4 down- 2 to go!!!

A man and his dog!!!

That's the first four weeks over for Frank. Hopefully now, only two more to go before the plaster comes of and life starts to return to normal. The doctor has told him that he has to start using the leg more, hence photo yesterday at Musselborough. He is trying to use walking sticks instead of crutches despite the fact that I told him he will be putting stress onto different areas. He certainly suffered for it last night!! However, he did really well- in spite of Flyn who thought it was great fun to keep up running interference in front of his long-suffering guvnor.
We have had some great birding days in the past here and have enjoyed watching the antics of the little owls that frequent the area but there has been no sign of them on our last two visits. We did however see Smew off shore as well as widgeon, curlew, shelducks godwits and other assorted waders that we still have trouble identifying on the reserve.
Ghillie and Flyn had a great time playing chase - each other and the seagulls on the nearby pond. Ghillie swam and swam but the gulls ignored him and just moved further out of the way. I suppose they are so used to dogs; in fact I think we saw more breeds of dog than we did species of birds around the pond and parking area. Thankfully most people are sensible enough to stay away from the actual reserve area. Ghillie also had great fun with his 'safestick' a bright orange 3 feet long piece of rubber with rounded ends that I bought for him at Crufts. He really loves it  but I am going to end up with the muscles of a shot-putter...it is no light weight to throw.


Guess who's feeling better!!!

 He is certainly getting back to normal. The parvo results show he is clear thank-goodness. It is an impossible situation as he has his nose permanently glued to the ground and if his immune system is really poor, there is no chance that he is going to avoid picking up anything that is around. I can't wrap him up in cotton-wool or curb his natural instincts, - he is a munstie after all!!! I still have to take him back to the vet's for blood tests re his pancreatic enzyme levels which will be sometime this week.

After spending a few hours at Musselborough, we trundled on down the coast with the intention of  stopping off at Aberfeldy Bay to see what was flying around. However, when we got to the Longniddry Bents it was obvious that the tide was so high there would be little to see. So we stopped for coffee and just sat for a while and watched the wind surfers and the sea pounding the old concrete defences along the shore-line.


An extremely breezy day on the East Coast of Scotland.

 I took the dogs off for another run risking getting swept off my feet and getting soaked by the spray which even kept Ghillie at a distance from the waves. I certainly had some colour in my cheeks by the time I got back to the car....and slept like a log last night.

On my last blog, I wrote about the many species of birds that had put in an appearence in our garden this year including two redpolls which have become regular visitors. Just after the last blog, we had an exceptionally cold and windy couple of days with snow showers blasting through but thankfully not settling. These winds brought a phenomenon to our garden not seen before. We had a flock of redpolls and siskins descend and we were quite sure that there were at least a couple of very pale arctic redpolls amongst them. At one stage we counted 29 redpolls on the ground and on the feeders. It was a one-off event and they stayed around for most of the day. We could only assume that the high winds had driven them south. Life around the feeders is definitely quieter now that the weather has warmed up although the gold finches are still consuming copious quantities of niger seed.

Well having lost one of my front teeth to an abcess at the end of last week, I returned to the dentist this morning for a final scale and clean of the few survivors. I was very proud of myself as this was accomplished without a local anaesthetic although with one or two yells. Hopefully, I won't need to go back again until my 6 monthly check-up.

I was very relieved that Frank dissuaded me from making a 600 mile round trip last weekend in the stupid belief that I could do something to avert a confrontation between people who I thought were my friends and members of a club of which I was a founder member. Thankfully no incident occurred. Deliberately ambiguous and misleading information was posted on facebook for reasons that I cannot fathom and which since, seem to have given rise to amusement and delight from those involved. I have steadfastly refused to get involved with the politics that are out of all proportion, in what is a numerically small breed of dog, in this country. This whole incident seems both immature and irresponsible and is seriously making me think that maybe I should just stick with my border collies. I had hoped to see signs of bridges being mended for the sake of our lovely dogs, but I am now left sadly wondering just where it is all going to end.


On a happier note.