Living in the UK again

I did three days looking after the sofa destroying dachshunds. As usual they were their naughty selves. They are always up to no good but they have characters and I like that. They play a lot together, bit of rough and tumble. The older one seems to get the better of the young upstart, but it’s harmless fun. The youngster  doesn’t cry out, he just takes it and dishes out his own recipe of revenge. They both want to be close up to me all the time, so there is a constant battle between them to do so.   All too soon it was time to leave them and their kind owner and move onto the next gig. But a visit to the gym had a funny moment. One of my gym friends who I see on a regular basis goes to Crete every year and we often talk about that. At this particular visit, we spoke a very limited amount of Greek. One of the physios came out of one of the consulting room and asked why we were speaking Greek? She was Greek! I think we thought she was Spanish. So we chatted about our Greek expe...

E ven though we moved here in 1994 it’s taken thirty years to visit this  garden. The property is own by the Oppenheimers nowadays. A manor has been on site for at least a thousand years and is mentioned in the Doomsday book. At this time it was owned by Chertsey Abbey. Following the dissolution of the monasteries, it fell into private hands. It is a working farm with gardens that are open, but you have to go round them on a tour. A lot of their produce is sold in restaurants and other establishments. I did the tour     with members of the Twyford Growers group. Our tour guide had been working there for many years and his specialisation was the ornamental gardens with a close watch on insects and invertebrates. As the guide takes you round the various gardens the history of the garden is revealed, and the unusual nature of the planting. Forget the carefully planted classy gardens, you see at National trust properties, these gardens are focused on biodiversity and providin...

So three new dogs to me, ironically owned by a lady who walks dogs! Even dog walkers need sitters.  They live in a lovely old house in Waltham St Lawrence. One dog is very old now and has on occasion toilet accidents. But he is happy, can walk about, his quality of life is good. I slept in the spare bedroom, in a single bed, the two younger dogs, took turns to sleep in my bed. The kind lady owner, has asked me to leave a couple of hen eggs for the fox cubs she has seen on her webcam. I put two out the other night, I should ask her who sniffled them away! It was super hot for the first few days on this sit, in fact the first morning walk we had a short shower, and then the sun beat down on us. The two younger dogs play a lot in the garden. On one of the walks a bit of jealousy crept in, one of the dogs, sort of tried to hump my leg, the other dog in no uncertain terms told him off and that was the end of that.  One game they do play is throw the ball. If I am sitting outside th...