A Blanket Made of Home Spun Wool TWTW # 127

Once again the allotment is wet and miserable, but the weather is due to improve later so I’ll be heading down there then. I did pop in to check everything was alright this morning after a day of strong winds yesterday. No damage to report. While I was there I picked these radish, the warm and wet conditions of the last couple of weeks means that they’ve grown well, and these have a very fiery taste, eye-wateringly so!

I’ve spent a little time on the plot during the week this week, it was perhaps a perfect way to spend an afternoon, I was earthing up the potatoes and sowing some extra broad bean seeds. The weather was sunny and the temperature not too hot.

I’ve also been clearing out the potting shed of the over-wintering plants and converting the space to enable us to grow some tomatoes and cucumbers.


I had to take Wilson back to the vet on Monday, and upset stomach has kept us busy but it wasn’t resolving on it’s own. Things seem much improved now though.

It was also Ruby’s 7th birthday. I pulled together a short montage of some of my photo’s of her over the last seven years.


Reading. I’ve been rereading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes for the umpteenth time this week, I enjoy these stories so much but it’s been a while since I’ve read the whole collection. I’m planning to go on to Memoirs and Return in due course but picked up a Brother Cadfael – The Confession of Brother Haluin to read in the meantime. I always learn something new reading these, often having to resort to looking something up in a dictionary or encyclopedia. For example did you know that a “Brychans” is a blanket made of home spun wool?

I’ve also been reading some of George Orwell’s Diaries, these are interesting particularly as you can see how his experiences recorded in them later translated to some of his books. For example his journey to go hop-picking where he spends some time sleeping “rough” is very similar to what ends up being in Down and Out in Paris & London. I hope as I read more of them there will be some similar parallels.


Links. There’s been a lot of coverage of the Queen’s speech and the government’s announcements about tree planting and peatlands. There’s a good summary here. Personally I think the proposals are a bit weak and don’t go far enough, particularly with regards to stopping the use of peat-based compost, with the government holding yet another consultation on this rather than actually taking action based on the decades of evidence that it already has.

There’s also a good ranking of companies by the Financial Times of those reducing their carbon emissions here.

Twenty firms produce 55% of the worlds plastic waste [LINK].

David Quammen on travelling into the past to cover the pandemic [LINK]. I’ve said it before but you need to read David Quammen’s book Spillover to help understand how we got to where we did with Covid-19.


I’ve been sorting through a lot of boxes from my parents loft this week. In one I found a lot of old books from my childhood. There were a lot of Dandy annuals and also my old i-Spy collectors books. It looks like I had a life membership from around 1977 but there no longer appears to be an i-Spy club going in the same format anymore. Great shame as it these and other similar books that really got me into nature and the outdoors and recording all the things that I saw. Something that I am still doing to this day.


Work. A very quiet week workwise, it’s a real struggle at the moment. I’ve got a booking for an evening allotment talk next week and have been making the final arrangements for that and preparing my slides. It’s a Zoom talk and the last one I have in my diary for several months. In fact the next one is supposed to be an in person talk – booked before the pandemic – but whether that will go ahead in that format remains to be seen.


The week ahead is looking fairly busy but with small things of little importance but that are necessary and will take up time. I seem to have weeks like that now and again when I try and get through a lot of tasks that I’ve been putting off or unable to do. It gets them done but makes for a pretty boring week overall. I’ll have to see if I can find a way to put a little bit more life into it!

Whatever you’re going to be getting up to, Stay Safe and Take Care.

TWTW # 11

Hello there from a relatively sunny Spring day (I know it’s Spring because I’ve been wearing shorts quite a bit this week).

It’s been a fairly busy week workwise this week. That’s not to say that I haven’t also had my share of fun too. The proposal that I was asked to submit has been accepted and I’ve been given the go ahead to proceed with the work! Great news!

I’ve also been working on my presentation and notes for the allotment talk that I’m giving on Monday evening this week (no this isn’t an April Fools joke).


I went to see Captain Marvel at the cinema on Wednesday. It was a good film, and I enjoyed it. I’m hoping to be able to see the final Avengers film in a few months time when it comes out and this film introduces a new character (although I don’t think you necessarily have to see Captain Marvel to enjoy the Avengers film, so long as you know a little bit about the genre generally).


It was Wilson’s 9th birthday this week, so he got some new dog toys and a new harness and we went for an afternoon walk to the beach, as well as having some lunch out.


I finished the final bit of digging on the allotment at the weekend, just a patch that I’ve been leaving and is likely to be the new brassica bed, so after digging I gave it a good cover of lime (this helps to prevent club root, and also my soil is on the acidic side so this helps achieve a more neutral pH.


If you have and interest in Neil Gaiman then can I recommend that you go watch / listen to Tim Ferriss’s podcast with him. I’ve embedded the video recording of the interview below (it’s 90 minutes long), but the podcast page is also worth a visit for some of the show notes.


In the week ahead I’ll be giving my talk and carrying on with the delivery of work for my client. I’ve also got a couple of meetings and it’s generally looking like being another busy week.

 

Happy 8th Birthday Wilson

It is Wilson’s 8th Birthday today. I’m not sure where those years went. In dog terms that means he’s reached the status of a “Senior”, but I’m not sure I hold much store by those arbitrary boundaries. He gets some special treats today to mark the occasion.

The weather is not being particularly compliant today, and it’s been raining most of the night and all morning so we might postpone a special walk until tomorrow, or we might just go anyway as the forecast for the next few days doesn’t look any better.

Here’s some older photos:

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Ruby Looses Her Ball, Finds it Again

  
One of our regular walks (almost daily while the wet weather has been about) is around Fort Fareham. Built to defend us from French invasion, it’s now a light industrial site and area for recreation.

As the trees have lost their leaves Ruby has started to notice the squirrels, particularly as they have been so active in the mild weather. A few days ago she saw one and went on a chase, although the pursuit was short lived (she hasn’t worked out the whole tree climbing thing), she dropped her ball. The video below shows what happened next.

Teaching Ruby To Swim

2012-08-20 17.38.57To Emsworth, to walk on the shore. Threw balls into the harbour as the tide was in and started to teach Ruby how to swim. She hasn’t quite gotten it yet but I think she will. There’s a lot of splashing and she hasn’t worked out how to use her tail as a rudder, but she will. Back to the car with two very wet, but very happy dogs.

Brought in all the towels from the car when we got home, and left the car windows open for a bit to air out the damp dog smell.

A fun afternoon.

(Regretting not getting any photos of Ruby actually swimming!)

Ruby Update

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Unfortunately I’ve had to take Ruby back to the vet this morning.

She’s had a barrage of tests during the day and is spending the night at the surgery, hopefully I’ll be collecting her in the morning. Diagnosis is still the same (haemorrhagic gastroenteritis) and hopefully she’ll respond better to this second round of treatment.

Will update when I know more.

One of Those Days…

 

One Year Today
 

Being woken at 2am to the sound of a dog vomiting, is never likely to signal a good start to the day, and things didn’t improve from there. By 4pm I found myself fighting the traffic on the way to the vets with Ruby; ultimate diagnosis, hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, treatment; 3 x jabs, plus antibiotic tablets and kaolin paste.

The good news is she seems to be perking up, but not back to normal yet, although she did bring a chew toy up on to our bed this evening. We need to see what tomorrow brings, but hopefully a return to food for her and not more sickness and diarrhoea.

It’s also one year to the day that we bought Ruby home for the first time as a puppy.

Preparing a “Lost Dog” Poster Before You Lose Your Dog

I’ve based this post on one that I read some time ago, but now can’t find the original post to link to / reference. If I find it again I’ll update the post.

Screenshot 2015-03-13 14.49.36

This might seem counterintuitive, but why would you want to prepare a lost dog poster before you actually lose your dog?

Well simply put, it you are unfortunate enough to lose your dog you’ll have other things to do; phoning / visiting local rescue centres / vets, informing the police and lost dog websites, searching for your missing dog.

If you’ve prepared a poster in advance it’s one less thing to do, plus if you’re away from home and the file is stored in the cloud you should be able to access it more easily.

Keep the details simple; description of the dog, colour, breed, age, sex (incl. neutered if applicable & male), name. Use a couple of pictures, but not too many as they take up space, a couple of reasonable sized pictures are better than lots of small ones that are difficult to see. Include your contact details, preferably mobile phone numbers so that anyone can contact you if you’re out searching. Leave a space for last seen, which can be completed just before printing. Keep the poster to A4 size, as this is the size that nearly every printer uses.

If you also belong to a pet finder website such as Dog Lost, then you can pre-populate your information on there too. Again this will save time in the unfortunate event that you need to use the site.

Finally remember to check and update your posters occasionally to make sure phone numbers, pictures and other details are accurate. This is particularly important for puppies and young dogs as they will change considerably as they grow.

Hopefully the worst thing you have to deal with is preparing posters that you never use.