Lovely walk in Eridge Forest

Only just got round to uploading the photos from our lovely walk in Eridge (Broadwater) Forest last Friday. It was a gorgeous day and it was nice to walk in the sunshine.

February already!

Oops, February already and I have neglected the blog somewhat; too busy living life instead of doing the important thing and updating the blog - LOL!

Not sure about everyone else, but I for one will be glad when this winter is through and we see some sign of Spring. Now that all the snow has gone it's back to muddy walks. We haven't had a great deal of rain but just enough to keep the paths muddy. It's really irritating because our fields are actually lovely and clean but the footpath that I have to use through to the field is very muddy and so the dogs get really dirty right at the end of their walk. That said, I actually love walking in the winter, on calm winter days I find it very relaxing. It's just the cleaning up of the dogs that is a chore. But would I be happy if I didn't have my dogs to clean up, answer no. So I will stop moaning about the muddy walks and just enjoy them.

I've had some lovely walks just recently, some with friends and lots of dogs and some by myself with just my doglets. Today I'm going out to walk in Eridge and then visit my Mum. I like this because I will have a nice walk with just my three girls, always a treat as I love to see them interact together in a very different way than when the whole pack is together; then I shall stop off at the garden centre and have a bit of a mooch and stock up with some bird fodder and finally visit mum in time to help her with her dinner. Then it's back home to catch up with some t.v. and an evening in with Andy. We have 'Silent Witness' to watch (last night's and tonight's episodes) and also the new series 'The Good Wife'. I really like this, it stars Julianna Marguiles (Carol from ER, my all time favourite programme.) We don't get many evenings to chat and watch t.v. with Andy's current college commitments. Truth be told, I won't lie to you: we're also watching the re-run of the first series of Gavin & Stacey on BBC3. Tidy. All that said, knowing me I'll fall asleep on the sofa before the first programme finishes!

Here are some pictures of a couple of recent dog walks. Next post will be an update on our studio build which is progressing well considering it is a weekends-only project.

The first three pictures are from our walk in the New Forest last Saturday. We had a lovely day training followed by a pub lunch and then a nice walk on the forest. I had only Zeki with me so I couldn't mention to Poppy or Niamh that I'd walked on the New Forest, they would never forgive me. I must keep it a secret!

Karen's Yazoo

Todd and Corrie

Zeki

These photos are from our walk yesterday. It was really lovely and not quite so cold. I stayed out for a long time and took the path beside the river. Here is Zeki posing on a fallen tree. She looks so gorgeous.

Other than snow

I thought I'd cheer myself up by doing a post on something other than snow.

We have been doing some things despite the snow. The new front door is fitted. I am very pleased with it and it's amazing how much warmer the hall is. I hadn't realised how drafty the old door made the hall. The nice thing is that the inside of the door is white so it makes our somewhat dark hall feel lighter.


We took our few Christmas decorations down last week and after we had done this I mentioned to Andy about swapping over two of the sofas. This led to a major re-shuffle in our sitting room and I am very pleased with the result. We really hadn't done much with the room since we moved here and some pieces of furniture were still where the removal guys had dumped them. Bad I know, but other priorities etc. We have three sofas in the sitting room but hadn't been able to fit in our armchair. That was sitting in the smaller sitting room and was a pain for Andy with his massage practise. Every time someone comes along for massage he had to put the chair outside. With the new layout we have easily fitted in the armchair. I put a display cabinet out into the hall with a view to selling it on eBay but now I'm keeping it because it's fits well out there and means we can have a lamp at the far end of the hall. Why didn't we do this ages ago!!

We felt incentivised to finally get round to hanging most of our many pictures. We had literally chucked a few up where there were already hooks. We like lots of pictures on the walls, not everyone's taste I know but it's what we are happy with. So, at last they came out of storage and it was so nice to see them. I had forgotten lots of them and it's like having old friends back with us. We have lots of dog pictures but other stuff too! I have quite a few border collie prints and now realise I need a sheltie picture!

The thing I like most about the new layout is that we have three distinct areas in the room rather than two. We have our sitting room area for watching t.v. and for when friends come round; the dining area and now a day time reading area. I know we have the snug to sit in but I can't use that all the time Andy has the massage table in there. Roll on the studio being finished.

Something that makes me smile to myself is that you hear people talking about five car families; well that's not us but we are now a five sofa family with just two of us because our dogs are not allowed on the sofas of course. OK so one of them is currently in the summer house and is technically a sofa-bed waiting to go in the studio but even so. It's ridiculous!

I need to find a new, more attractive and larger toy box for the dog toys. Any suggestions welcomed! Yes, that is a new dog quilt lying in front of the sofa. But before any comments are made, Andy bought that for Poppy - shock, horror!

The other thing I'm gradually working my way through is putting our CD's onto the computer ready for loading onto an iPod or whatever we end up buying. We are doing quite a bit of research and with help from Dennis, Michael and Karen think we have made a sensible decision. We want to be able to play our music through our existing sound system so we are going to start off with a Sony Walkman and a dumb docking station, ie. no speakers. We were going to buy a hand held MP3 player each but we've decided to start with just the Sony version and see how we like it. If we think it's good enough then we'll get a second one that Andy can use as he has an socket in his car (tranlated van) radio. If we think it's just ok then I will get an iPod for my use and Andy will stick with Sony. Funny that!

It's a bit tedious copying all the music but I'm trying to do some each day and then leave it for a bit. I'm loading into Windows Media Play as MP3 files and then pulling it into iTunes as well. That way we should have complete flexibility.

My next chore will be to tidy up my digital photographs. They are in such a mess because I am so lazy. I can't find anything and there is no logic to my filing system. I am not looking forward to this task but I am determined to do it!

Snow is starting to melt ....

At last the snow is beginning to melt. It would have disappeared a lot more except that it has snowed here, heavily at times, for most of the day. We have been lucky in that our main road has been well gritted but the side roads are not good at all. For some reason I just want to stay indoors when the snow comes but at the same time I get bored even though there's loads I could be doing.

We've managed to walk the dogs most days and if not they've had a good session outside at home. We've cleared the agility equipment for the time being and so they are lucky to have plenty of space to run around in.

Yesterday I walked them over the fields and there was about another 4 inches of snow from the previous night. It must have been good for me because my lets ached like mad. It is really deep right out past the farm where I walk.

Like most dogs ours love the snow: Zeki and Murphy cannot stop eating it and subsequently have to keep going out for a wee when we get home; Poppy likes to roll in it (surprise, surprise) and Becky and Niamh just love to run through it as fast as possible. That leaves Kizzle. She likes it for the first few paces and then she gets fed up and walks to heel. She hates the large snow balls that build up round her legs. Zeki gets these also but she doesn't care! She's well 'ard! I find the best coats are the Equafleece for stopping snow balls forming. Kizzy hates hers and so I don't often put it on her but it is worth it.

I have taken a few pictures in the snow but even that gets boring after a while! Here are some taken during the most recent snow.

Playing in the garden

Out over the fields

Tucked up happily in the warm after a nice walk