This, that and the other .... oh and conkers

Walk in the evening sunshine and visit to the Pub

We took the dogs for a late walk yesterday so that they'd be tired when we went to meet Dan and Mac at the pub (belated birthday celebration for Mac).

It was really nice across the fields and the dogs had a lovely time. As usual we forgot to take the camera so I took a couple of photos with my mobile. We can never find Kizzy on a walk, this picture of her and Andy illustrates why ..... she's behind you! This is where she likes to walk, right behind Andy. She does have a good run as well but she often tucks in behind. She runs more if she finds a plastic bottle or something to carry. Then she likes to show off to the others.

I'm behind you!

I'm the king of the castle!

We popped her up on the hay bale to pose. As usual she was very happy to oblige! With my usual aplomb I took the first photo in my own shadow, I suppose it's something that I noticed I'd done it and actually moved for the second photo!

Aren't I gorgeous (Kizzy that is, not Andy!)

When we got home Poppy decided to relax outside while they cooled down ready for their dinner (it's a hard life for the dogs in our house!!).

Poppy: Where's my Pimms?
Naughty Niamh: Who cares, about the Pimms, let's get down the garden!

We went to the Royal Oak at Crockham Hill and had a lovely meal. They have a great selection for vegetarians which makes a nice change. It's run by two guys who are partners (both in the business and privately) and they're very hospitable and friendly. It's very much a village pub with the locals popping in and out during the evening. It's our favourite pub at the moment but we're going to make ourselves try others in the area so we don't become boring!

Building Work

The building is really taking shape. It's been quite a slow process but things are finally coming together. We're very pleased with the shape of the roof and how it looks. The final few tiles are going on and we hope to have the scaffolding down on Friday which means we'll be able to go next door and tidy up their garden. We are lucky to have really lovely neighbours who have been totally supportive of our building project. Our builders have had to work from their side of the boundary a lot of the time and the scaffold is sitting in their garden. We put up temporary fencing to keep their dogs in and the last job will be to put up three new fence panels between our properties. Liz and Geoff come in and check our place when we go to dog shows, they collect the mail, water the greenhouse and plants and usually leave a little tub of fresh veg for us in the kitchen for when we get home. During the building works they have let me park my car in their drive whenever needed. They really are so accommodating. When it's all finished we're going to take them out for a meal .... probably to the Royal Oak!

Dennis working on the new roof. As you can see we've managed to keep the lovely wisteria intact. We actually made the extension slightly smaller than orginally planned in order that we could have a go at saving it and it seems to have survived as it's flowering for the second time this year.

The new garage from the front of the property.

The scaffolding and temporary fence in our neighbour's garden.

The new utility room viewed from the new garage.

The new utility room from the outside.

Conkers

Especially for Bernadette - these are conkers (the fruit of the horse chestnut tree, not the sweet chestnut tree where edible chestnuts come from.)

Apparently, if you put a conker in each corner of a room it stops spiders coming in (Mac heard this from someone but we're not sure if it works!) I am going to try this as our new house is very spidery! I think the building work has disturbed quite a few. I don't mind the thin harvest spiders that hang in the corners of the ceilings but I am not at all fond of the large black house spiders. Kizzy and Niamh like to eat them (yuk!) I will also put lots of conkers in my summer house once it's up as I think that will be a very popular place for spiders. Andy and Dennis (our builder) are spending Saturday morning putting the summer house up. I can't wait, it'll be so nice for somewhere to take a break during an agility lesson.

Visitors

Tomorrow Tina and Ellie are arriving for a two week stay whilst Dan and Mac go on holiday to Cornwall. They're going to an agility show and then having two weeks holiday with Alan and Tracey. It'll be Dan's last outing in G2 so I hope he wins! Al needs one more win with Meggie for G7 so we're keeping our fingers crossed for him too!

Then next Tuesday Tazz arrives for his holiday whilst Bernadette and Dennis travel out to the Agility World championships. Oh boy, that means 9 dogs in the house!

The worst thing is that during that time the builders will probably want to break through the kitchen into the new utility room - where am I going to put all the dogs! Tina and Ellie normally have the small sitting room to themselves but they'll just have to get used to sharing that with some of the others, probably Kizzy, Tazz and Becky. Naughty Niamh will move into the office with Abbey and Poppy (oh dear, that means all my three are with me in the office, how did that happen I wonder!) That means Murphy will just have to move into the greenhouse! After his recent escapades at agility shows I think this could be a very real possibility! Only joking ...................

FCI Courses

We have lots of people away from training due to holidays so we decided to put up some FCI type courses for Bernadette to come along and practise prior to departing for Norway. Toni and Lee are also coming along and maybe Lisa.

We're doing this next Tuesday at our training school. It should be fun and hopefully helpful for our British team members. We're going to train over the courses ourselves and then when they others arrive they can show us how it's done properly! I have a pile of courses in front of me which I'm studying (they are courses designed by this year's two judges) and we hope they'll give a real flavour of what's to come. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed for the whole British team.

I think that's enough for now!