Living in the UK again

My  last sit before my summer break. A St Bernard, who I have looked after a couple of times before. The thing that strikes you about him is his size. He is huge. He also doesn’t like to walk, as I have said before. But as I saw a couple of times during this sit, if he wants to, he has a turn of speed. He is a lovely dog, and his owners also. Leaving me some treats and a bottle of red wine also. I let him come into my bedroom and he slept by my bed, he did not wake me early as the chocolate Labrador does, but he came to me about the right time.  Here he is sitting in his field at the bottom of his garden. The setting sun on his fluffy coat, which he loves being brushed. He just loves cuddles, like your favourite teddy bear. Unfortunately when he sees food or is ready for his meal, he drools badly. When he wants to be close to you,  he sits on the sofa just like a human does! Soon the sit was over, but no rest, as I headed to Oxford in the heavy rain to stay over night and...

It’s been a few weeks of produce, even though the dry weather has meant the beetroot at the allotment has not grown much and most are the size of golf balls. The brussel sprouts are doing ok, I can see the start of them on the stems. The courgette and butter nut squash have given up. Next year is the possibility of the caged plot, but I might try and move some manure from my friends horses field to the plot to help it and improve water retention. I have harvested the onions and they are drying off in the greenhouse. These are the ones a friend gave me as minute seedlings grown from Italian giant onions seeds. Two of my efforts are pretty good, you can see how big when you look at my finger on the photo.  My ninety old neighbour brought some goodies from her garden, tomatoes from the greenhouse, little carrots from her trug and french climbing beans. She really is amazing, if only all of us could be that active at that age. She also made some bread, into rolls and in a loaf tin, she...

In part of the Store garden that we have cleared before replanting, a strange plant appeared. Out of curiosity we let it grow, observing its leaves, then trumpet flower and finally its prickly fruit. What was this plant then? So we took a photo and looked it up. “Jimsonweed”. Here is what Wikipedia says  “  Datura stramonium , known by the common names  thornapple ,  jimsonweed  ( jimson weed ), or  devil's trumpet ,  [2]  is a poisonous  flowering plant  in the  Daturae   tribe  of the nightshade family  Solanaceae . [3]  Its likely origin was in  Central America , [2] [4]  and it has been introduced in many world regions. [5] [6] [7]  It is an aggressive  invasive weed  in  temperate climates  and  tropical climates across the world. [2]   D. stramonium  has frequently been employed in traditional medicine to treat a variety of ailments. It has also been used as...

I am back looking after the Cocker spaniel, when I went into the house on my first day, it took him about fifteen minutes for him to finally calm down, after the excitement of seeing me. At least he doesn’t wee in the excited phase as he did as a puppy. I was hoping to try some guitar, but when he finally spotted it in the living room, he really did not like it. He barked at it. I ended up having to hide it in our car. The first day we did a walk around the village and later on  to our house where I had my dinner. The second day, I drove us to Waltham St Lawrence and after the usual sausage sandwich and skinny fries, we did the round the village walk. There were loads of wild blackberries in the hedgerows, it’s amazing how each tastes different from the rest. Some are horrible and sour, but mostly they are great. The  Cocker doesn’t like them though. I put a lot into my sits, the dogs should have a holiday like the owners!  Although this pup, is different from the Cocker ...