I went to Whales

 

I had a great day out at a place called Bodsomething and the Orn in Whales (Bodnant Garden and Great Orme, North Wales - Ed). 

First of all we (my humans and their daughter) went to a big garden with lots of trees and grassy meadows and paths and flowers and friendly people saying hello to me. I got a fair bit of fuss. Some of the trees were very tall.

I had to stay on my lead most of the time but that was OK because there were lots of other dog on leads too.

After we'd had lunch there sitting in the sunshine, we drove to the Orn place and went right up to the top. It's a big mountain with the sea all around it, and there were plenty of places to walk and explore.

The humans liked looking at the sea and the coastline and a place called Puffin Island.

We didn't see any puffins (I think they're supposed to be birds) but a whopping great gull was sitting near the car when we got out near the top.

I wasn't very interested in it because I could see and smell something more exciting in the churchyard - sheep! They were almost hidden in the long grass. The humans had a look around the churchyard. There are some very large memorials with angels and things on them. Actually quite impressive. 

I was a bit disappointed that I didn't see the goats who live in the Orn, but the humans saw them in a field as we drove up to the top.

When we got to the top of the Orn was best, as I had a good walk and sniffed the sea as well as something else....rabbits! They were nibbling grass in a field so I sat still and looked at them. They were too far away for me to chase, but along with the sheep, it was quite exciting to have some new smells that day.

Here I am enjoying my walk. I like Whales and the Orn.

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.

 

 

Being beside the seaside

 

We went away in my campervan last week and had a sort of pre-Christmas short holiday. It didn't rain much - only one morning when we stayed in and I checked out what was happening from my lookout post by the window.

To be honest, not much was happening at all. There were only 9 other camperthingy outfits on site and the most interesting thing to do was watch was the rabbits. They were scuttling about all over the place (Southport it's called) and I got a bit excited when I saw them nibbling the grass when we were out on patrol around the camp site.

It was OK being on lookout and I had another good position in my van to view from, but the best bits were when we went for extremely long walks.

These took us through the park and on to the prom next to the beach.

Aaaahhh - the beach. That was fun! I could spend hours happily trotting along sniffing, exploring, rooting into stuff that had been washed up on the sand. Sand - aaahhh - that's nice to dig in too.

The human who feeds me got excited because she found three mermaid's purses, and of course, she had to take a photo of them. Then we went on the pier. It was a long walk to the end, and it was cold and windy, but the humans seemed to like it as there were birds around on the marshy bits of beach (they like birds) and things called oystercatchers were flying over going peep-peep.

Mermaid's purses - empty egg cases of sharks and rays

 

I'm not really bothered about these things, but the humans like to see sunsets when we're by the sea, so they made sure our walks along that prom thing and on the beach were when it was starting to get dark, so they could take photos.

 

 

 

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.