Ruby is just 14 weeks old, and I thought it was about time for a little photo update. In case you’ve forgotten here she is at about 6 weeks:
And here at about 8 weeks:
And 14 weeks:
And with Wilson, at 7 weeks:
And 14 weeks:
Looking Back One Year
Fruit and peas were about two weeks earlier this year
http://timehop.com/c/t:355951490923388928:6258632:5719533:02bd5
Introducing Ruby
I’m pleased to be able to introduce Ruby (for those of you new here, she’s the one on the left). Since we lost Sparky some months ago, our pack had been feeling a little too small, but the time didn’t feel right to introduce a new dog. In the last few weeks however, we started to look tentatively. Not sure whether we wanted another puppy or to go for a rescue dog. Ultimately we went for a puppy, not for any particular reason, just one of those right place, right time situations.
Ruby (that’s the name we settled on after running through about a hundred different names), is half springer spaniel (her mum) and half border collie (her dad). I can see more of the spaniel in her at the moment, but it will be interesting to see how she changes over the coming weeks and months.
Wilson is doing a grand job. We were a little concerned with how he might behave when we introduced a new member to the household pack, but he’s been teaching her and playing with her and overall they seem to be getting on really well. She’s got him wrapped around her little paws I think, but I’m really pleased that they are getting along so well.
It’ll be a few more weeks before she can go out in to the wide world, we’ll have to wait for her to have her second set of inoculations. In the meantime, there’s plenty to be getting on with. Back into the training programme! First step, house training.
I suspect that there will be more “pupdates” over the next few weeks and months.
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Simple Things – Portchester Castle
The older I get, the more I seen to enjoy simple things. A walk with the dog, time spent on the allotment.
Allotment Video Update 7th June 2014
With some fairly unsettled weather forecast for today, I thought I’d snag a quick video at the allotment. You can find my previous update here.
And about 40 minutes after recording the video above, this happened!
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Ball Jump (Full Speed & Slo Mo)
For whatever reason instagram wouldn’t let me upload the slo mo version of this video, so posting here.
Book Review – The House of Dolls by David Hewson
It’s not often t
hat I can stay up late reading a book, my body / mind can’t cope and I fall asleep, however over the last week I’ve been staying up, turning the pages of David Hewson‘s new book. The House of Dolls is set in the Dutch city of Amsterdam, where it’s main character Pieter Vos lives on a houseboat. Vos is a former police detective, who left the job following the kidnapping of his daughter Anneliese. He’s dragged back to his former life by another kidnapping that has similarities to the kidnapping of his daughter.
Why has this book kept me away from slumber? Well the simple answer is that I had to know what was going to happen next. The book is one of short chapters, and this keeps the story moving between characters and actions at a tireless pace, breaking the story up just enough to keep the suspense tight and the reader wanting to know what’s happening.
The characters are varied, many with their own flaws and weaknesses, but some you will like and others come to detest. There’s “old-school” gangsters mixed with new generation cops, politicians and journalists in the mould of the ladder-climbing kind and backgrounds of tourists and café owners.
The story is very believable, it sits in the present and although as far as I could tell doesn’t actually draw on a current or recent situation, it could quite easily. You could imagine that any of the crimes or motivations of the characters are being drawn from real-life and that marks the success of this author. His characters, locations and situations are all true to life. They could easily be where, when and how; today, this week or next, and you’d not be able to tell fact from fiction.
If you’ve read any of David’s books before, particularly if you’re familiar with his Nic Costa series, then you’re really going to enjoy The House of Dolls.
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars – I Loved It.
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Quick Review: Big Allotment Challenge BBC2 Tuesday 15th April
I’d been looking forward to this series starting on BBC2, a show about the challenges of an allotment, growing your own produce and what you can make or do with it. Or at least that was what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what the program was about.
It was more about the competition element of having an allotment. A bit like the annual village horticultural show on steroids. Very little about the effort that it takes to grow vegetables and flowers of the standard required to show, and much more about the uniformity, conformity and competition.
I admit that I’ve never been one for the competition side of the allotment. I deliberately do not take part in the horticultural show on our allotment, partly because I don’t have the time, and partly because the reason for growing, is for eating and producing. Not for getting one up on my allotment neighbours.
Growing stuff can be hard, but size, shape etc. don’t matter so much when your growing it to eat. A crooked carrot can taste just as good as a perfect straight one.
I was following the show via twitter as well, and it seems that opinion is mixed. Some people loved the show, others not so much. I’m afraid I’m in the latter camp. It didn’t do it for me. I think it had lots of potential, but it wasted a whole growing cycle and focused on the competition. I appreciate this is entertainment and shows such as Bake Off etc. are all the rage. Maybe an allotment is not the right medium for reality competition.
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Out today… The House of Dolls
I’m really looking forward to reading David’s latest book.
Amsterdam = a city that I know relatively well, but am expecting to discover in a whole new set of ways.
Pieter Vos = a new series character. I love a series read, and Nic Costa was one of the best, so am expecting more of the same, plus there is already a second in the pipeline.Come on UPS, hurry up and deliver already!
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Today I start a new phase in this long career with the launch of the first new series since the Costa books began with
A Season for the Dead
more than a decade ago.
The House of Dolls is the debut book for Pieter Vos, an Amsterdammer living in a houseboat on the Prinsengracht canal. It’s out now from Pan Macmillan and will be published in Dutch by Boekerij in June. I’m delighted to say it’s also being bought for European TV by one of the largest media companies in Europe… of which more later.
You can read more about the book here. There’s an extensive post with photos on the video and background here. And if you have an iPad you can download a free background multimedia book on the series here.
Next year’s instalment in the series is now being edited. More Pieter Vos and co…
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Electronic Scrapbook 