MIXED FORTUNES

Spring blossom

Well it's not often I manage to get two blogs written so close together. I would really much rather have been out enjoying the sunshine but I am stuck indoors waiting for important phone calls that haven't materialised..
grrrrr.
2011 is proving to be just as bad as 2010. I don't know what we have done for things to still be going so wrong. First Frank's broken leg, then Ghillie's new bouts of illness, followed by totally unexpected family problems which have turned our lives upside down and now after a fantastic day out on Sunday, we got home in the early evening to find we had had a visit from the fire brigade. The garage had gone up in smoke literally minutes after we went out on Sunday morning. The mess was indescribable. We think that it must have started with a short from the tumble drier although it wasn't left on when we went out. All the circuit breakers had tripped but obviously not soon enough to prevent the fire. There was old oil in the garage from when Frank changed it in the car and everything is black from where it went up in flames. We are going to need a new roof, doors etc  and to add insult to injury although we have contents insurance, we have only just found out that we have no building insurance which stopped after the mortgage was paid off last summer. Hey...Ho...and it's only April!!!
Having had my moan, the sun is shining, the dogs are great and we have a lot more to be thankful for than a lot of people- not least those in Japan.
Pepper had her first big day out on Sunday. A quick visit to the Knightswood championship  show to introduce her to the obedience fraternity followed by a day in Dumfries and Galloway. We always take our pups to some out of the way place for an early intro to the big wide world and although it is little more than a change of scenary, I think it is good experience for a pup to travel in the car and see and hear new sights and sounds as soon as possible.

My...but that's a lot of water!!!

It's a big world out here!!

We actually ended up driving along a forest track that gradually became more suitable for a 4x4 than a Touran. It developed the look of somewhere that hadn't seen civilisation for a considerable time, but proved to be an absolutely idyllic spot obviously only ever used by fishermen. We stopped to let the dogs out and have a picnic and Frank went exploring only to return to tell me to follow the little trail by the river to a small memorial.

Unattributed memorial.

This lovely little spot had a poem inscribed in a piece of slate and placed into this tiny section of wall. A large stone with regular holes in it lay in front. There was nothing to say who it was for, why it was there or who wrote the poem but it was beautiful.

As it is probably difficult to read from the photograph, I will put the poem below:
                                    Quick Water
                      Palfern springs between alder trees
                      turns back to the wind at Tonderghie
                      down Grey Mare's Tail and Clugie Linh
                      falls pierce the mountains with their din
                      Through a strip for cattle, Carseveige Burn
                      Then the chattering one, the little Louran
                      along Barhoise with its field of thistles
                      The yellow clearing where Blairbuls rustles

                       In paradise, Bargaly hazelwood
                       grow nut and leafy branch and root
                       Under Bardroch wood, field at the bridge
                       round Kirroughtie's brindle ridge
                       between Muirfad Flow's long marsh
                       and the rich loop of Meilde Carse
                       Clear Palnure, stream of the yew tree
                       winds to the fish-trap Guives o Cree
I did wonder whether this was written by Burns and will do a little more research to see if I can find out any more about the place and the poem.... watch this space.

Ghillie and Pepper are doing a fine job of wrecking the house. I hold my breath when Pepper's head disappears in his mouth, but she seems to be holding her oen so far. All I can do, is get out with Ghillie so we can run off a little of his exhuberance. Fortunately the weather has been beautiful and the walk yesterday in Drumpellier Country Park was lovely. I swear there was a chiffchaff or a willow warbler in every tree and I could hear the distinctive drumming of a great spotted woodpecker in the nearby woodland.

Lots of running space for Ghillie

 

As usual, Ghillie and Flyn headed straight for the water. Fortunately there were no deer in evidence this time as last time he was swimming out to retrieve when he caught the scent of deer high up on the ridge so he just kept going to the other side and took off at a rate of knots and was missing for ten minutes. This time, it was the ducks who took his attention but fortunately, he left them alone.

just goin for a look.

Can't I......

...and not to be left out.......

Well, thats Frank home for his dinner, and the dogs are also getting a little insistent. Time to sign off.

HELP!! - I CAN'T KEEP UP

Spring is Sprung.

I have lost count of how many times I have said to myself, 'I'll write up the blog today'. The days are just running away with me and there are at least two blogs that I had planned on writing that have been shelved and will be added into later blogs.
Frank has had the plaster removed from his leg and is doing really well. He has been back at work for two weeks so it's more than two months since he broke his leg and it only seems like yesterday.
Flyn managed to get a bad cut on one of his front pads and is getting more 'stir-crazy' than Frank. I have done all the usual things, cleaning, redressing etc. and although at first, it seemed to be healing, it is far from being right and I think a visit to the vet is on the cards for next week. Pads are a nightmare because they aren't usually stitched, but I am wondering if the vet will with this as it is so deep and not healing. He is also getting fat through lack of exercise even though I have cut his food back.
Ghillie has had a great time on long walks with me while I have been snap-happy with the camera capturing images of Spring which should have been one of the missing blogs!!! Still the photo of Ghillie amongst the daffodils is a favourite in my album.

Wood anemones along the Clyde

This time last week saw the start of yet another change in our lives. After losing three of our collies last year, I swore that I could never go through anything like that again. However, time mellows the painful memories, and the wonderful memories once again take over. I don't think a day goes by when we don't mention at least one if not all three of our recently lost family. The last few days have seen older memories rise to the surface. Memories of our sealight bitch, Cally or 'cowbag' as she was often called amongst many other things. Cally was Frank's first collie and first dog. She came from Border Collie Rescue at six months of age, - a package of temper and teeth. Frank took her from beginners to C. I was privileged to work her in C and qualify her and work her in ticket. Our best performance was to run off for a reserve ticket under John O'Hara at the Govan championship show. The fact that we didn't achieve greater things was more because I was her greatest handicap than anything else. She was a great character and everybody who knew her will remember how, when I set her up, at the start of heelwork, she invariably took the opportunity to show me her teeth and give me her particular Cally look before we set off. Why are we remembering her now with such affection? I think we have aquired Cally reincarnated although Frank refers to our latest addition as the daughter of Beelzebub!

Pepper

For some time I had been browsing/surfing the web just idley looking at puppies, but not seriously considering taking the plunge again. Then I saw a picture of Pepper and fell head over heels. I did nothing for twenty four hours and when I went back to the web site it said only one left, but not which one, -there had been two bitches, Pepper and another gorgeous girl with a half white face; I have never really liked half white faces. Without much hope I phoned and was told that they still had the two pups as they had been unhappy about the prospective buyers for Pepper. It was only then that I realised she was in South Wales- nearly 400 miles away. Peter, her breeder, said he realised that it was too far to come twice and that if I sent a deposit, he would keep her for me, and refund it if I wasn't happy with her. The outcome was that last Saturday morning, my pal Heather, her collie Wispa, myself and Ghillie set off on our marathon drive to South Wales. We had already decided that even if I didn't like the puppy, we were going to have a great weekend. Neither of us was familiar with that part of the UK  and we were going to enjoy ourselves. Armed with an assortment of ordnance survey maps and blessed with the best weather of the year so far, we pootled our way down the road.
I had booked us into a pub, The Royal Oak, for Saturday night; it would have been Frank's idea of heaven having been listed in the Good Beer Guide just about every year since Noah built the ark and not just for beer,- Heather and I were delighted to see 3 additional hand pumps- 2 for cider and 1 for perry, I thought we had died and gone to heaven!! We were really out in the wilds, there was no bus service or street lighting, and after dark, it really was dark!!

View from our bedroom window at the Royal Oak.

We were up at the crack of dawn to walk Ghillie and Wispa at the local RSPB reserve. The beds had been super comfy and an excellant breakfast saw us set up for the morning.
We arrived later than anticipated to see the pup, having managed to get lost on the final 5 mile lap of the journey. She was everything I had hoped for, and her breeders had their work cut out keeping me from running away with her father and Heather from abducting a gorgeous 12 week old red tri bitch puppy that they had recently bought in.

Pepper's Mum: Sky

Pepper's Dad: Shep

Pepper an arriving by 8pm d Shep

Knowing we had a long drive in front of us, we finally took our leave and started for home. Apart from a small early bout of sickness from Pepper, and poor Ghillie being deprived of his lunch when I managed to drive off with his bowl on the roof of the car, we had a good run home arriving by 8pm. Pepper had had her first marathon drive through 3 countries of the UK before she was even 8 weeks old and she was a proper little trooper.
She has settled in really well. Flyn hates her- he hates all puppies but she is so in everybodies face, even he is starting to mellow. Ghillie and Pepper are getting on like a house on fire. Dear Judo had taught Ghillie well, and I am already wondering how long we will have a house left!!

'Now you listen here...'

Heather is supervising my training very closely. At least I can rest easily as I know she won't run off with her. She thinks she's ugly...just because she has a blue merle ruff, red merle legs, tri face and a white stripe across her rear quarters. I think she is absolutely gorgeous..but then, I would wouldn't I? Frank reckons he has never seen me spend so much time rough and tumbling a pup on the floor before.She is definitely a time-waster; I only managed to get my last uni assignment in, ten minutes before the deadline and I don't think it will be winning any Nobel prize for literature.

My best boy and girl.

The only down side of the last week is that Ghillie came home with more than thirty ticks and Wispa, with about a dozen. We never thought to frontline them before we went, a mistake we will never make again!! Ghillie had an antibiotic injection on Tuesday afternoon and was really quite ill for 24 hours. What else could we possibly expect from Ghillie?
Pepper is starting to look as if she might actually go to sleep so I am off to take Ghillie out while the going is good. Roll on the time when the wee hooligan has finished her injections, I can't wait.