hooting, foxes barking, and we see lots of hedgehogs. I try to sniff one and it rolls into a big spiky ball. There are no cars about, or planes. It's very quiet, I like it.

April 

More of the same. The human who feeds me has her choir sessions on something called Zoom (don't ask) and does lots of singing and laughing.

May

The weather is warm and I spend a lot of time in my garden patrolling the borders, sniffing in the corners to check if I can see Holly the Cat from next door, and I enjoy lying in the sunshine. The human who does "school" with me does lots of gardening and I spend chill out time with him.

June

More of the same, but now we can go out for awaydays in my campervan but not stay overight, so we go to the local nature park for walks and meet up one day with human friends and have a picnic under the van's awning and all stay apart from each other. I'm in the shade under the chair. It was a hot day and I wore my cool coat when we walked.

July

More of the same again, but the lockdown rukes eased off and campsites were open, so we took my campervan away to stay in it, and went to the campsite near beaches on the Wirral, and then to a place called Chirk. Brilliant! Sleeping in my van again. Lots of walks on beaches, in woods and by a canal, Loved it!

 

August

The human's daughter came to stay and as I love being with her - and she brings her cat - it's always interesting when she's around. And we went out for awaydays in the van so I was happy.

September

We had a great time as campsites were open, so we went for a proper longer holiday trip in my campervan to Devon. Lots of walks on the cliff paths, lots of beaches. Bliss.

October

Uh-oh. Things not looking quite so good as the virus cases begin to rise, but yes, we take the opportunity of still being able to go away in my van and travel to Norfolk, where there are huge empty beaches. Loved it. You can read about it here. I even had a hair do on the way, which I sort of enjoyed - see here for more.

November

Yep, things go dodgy again with lots more people getting the virus, so we had another lockdown - only it wasn't quite like the first one in March as we could do more things. But it was back to the awayday trips to the nature park for some good walks as a lot of campsites had to close again....

December

 ....but the one not far away, at a place called Southport, was still open so we went to stay for two nights (chilly but still bliss in my van, which gets toasty warm). Then suddenly it was out with the Christmas tree thing they have, daughter and cat came to stay, there were lots of presents around and I got a blue flashing light collar to wear in the dark. And what's more, it snowed!!

Most of the year I've enjoyed - I'm easy to please and easy to get along with - but one thing I've HATED is fireworks.

In November the world around me suddenly erupted into loud bangs and flashes. I was very scared because this happened when I'd just gone into the garden to do you-know-what. I managed to hide and lodged myself behind the water butt and some garden canes and I got stuck. The humans came to find me and I was a mass of shaky, quivering jelly when I got in and needed a fair bit of TLC to calm me down. It happened so suddenly as it was very quiet when I went out. 

Then in December the same thing happened twice on the same night, first at 11pm when there were bangs and flashes to mark this crazy Brexit thing, which means I can no longer use my wonderful Pet Passport when we take my campervan abroad. And then again at midnight when it became 2021. I quivered and panted and the humans helped me through it.

I do sometimes wonder about some of the other humans around though, and if they're all quite there in the head.

 

 

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?