Peter & Simon are One Year Old Today.

Simon and Peter are a year old today.

The first three photos were taken four days ago

Peter is very inquisitive and bold and independent. He can also be rather naughty!  In particular when I take him for walks.  He hasn't quite worked it out yet that it is bad etiquette to sound like a screaming banshee when he sees another dog.  He is the epitome of a rather small yappy dog!  So far everything I have tried hasn't worked.  I think it is sheer enthusiasm, but of course other dogs and their owners don't take it that way, and I don't blame them.  If they allowed him to make his noise and walk with them, he does calm down and stop, and there is one person and their dog locally who will do that, and it is helping, but we don't see them often enough when we are out.  Strangely he doesn't tend to bark at all at home, which is good.

Peter likes to snuggle in the evenings and especially likes to lie upside down with his tongue sticking out, very much a Percy trait.  He likes to go underneath a blanket or tucked up under a jumper/sweater you might be wearing.

Simon is loyal and a bit of a softy.  He is perfect to take out, doesn't bark and is very well behaved, but he takes his guard dog duties at home very seriously and does bark here.  I think he has had lessons from Stanley, who being a typical Sheltie does like to let you know when there are people walking down the road, visitors arriving here or at the neighbours, oh and of course the postman arriving, although they do stop and I can have a chat with him.

Simon snuggles in quite a different way to Peter, and doesn't like to be upside down at all, rather curling himself up and against you.

Together they are a great pair and contrast to each other, not only in size but also character.

One of their favourite games is chasing each other around the settee.  Simon gets very excited and vocal about it.

Now for some photos taken today.

Simon having a good sniff...

Stanley coming to investigate. 

Peter checking on Simon.

Do you want to play?

A poorly taken in action shot.

 

Summing up the Last Week

Well what a week, I didn't much feel like updating my blog, so this is a round up of the last week.

I stupidly did some washing last night and hung it on the line this morning as the weather app said no rain, and although it looked overcast I thought it would blow over.  Instead it has been raining ever since I put the washing out!  Not heavy rain, but enough to make it even damper!  Still the weather app says no rain - I never usually take much notice of it anyway, but today I have had my thoughts of its accuracy more than confirmed.  I will just have to leave it on the line as don't have a drier, and if necessary will bring it in later today and rewash it through this evening to hang out tomorrow. (Updated as it has taken me all day to write this post!) Sun finally has come out at 6 pm this evening.  Will probably just leave the washing, it will dry on the line tomorrow.

The other stupid thing I did was leave the freezer drawer open last night - a lot has defrosted, some of which I will cook up today and tomorrow but some I will have to throw out as being on my own, I am just not going to get through it.  A real nuisance.  It is a drawer freezer at the bottom of the fridge and I don't think they levelled it quite right when they installed it as you have to always make sure you have pushed the fridge door shut otherwise it falls open.  Obviously a similar thing happened with the drawer, as I was sure I had closed it when I took out the ice bag for hubby, and also I went in to the room later that evening to put the time on the washing machine, and I would have noticed the freezer drawer open as they are next to each other. I hate wasting food, so it is a jolly nuisance, but nothing I can do much else about.  When I get my chest freezer delivered on Wednesday I will explain about the fridge door falling open and  ask them if they can check the fridge levelling as it is the same company that installed the fridge who are delivering the freezer.

A lovely walk earlier in the the last week, the grass is so dry.

But perfect weather for haymaking.

Carrier ship just off the coast.

In the garden this week:

I did a new sign and was able to laminate it this time, thanks to hubby bringing the laminater down.

Beautiful skies.

My second cucumber, they are delicious!

Lilies in the pond looking gorgeous.

Hollyhocks still going strong.

I'm not sure what this plant is.  It has a sort of thistle flower head, and the bees love it.  Not the prettiest of plants, but good to see it attracts the bees.

My one and only sunflower I planted from seed that has actually grown into a plant.

My Dalmatian beans are looking good and I have been having them for dinner every few days.

These are the other beans I planted.  I can't remember their name off hand, but they are lovely to eat.

I've been doing battle with a climbing plant that has gotten out of control and covering one of my plum trees.  I managed to clear half of it off the tree, but couldn't reach the rest and we ran out of time for hubby to do some.

It has been a funny old week, the beginning of which I felt very ill from the stress, but fortunately by the end of the week, these stresses have been mostly resolved and an amicable solution with regards the fence has been reached which is always good.  Hubby came down for a few days with the dogs which was lovely and he managed to get the first coat done of half the deck.  He had originally planned to do the whole deck, but his time was taken up trying to resolve the back fence problem and then doing a lot of weeding and clearing along the line where the new fence will be going up this week.  It would have been nice if we had had more time to actually relax and enjoy each other's company and his time down here but it wasn't to be.  One day hopefully we will actually have some stress free time!  Anyway the time passed quickly and he left late last night with the dogs.

During the treatment - I forgot to take the 'finished first coat, first half' photo.

This has been a wonderful sight to see these two boys looking out the door at me.

I picked some more sweet peas and their scent is wonderful.

My sweet Percy snoozing.

Last night Percy cuddles.

I was really shocked at how much Percy had deteriorated since I last saw him in March and of course back in February.  How on earth the vet gave him a better 'body score' than he has ever had is beyond me, and completely wrong.  He is so much weaker than he was, and instead of a seven year old dog, he looked like a 16 year old dog.  I think the problem is in part due to lack of continuity and different vets treating him each time he goes in for his chemo, but even so, my husband wrote a detailed account of his symptoms and our concerns when he last went in and that was virtually ignored.  We have decided to cancel his next treatment this coming week (and what probably would have been his last, or second to last treatment anyway) to see how he goes on.  I don't think the treatments are doing him any favours anymore.  We will then assess how he is getting on and if still concerned we will take him back to his lovely regular vet and ask for blood tests etc to be taken.  Hopefully he just needs time to build up his strength again.  But I am worried about his future.

Stanley enjoying the beach.

We managed to take the dogs out a couple of times while DH was down here.  The first time we took them to the beach Percy used to love, which was quite frankly a disaster.  He hated it and looked totally miserable so DH ended up having to carry him.  Stanley was fine, he loved it.   The following day we thought we would try the forest where I have been before, and Percy was much happier walking through there, and although slow, really enjoyed sniffing and toddling along.

Surprisingly the photos I took of the dogs on the beach, Percy doesn't look too bad in.

Having good sniffs.

Today has been an odd day, seems a bit strange to have the house empty again. but at least I have some flat surfaces uncovered again - boy an my husband clutter up a flat surface in a very short period of time!

I've felt a bit flat, so have had a quiet day and then went for a walk late this afternoon.

Delighted to see a heron looking for food amongst the rocks I sat and watched him a while.

 .

The ferries are working hard going back and forth

Just resting.

Total Mileage: 

Week One: 30.5 miles
Week Two: 27.7 miles

So slightly over half way to my goal of 100 miles this month, which means I'm still on track to achieving my goal. Of course now I am nearly at the end of week three of walking.

Sunday Summary

Gosh we are already a whole week into to September.  I really don't like how quickly the year is going.  It has already started to feel decidedly chilly and has gone down to 7 degrees during the night and wasn't much more than that when I woke up this morning.  Far too early to have the heating on yet though, and anyway we have to get the thermostat automatic switch fixed as it stopped working earlier on in the year.  More jumpers for now and I think I will replace the summer bedding with the winter duvet. 

I really haven't done much in the garden this summer due to my ill health, but have managed to get out a couple of times in the last week to do some long overdue weeding and cutting back.  The roses haven't done as well this year as in previous years.  Whether this is because I gave them a real hard prune last year, or just because of general neglect or the weather I don't know.  The whole of the rose garden really needs a bit of an overhaul.  Extensive weeding and new bark, but unfortunately our local garden centre where we use to get all the bark is closing down.  A real shame as we used to use it a lot.

The Marigolds are putting on a delightful display outside my bedroom window and I just love their cheerful sunshine colour.

There is one on either side of the window.  

They are really stunning.

The sky was an amazing blue this morning.  A real nip in the air, it was pretty cold when I took the dogs for their walk, I actually put a hat on!

The neighbours apple tree.  Wish we could reach the apples as they will all be wasted.  For some reason our trees only produced one apple this year, despite having blossom on them.  That is ONE apple out of THREE trees!  

The Maple is looking so green.  DH is currently pruning it a bit to let some more light into our garden as it has grown really quite tall.  

After a couple of chilling nights I decided it was time for the winter duvet.

Not wanting to feel quite like winter yet though I chose some pretty spring/summer print vintage sheets

and a light butterfly duvet cover.  This duvet is very light, but oh so warm, so I was quite snug last night.

Stanley had another good groom this morning after his walk.  He is moulting like made.  He looks a bit funny here as I'd taken his collar off to groom round his neck properly and only just put the collar back on so his hair hasn't settled round it properly,

Such a handsome boy,.

This rather large spider was seen strolling across our wall the other evening.  I'd already captured one earlier in the day and put him out!