Bobbi returned to kennels

I’m quite sad; Bobbi went back to the kennels on Sunday. She will be living with an animal behaviourist for a few weeks to address her ‘issues’. She’s a lovely little dog but somewhere along the line she has become damaged. She bared her teeth at me a few times and eventually started growling at me if I wanted her to do something she didn’t want to do. After a few days I realised she had to go back, it’s not safe to keep a dog who thinks she’s leader of the pack.  I feel a sense of loss and that’s after a relatively short time. I’m glad I didn’t keep her any longer that would have been even worse, not sure if I’ll carry on looking for a dog now.

Introducing Bobbi

This is Bobbi, ( still in kennels) in the end I decided to take her and not Sammy the lovely big white dog I originally fell in love with. I went back to the kennels on Sunday with my other daughter, her son and of course, Daisy Dog. We met both dogs, they were both fine with my grandchild and Daisy Dog. Although I have to say I think Daisy and Bobbi really seemed to hit it off and have lots of fun together. Sammy wasn’t so interested in Daisy, he was more interested in playing fetch.

 Bobbi was more settled and more interactive on Sunday than she had been on the Saturday. I learned she had only been bought back into the kennels a couple of hours before I arrived on the Saturday, no wonder she didn’t want to interact or play very much. I was still drawn toward Sammy but the deciding factor was when I took Sammy’s lead, he suddenly bounded toward the exercise field and almost pulled me over. At that point I had to admit they were right, Sammy was too big and strong for me and Bobbi would probably be much better in the long term. Bobbi arrived at my home at ten oclock on Tuesday morning. After the man from the kennels left we took our first walk in the park; we met all the other doggie regulars and their humans and we stopped to introduce ourselves, I chatted, she sniffed. Tuesday evening Bobbi was introduced to my friend who lives a couple of doors away and her dog; a very large bouncy cross German Shepherd/ Husky who at almost a year old, is just a huge bouncing machine. Bobbi was polite but gave the bigger dog a couple of warnings when he invaded her space and became just a bit too pushy. Large, young, male dogs need putting in their place occasionally. Wednesday she progressed to the extender lead and had some freedom to run and play in the park with her new doggy friends. Wednesday evening my daughters and grandchildren came for their tea. The kids loved the dog, they bought her new toys, she loved the attention and I even allowed them to walk her on her lead a little way. My daughter left me a harness because Bobbi does pull a bit, especially in the mornings when she is eager to get out. The harness seems to have made a big difference, walking her today was much easier. She passed another milestone this afternoon, I went out to my painting class and left her on her own from 12.45 to 17.15, the only casualty of her first separation was her new toy; she totally destroyed it. I was very relieved to see the new nothing else had been touched, she hadn’t even tipped the bin over and almost all the dogs I’ve ever know have fun with the bin when left alone. So………….that’s it so far. Bobbi and I are getting to know each other, and so far, so good. Tomorrow we are going for another walk with my friend and her German Shepherd cross and Saturday my other friend is coming to meet her. She is well on her way to being a very well socialised little dog.

Christmas/ New Year over.............and life goes on

It’s officially over, my grandchildren are returned to their mother, the decorations are back in boxes on the top shelf of the cupboard, the house is clean and tidy and not one morsel of junk food remains in this house. Its back to porridge for breakfast home made veggie broth for lunch and fish or eggs for tea.
My next major task is stripping and redecorating the stairway. It’s not a job I’m looking forward too but; once the stairway is done, the whole house is done. Yep this is the final stage in the complete redecoration of the whole house. It’s taken me a couple of years to strip every room back to the plaster and start from scratch, but I’m almost there. The only thing that stands between me and the complete redecoration of the entire house is the stairway.  And when I’ve actually done the whole house, I’ll sit back and think, wow what an achievement.
But; before the redecorating begins there is something else I have to do. I made the decision a while ago to get myself a dog. I’ve had a canine companion for most of my life but when my last little one died about 5 years ago I decided not to get another until I retire. Well here I am retired and looking for a faithful friend. I went to the rescue kennels today to see the handsome chap at the top of the page. He is a border collie, about 3 years old and called Sammy. I saw his picture on the local dog rescue site and immediately felt drawn to him. He is a fantastic dog, he’s friendly, gets on well with kids and other dogs and like a game of fetch. He doesn’t seem to know the difference between sit and down, when you say sit………..he lies down but the learning potential is defiantly there. Apparently he was picked up by the police in a nearby town and taken to the local pound to wait for the owner to reclaim him. No owner showed up so he was passed on to dog rescue to be rehomed. I absolutely loved him but the people at dog rescue tried to steer me toward a smaller, more placid, black and white female collie called Bobby. They think Sammy could be a bit much for me to handle, they are right, he is a big strong dog and he does pull on the lead, but I really liked him as soon as I saw him and I’m sure he would learn not to be so boisterous.  Bobby is ok, a very sweet little dog but I think she is too submissive and she doesn’t seem to interact with people very well, she wasn’t interested in playing, she just wanted off the lead so she could run off on her own.  Also as soon as she was shut back in the kennel she started dancing round and round in circles, chasing her tail and barking. I think she could have some separation issues and would maybe bark and whine when alone in the house, especially as she has already been rehomed once and returned after 6 weeks because she didn’t settle. The People at the kennels seemed to blame the new home. They said the new owners hadn’t been exercising her enough and left her on her own too much. This may have been true, she was obviously over weight which makes me think she needed exercised but I’m still not sure about her. I hope to go back to the kennels tomorrow and get a better look at both of them. Apparently another couple are going to look at Sammy tomorrow and I have a feeling the rescue people want Sammy to go to this couple and not me. I feel as if Sammy is meant for me but if it doesn’t happen, maybe he’s just not the one. Maybe little Bobby is the one meant for me. Guess I’ll just have to wait and see. Today I went with the grandchildren who have been staying with me plus their mother and that turned out well because both dogs got on very well with the grandchildren.  Tomorrow I’m going with my other daughter and her Daisy Dog. What ever dog I end up with has to get on well with Daisy Dog because when I go away my dog will stay with her and when my daughter goes away Daisy dog stays with us. It’s all quite exciting. Will keep you posted.

Happy Hogmanay 2014

Happy New Year

So that’s another year come and gone. Here I sit, still surrounded by Christmas decorations with the little red headed angel staring down on me from the top of the Christmas tree. The grandchildren are at last in bed and asleep. They have been staying here and we had out own little New Year Party for just the three of us. I think they ate enough sugar to last them until next New Year. I don’t think any one will be getting up very early today. I finished the ‘Fun in the sun’ painting in between Christmas and New Year. Lots of people have said they like the unfinished version with the drawing still visible, maybe I’ll do another one and deliberately keep more of the drawn line and use less paint. 

 I’m still out taking photos almost every day, its surprising how good winter scenes are. I hope you all received your Christmas cards and thank you to every one who sent me one. So………………..happy New Year every one, and may 2014 be good to all of us

It's Christmas Eve...........so far so good :-)

The clock has just crept past twelve which means its Christmas Eve. Every day I tell myself I’m going to sit at the kitchen table for a couple of hours and get on with some painting, So far it hasn’t happened, the run up to Christmas happened instead.  I started this one a couple of weeks ago in the Thursday afternoon art class, and its not been touched since then.

 I’ve also got a couple of pet portraits to do. Once I’ve finished all of that; I have a unique portrait to paint. I plan to paint a portrait of a lovely lady who sadly passed away; the portrait will be a special surprise for her husband. This one I have to get right which is why I can’t have any distractions and every thing else must be finished first.Anyway…………..so much for good intentions, as I said, I’ve spent no time painting recently, Christmas preparations took over for a while. But, as I sit here in the early hours of Christmas eve, mentally running through my check list, I can safely say, that’s it, I’ve finished for another year. 
Cards printed and posted, presents bought and wrapped, the house is looking suitable festive and the cooking is finished.
I’m not actually cooking Christmas dinner this year, Tomorrow, well later today actually,  my daughter is cooking a huge Christmas dinner for her sisters and their families and of course me. We are all eating together on Christmas Eve and then doing our own thing on Christmas day. 

My allocated contribution to the Christmas Eve meal was the sweet course. I’ve made strawberry ice cream with the last of the garden strawberries from the freezer, a big sticky chocolate cake and some macaroons with lemon curd filling. I’m quite proud of my macaroons, I’ve never attempted macaroons before and although not perfect, they turned out OK. 

I even made the lemon curd filling myself which was another first. I’ve just finished the last of the home made lemon curd on some toast, and I have to say, it was delicious. Thought I should make some basics to counteract all the rich food of Christmas so I also made a large pan of veggie soup and a nice seeded loaf to go with it. Think this will be my staple diet for the times when I’m home alone.

On Christmas day I’m eating at the a little Italian restaurant with a friend who would other wise be on her own. I’m quite looking forward to Christmas day, I’ll get up at my leisure, open my presents, meet my friend for our meal and then come back to a peaceful afternoon and Christmas movies on the TV.

And on Boxing Day, the painting really does start in earnest. I’ll have at least three days of uninterrupted painting before the grandchildren arrive to stay for the week.  

So that’s me, ready and waiting, let the festivities begin. I hope Santa is good to all of you, may you all eat drink, be merry and celebrate the season. I feel optimism; I find it strangely reassuring to know the shortest day has passed and we are already on our way to shorter nights and a sun that rises higher in the sky.   

Christmas cards

I'm just about to post the first of my Christmas cards. I've written all the ones to the US first followed by Europe and then the UK, figured its safer to post those that take the longest first. I know I'm not online very much right now but I really do want to send all my online friends a Christmas card. If I don't have your address or if you don't receive a card from me within the next week or so.............please let me have your address  
Thanks   :-)

And the winter begins in earnest.

And the winter begins in earnest.
December 6th 2013

It feels like an age since I last posted anything, it’s hard to believe we only have another couple of weeks until the shortest day. The sun sits low in the sky, the shadows are long and darkness descends as the children finish school. Days are short, nights are long, temperatures hover around zero and dip below as the soon as the sun sets. 
Neither of my paintings made it into the final selection for the exhibition. I was disappointed; but more disappointed in the way I found out. We were told we would get a rejection letter in the post the week before the exhibition if our paintings were not selected and if we didn’t hear anything…………….the paintings were in. I waited and waited, I figured the best I could hope for was to get one accepted. The paintings were submitted on 16th November, the private viewing was two weeks later on 29th November and I was expecting my rejection letter sometime before the private viewing. It never turned up; I checked the post every day but no letter. I couldn’t believe it, by the Thursday I was as they say ‘quietly confident’; in fact I was so confident I went out and bought a new outfit to wear to the private viewing. I really don’t know why but on the Friday afternoon, just a couple of hours before the exhibition was about to open, I phoned the gallery for confirmation. The girl I spoke to was very blasé, almost dismissive, she said all the letters had been sent out and if I hadn’t received a letter my paintings had been selected. I asked her if she was sure, she sounded bored but said yes, I said thank you very much and was about to hang up but then, at the last minute I said…………..please could you check, you must have a list or something, please go and check. Reluctantly she agreed and went off to check. After some discussion and debate with her colleague, she came back and asked if I was sure I hadn’t received my letter !! Bloody stupid girl its not as if I would just ‘forget’. What did she expect me to say?? Oh yes now you mention it maybe I did get a letter?? Anyway…………..turns out my rejection letter was sent and I never received it. Neither of my paintings made it into the exhibition. I couldn’t face going to the private viewing. I would have gone if I had found out earlier in the week but finding out like that a couple of hours before the opening was a bit hard so I didn’t go. One week on and my letter still hasn’t arrived, tomorrow I have to go to the gallery to collect the paintings. I feel ok about it now. As every one keeps telling me, there’s always next year.
The day after the private viewing I traveled south. My mother is in her 80’s and lives alone. My sister lives around the corner from her and is more or less her carer. I do try to get down see them a couple of times a year, but it’s not always easy. Anyway, we had a great time, Mum was really well and we sat and looked at lots of old photos and talked about all sorts of things. We went out to lunch, went around a couple of junk shops and generally enjoyed each others company for a little while. Mum gets lonely now. She can’t get out on her own very much and in the winter she goes out even less, she hates the long nights, she sits indoors on her own most evenings. I’m going to try to get down again after Christmas.
The journey home on Thursday was strange. The weather forecast for Thursday was bad, very bad, but I already had the tickets so; bad weather or not, I had to go. I was up at 5, on the bus at 7 and by 8 I could see the wind whipping the last of the leaves off the trees. Progress was slow, the wind became stronger and stronger, at one point I thought we would have to get off the road, I could feel the coach being blown across the motorway. Being on a coach all day means you sit, you read, you eat, you drink, you look out of the window and you have no idea what’s going on anywhere except on the bus. As the light faded the tiniest sliver of a silver moon rose in the sky, for a while it was quite beautiful, but then the cloud and snow obscured the view. The coach finally reached Glasgow over an hour late. The connecting bus back to Dundee was running almost 3 hours late, all we knew was that the timetables were disrupted due to severe weather conditions plus a couple of accidents on the road.  I reached Dundee just in time to catch the last bus home and when that bus finally arrived, the wind was howling, the streets were deserted, there was a light dusting of snow over every thing and I jumped into the only taxi available. I arrived home at half past midnight. I made coffee and put the TV on. Only then did I learn that Nelson Mandela had died. I had been stuck in a coach all day, and unknown to me, one of the greatest men on earth had died. I know he was 95, a good age for anyone, but with his passing an era has ended. He left this world a very different place to the one he entered and many of the changes are a direct result of his intervention. There aren’t many people who actually change the world but he did. I also learned that the storm we had driven through had blown trucks off the road in Scotland, killing at least one of the drivers. One of the highest tides in memory had caused flooding all up the east coast of England and  apparently; the Thames flood barriers had been raised to prevent serious flooding in London. In Scotland most of the trains had been cancelled during the day and many of the schools and colleges were closed. Made me realise the inconvenience of traveling all day wasn’t so bad after all, at least I arrived home safe unlike that poor truck driver who died in the storm .
As you can imagine, today has been a rest day. I ventured out at about 3.30, just to take a walk and get some exercise. So glad I did because it was high tide, I think it was the tail end of the storm. The waves were spectacular; I even managed a few photos.

Over the next few days I’m going to print off my Christmas cards and hopefully get them posted. If I have your address and I’ve sent you a card in the past, chances are you’ll get another this year. I’m printing off cards with my paintings on; if I don’t have your address and you would like one, just let me know, my email address is on my profile. And my next task here, is to respond to every one who has left comments, it may take me a while, but I’ll get round to every one eventually. These are my paintings I've chosen to use on my Christmas cards this year. .

 
  
 

This song was going round and round my head all day yesterday in the coach.