Mid May photographic ventures

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
― Allen Saunders

It has been a while since I posted – I’ve been taking photos but they’ve been mostly shared on Facebook (or not at all!) So here’s a bit of a roundup of the latest bits and pieces that I’ve taken… Last week we did some final planting in the garden, setting up our Clematis to grow up the fence and putting some runner beans in to see what would happen. So far we don’t have a beanstalk. I was sort of hoping for one when I came downstairs the day after soaking them in a bowl of cold water overnight, but sadly nothing happened.

Maisy, our little bundle of loveable fluff and sunshine and all things cute and perfect decided that it would be a great idea to rip up the hallway carpet. Now, I’m mostly frustrated because she’s been so good for so long and I just don’t understand it – there’s no pattern to it at all. But it did mean that our weekend was spent looking at alternative flooring options as the hallway/kitchen is the place we leave her when she’s home alone. Queue the tilers who will be coming this week to give us a quote. No doubt the dog will surpass herself and succeed in ripping up tiles too… She was, earlier this week, dubbed ‘Hairy Potter’ by a friend on facebook when I posted her below the stairs hidey-hole…

We’ve been exploring the park somewhat, it’s growing up fast and it’s still every so quiet. We’ve walked around it in the evenings and met barely one or two other people when we do. The site is growing but the usage is not – it’s a good thing.

So it was the perect place for us to do some agility training. Maisy is now old enough to do some jumping as technically she’s all growed up now and at eighteen months her hips will allow her to bound about a bit more. We started off small and raided Argos for some children’s play equipment…

We started in the garden and Maisy did manage to jump the hoop a few times and almost enjoyed running through the tunnel after tennis balls and Schmackos. But she could not get the hang of weaving the cones…

What else has happened since I last posted? Well we’ve had BBQ’s and I’ve tested out some cake recipes without much of the naughty stuff in them – there’s banana loaf and oat cookies wafting through the kitchen right now and the BBQ has been used most evenings in the sunshine and has been very welcome.

Yesterday we hit the Sparsholt Countryside show (which inspired the agility with Maisy) as we watched Gundogs and Sheepdogs hard at work. Of course -we- know Maisy is never going to be hard at work and instead of rounding up dogs she’d probably pluck their feathers off in one big swoop but it’ll be fun to try her brain out on some activities. Look at these proper working doggies…

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Week Ten: The Garden

“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in–what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.”
― Victor Hugo

We’ve done lots of garden improvements this weekend, making the most of the twenty degrees c and brilliant sunshine that we had yesterday. Considering we were told our garden would be flat when we bought the house, we’ve made the best of a very sloped job! Lots of drainage issues will hopefully now have been resolved after plenty of digging, shingling and planting yesterday…

Aside from the positivity of re-designing bits in the garden, Maisy was also loving the sunshine and her first full day outside. She even helped with the digging and when she was bored of that, posed in the garden with the new flowers (Courtesy of Homebase and also my Grandmother’s beautiful plant arranging). I quite like the fact that we’re in a wind trap because it looked like she was posing with a fan machine blowing her fur…!

(The wet bits on her face were the hosepipe – it wasn’t me!). We had a lovely meal at our neighbours last night which finished off the day pretty well and although we worked hard, I feel truly relaxed – finally!

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