Three cakes

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 who lived there before, he still brings home sticks to his house, but not obsessively as Neville did. In fact Neville used to bring back all sorts of things. These are the two cats he shares the house with.

It is the weekend of the Autumn show, I can’t help as much as I normally do, because I am dog sitting. But I plan to make the troublesome beetroot cake, and a Guinness cake for the tea room being run on the afternoon.  On the round the village walk, I think the Cocker was getting hot, there was a horse water container, I think he wanted to get in it, but it was too high for him. But soon there was a lake and he headed for that. He doesn’t want to swim, he just wants it low enough so it covers him, but his feet still touch the lake bed. . Eventually where it was muddy, it was low enough, so he piled in. Luckily there was a less muddy bit that he washed the mud off. Unfortunately there are two rubbish stiles that he can’t negotiate and he needed to be lifted up over them, dripping with water and all! 

On another day we repeated the walk from Shiplake to Sonning, on  the path we took with friends who visited me last weekend. After we joined   the Thames, we met a young woman with a hand held hoover. The Cocker barked at her, he doesn’t like hoovers.  So she put it down and he was placated. We also went past a huge blackberry bush, where birds could be heard, during the weekend we were told it was full of starlings, eating blackberries and roosting in the safety of it.  We had our lunch at the village hamper and I bought some of their special dog biscuits for him. 

I think where possible it’s good to try and keep to the timetable and activities a dog has during a normal day for them. For this little guy, after breakfast he likes a walk, but waits patiently for me to have a first coffee and fruit, which he likes to try too! After my breakfast he lies on me, in fact he only ever does this at this time. During the rest of the day and evening, he will lie near me, and on the sofa, but not on me. He will try and pinch the cats food, luckily they usually soon eat it all when it arrives, but he still has a look anyway, in case of scraps. I gave him a pigs ear and he promptly buried it in our garden!

So a wet day had us doing a small walk and then lunch in the Cosy Nook. Afterwards, time to make the beetroot  and the Guineas cake for the show. I wasn’t happy with the Guineas cake, so I made another and froze the first before icing it. Unfortunately I am not super happy with that either, I did  ice it and took it along. We then went for a walk, but half way round the heavens opened, it was quicker to the Cockers house to dry off, so that’s where we went. After drying off, I went back to our house and we had a nice dinner at the Royal Oak, which is a pub near the Cockers house. Here is the beetroot cake, no resemblance to a volcano thank goodness.  To the left is a Guinness cake, and as I wasn’t happy with it, I made a courgette cake with lemon curd filling and lemon icing in the morning.

The week is wizzing by, it will be time to go home after the sit is over. I have sort of set in my mind, that if I ever get a dog it would be a Cocker, I love labs, but there is something mischievous about the Cocker breed, it’s almost that we would like to be able to be as naughty as they can. Of course no dog is the same, but the basic characteristics are very similar. But I did know one Cocker and the owner always used to say she did not follow the Cocker instruction manual. Back to the show, I helped set it up in the morning, and left my cake to be judged and the other two to be sold by the slice. I then did my favourite walk along the Thames from Aston, to Henley where we had a lovely lunch. Back from Henley we go over Remenham hill to Aston. The Cocker had a dip in a couple places in the river. By the time I got back to his house, his family were back from their holiday. I took my neighbour to the show and we walked around the exhibits. We finally got to the domestic section and alas my cake was not classified. Never mind! A couple of them had the same volcanic effect I had seen. But during the prize giving I got a shock. Our chairman, mentioned me and also all the things I have done for the association. I was then given this recognition award. I was actually quite  embarrassed but extremely grateful. I heard later on that one of the committee had proposed this and everyone unanimously agreed. A much better recognition than winning a cake contest I think.