Idyllic afternoon at my sister's . The invasion .

The top picture shows Grommit the dog with his " when are they going home ? " face .

Alice is much calmer now on visits out and no longer bullies him quite so mercilessly , but still , Grommit prefers the quiet life and Alice loves to race about the huge garden and the outside farm and coutryside pretending to be a Northumberland and not just a seaside greyhound . And sometimes this involves leaping right over smaller terriers or pecking their necks and seeing what they do , and then barking madly at a passing farm bike ( a loud fart machine of a yellow quad bike thing ) , then going crazy when a man on the opposite hillside starts shooting at pheasants . All of these things give Grommit something of a headache when he is trying to relax in his own garden keeping an eye on his guinea pigs . And then she wears herself out and flops down on the newly grown aquileagias . Pah! There are other unmentionable things she does in the corner of the garden too , which involve people having to scuttle about with poop scoops and the like .

Once the sun has gone down and the cooking has started and people are chat chatting and paying no attention to dogs and what she is up to she is squeezing herself into his basket and then , horrors , helping herself to his toys , sniffing out his carefully secreted Nylabone from its hidey hole and tossing it willy nilly about the place without so much as a by your leave . Then its the special ball with the protruberances from his Christmas stocking 06 , which she has the nerve to fall asleep with , under her paw , as if she planned to take it home . And all the while the two sisters talk and talk and that camera is out trying to get pictures of Grommit squashed up in his basket when the poor lad daren't close his eyes for fear of what might happen next , despite the fact that he is dead on his feet .

Idyllic afternoon for whom exactly ?

Alice is exhausted today , head under the cushion in " do not disturb " fashion .

I know how she feels .

I missed the morning walk and stayed in bed , too much sun , too many things I shouldn't have eaten .

Three of Nat's friends were rescued off the rocks between Cullercoats and Longsands by the Lifeboat yesterday , caught by the incoming tide .

So glad she was with me .