I get up at three am to let Alice out . Despite the rain , she agrees to going out in the yard and now gets the message that if she puddles out there she gets a gravy bone . So I am not out there too long though I have to put on the Uggs and a coat and accompany her ( she s still scared of the dark ) .
So , I'm back in bed by three fifteen , and reading Instances of the Number Three ( Salley Vickers ) till three forty five and finally squeeze down amongst the three attendant cats ( Kitty being with N ) and sleep , only to dream I am inspecting my lower right leg and on the inner calf note that I am growing a nipple . I wonder how I will get my socks over it , and how it will rub along with my new ( dog walking )boots.
Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Sunday, 18 November 2007
Memories ...
Clearing out clutter brings back all sorts of memories and having weeded loads of toys , games and clothes , I was standing in the kitchen preparing ahead for tomorrow's after work dinner ( cheese crust vegetable pie ) and as I mixed the pastry I caught sight of the pictures which have been exhibited on the kitchen wall since N was , what , three , four by the looks of them . I think the drawing on the left ( of Moi ) was done for Mothers Day in recpetion class an dthe two on the right are perhaps vintage 98 or 99? Who knows . But the one on the left has been systematically eroded , as you will note , by Kitty and Pearl who like to stand on their back legs from a position on the kitchen bench and rip pieces off it and chew them . I think its all about " why are our works not on display ?" or some such . Having noticed that an even greater piece of my left face was missing than I had known , I thought a photograph for the blog would preserve these masterpeices for posterity . And , after all , N s cousin Oliver --: Oliver Jeffers :-- is a well known ( I think, certainly gifted anyway and his books are all on the front desk in Borders ) children s artist so maybe one day N too will be gifted and her early works coveted .
I will always love them anyway and Im sure they will stay up there on the kitchen till they are in shreds . But its nice to have them on record in the ether too .
Clutter Clearing ...
Today we are emptying N s room as part of a Grand Plan which involves moving a pile of things here from storage .
Kitty .... " This is the most fun I've had in weeks . Ever since that Giant Stick Insect moved in and Took Over . ( Click on the second picture for a closer look at her expression , if cat expressions mean anything to you ! )
Well , better get on . Its mid day and about a quarter done ...
Saturday, 17 November 2007
afternoon walk
Took Alice to the beach at Cambois up the coast this afternoon , also in celebration of finding the perfect walking dog boots , plus a pair of great ankle boots not for dog purposes . Daniel footwear at Royal Quays came up trumps after I had searched Newcastle and various riding establishments over the last few days . And after making my selection I then discovered that the dog boots were reduced from £75 to £30 odd and the posh ones reduced to £27 despite being marked at £55 , so I didn't do too badly .
I may have to photograph them later .
pants
Sparling antidote to the week that was .... an article about mens underpants in the Times this morning ......not to be missed .Bargainhunter - Times Online
Friday, 16 November 2007
Strange Days
Strange Days , these last ones . The day job was dominated by an air of expectation on Wednesday morning . I had convinced myself that A would survive as she had kept going through two nights of surgery . I was unable to grasp that someone of her age , with two children , could not survive .
But on Wednesday morning we got a message through that she died the previous night .
It was like that moment in the middle of Winter when the snow starts falling outside and everyone looks out and there is a hushed silence , a sense of awful wonder and amazement that this has happened . We all know snow , we see it , we either love it or hate it but each time its there , its new and we all look at it with a fascination . And it brings an odd , eerie silence with it .
That's how it was .
Only there is nothing wonderful about death .
We spoke to each other , we decided things that needed to be done , but it was all new . Every one of us there has been bereaved , we all know this place , where it takes us , yet each new journey into loss is different .
Then , the news that one of our other colleagues who has had a chest infection for three weeks and has been home , has been diagnosed as possibly having TB .
At four fifteen I left the office , before time but with a pile of work to do at the weekend .
This was the first day both D and I had been out together and Nat was going in to walk the dog herself after school .
As I drove my phone rang , N on the phone in tears saying the dog was attacking her and she was frightened . I asked what she meant and she said the dog was over excited , would not calm down and was growling and scaring her . I was very close to home so told her to get out of the house straight away , pick up her mobile and her keys and go out into the front away from the dog and I would be home in two minutes .
I was stopped at every red light , rang her while at one and she said she was sitting in the porch .
And when I got there , there she was , looking small and lost , and near her , a spider . N is not a fan of spiders . But I guess the spider was less of a threat than a marauding dog .
I listened whilst she told me what had happened . Alice had been out with her for a walk then on their return she had got very bouncy , jumping from sofa to chair and when N told her to calm down she started pushing N around , paws up on her arms and coming at her from behind . She had growled and frightened her beyond belief , so much so that she couldnt move .
We agreed that Alice is a pack animal and was probably trying to work out her place in the pecking order and that she thought she might come higher up than N .
That it was important she saw that she had made a mistake and that N was boss over her . N agreed that she wanted to go in , so we approached her and I encouraged N to do what I had seen dog trainers ( and our neighbour Sam do with her dog recently ) , make her lie flat down and realise we were boss . We told her in no uncertain terms that we were in charge and she would not behave like this . N was great , very brave after she had been scared and we talked about whether we could keep Alice , though I was clear that I thought we could manage this and N was clear that she loves Alice and if she had known what to do she would have been ok .
Alice responded well , was affectionate to N again , calm and silly . Its hard to imagine that she had been so over bearing but on a couple of occasions she has been like this with me and has responded immediately when Ive spoken to her and told her to calm down .
I rang our neighbour who had agreed to walk her at lunch time and she had had no problems at all . Alice had been calm and friendly with her . I guess ed my theory about the pecking order was probably right and my sister has often talked about how their dog regards her partner Peter as Top Banana , with the boys in the family coming next , then Laura at the bottom of the pile .
Ive seen this in action myself as Grommet( who is a terrier) has a party trick. If you leave a ten
pound note sticking out of your pocket Grommet will slide it out and trot over to Peter and quietly present him with the booty . If Peter isn't present it goes to George , then Harvey comes next . Laura rarely gets a look in , even though she both walks and feeds him .
Since then peace is restored on the home front .
Alice s future is safe with us . She has worked out our routines mostly and the puddles have stopped ( three in total in fifteen days is probably not bad ). She has made an effort to ingratiate herself with N ( going up to her in the kitchen and leaning up against her , staring at her and generally being a loving dog again ) .
As for things elsewhere , they cant be other than dire .
But on Wednesday morning we got a message through that she died the previous night .
It was like that moment in the middle of Winter when the snow starts falling outside and everyone looks out and there is a hushed silence , a sense of awful wonder and amazement that this has happened . We all know snow , we see it , we either love it or hate it but each time its there , its new and we all look at it with a fascination . And it brings an odd , eerie silence with it .
That's how it was .
Only there is nothing wonderful about death .
We spoke to each other , we decided things that needed to be done , but it was all new . Every one of us there has been bereaved , we all know this place , where it takes us , yet each new journey into loss is different .
Then , the news that one of our other colleagues who has had a chest infection for three weeks and has been home , has been diagnosed as possibly having TB .
At four fifteen I left the office , before time but with a pile of work to do at the weekend .
This was the first day both D and I had been out together and Nat was going in to walk the dog herself after school .
As I drove my phone rang , N on the phone in tears saying the dog was attacking her and she was frightened . I asked what she meant and she said the dog was over excited , would not calm down and was growling and scaring her . I was very close to home so told her to get out of the house straight away , pick up her mobile and her keys and go out into the front away from the dog and I would be home in two minutes .
I was stopped at every red light , rang her while at one and she said she was sitting in the porch .
And when I got there , there she was , looking small and lost , and near her , a spider . N is not a fan of spiders . But I guess the spider was less of a threat than a marauding dog .
I listened whilst she told me what had happened . Alice had been out with her for a walk then on their return she had got very bouncy , jumping from sofa to chair and when N told her to calm down she started pushing N around , paws up on her arms and coming at her from behind . She had growled and frightened her beyond belief , so much so that she couldnt move .
We agreed that Alice is a pack animal and was probably trying to work out her place in the pecking order and that she thought she might come higher up than N .
That it was important she saw that she had made a mistake and that N was boss over her . N agreed that she wanted to go in , so we approached her and I encouraged N to do what I had seen dog trainers ( and our neighbour Sam do with her dog recently ) , make her lie flat down and realise we were boss . We told her in no uncertain terms that we were in charge and she would not behave like this . N was great , very brave after she had been scared and we talked about whether we could keep Alice , though I was clear that I thought we could manage this and N was clear that she loves Alice and if she had known what to do she would have been ok .
Alice responded well , was affectionate to N again , calm and silly . Its hard to imagine that she had been so over bearing but on a couple of occasions she has been like this with me and has responded immediately when Ive spoken to her and told her to calm down .
I rang our neighbour who had agreed to walk her at lunch time and she had had no problems at all . Alice had been calm and friendly with her . I guess ed my theory about the pecking order was probably right and my sister has often talked about how their dog regards her partner Peter as Top Banana , with the boys in the family coming next , then Laura at the bottom of the pile .
Ive seen this in action myself as Grommet( who is a terrier) has a party trick. If you leave a ten
pound note sticking out of your pocket Grommet will slide it out and trot over to Peter and quietly present him with the booty . If Peter isn't present it goes to George , then Harvey comes next . Laura rarely gets a look in , even though she both walks and feeds him .
Since then peace is restored on the home front .
Alice s future is safe with us . She has worked out our routines mostly and the puddles have stopped ( three in total in fifteen days is probably not bad ). She has made an effort to ingratiate herself with N ( going up to her in the kitchen and leaning up against her , staring at her and generally being a loving dog again ) .
As for things elsewhere , they cant be other than dire .
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