Busy Busy

Writing has been going well. My sort of novel makes for a very odd website history, though.  This week I've searched for the mating and fighting habits of turtles, how to sail in low wind, giant ground sloths, and many other fun things that would reveal too much if I told you about them!

All that weird knowledge didn't seem to do me any good when we went out to a quiz night with some other brigade members last weekend, though.

I must admit that while it was fun, the noise, perfume and whatever gave me a mostly mild bout of acute porphyria when I got home.  Had the chills and shakes and upset tummy but didn't get to my brain this time, thank goodness. Still meant for a pretty bad night.  Not fun, but I've just got to take some chances if I am to have any sort of life.

Training was fun at the brigade last Saturday.  We had a little turnout race. Which team could get into two vehicles, get out to the pretend fire, and deploy hoses. We lost but we did go first, so the second team learned from our mistakes.  :)

This is me trying to reach into the Light Tanker for a flat hose.  Shortness is a disadvantage in some cases, no doubt about it.  Still, I hardly ever bang my head on anything because someone taller has already done so and fixed it!
 

When I was looking for Nermal photos, I found these old pics I thought I'd lost, of Tam and Buffy and our pool at the last house.

It brought back a lot of memories for me.  Amazing to think that Tam wouldn't swim at all when she came to us at six months. We certainly did a good job of getting her happier with water.

It was a bit of a dangerous game though!  

A new things I've added to my days is learning Anglo-Saxon on Memrise.  It's been fun. I just have to do it, what with playing the Anglo-Saxon lyre and all. I'd like to be able to sing at least a couple of songs on my lyre in that language.  Not that I ever expect to get at good as Benjamin Bagby, or sound as marvelous! 

He gives me goosebumps!  I can now pick out a few words that I know. I hope to be able to read/listen to it all eventually. I do love the sound of it so much.  The lyre, the language.  All of it.  Interesting where learning can lead you, isn't it!




                 

Mum and I and the Dogs go to Noble Falls

Saturday afternoon was a totally beautiful winter afternoon. The light was golden and slanting, the air was crisp, the sun was a little warm if you stood right in it.  Andyroo was off at his amateur radio club, so mum and I got the dogs into the car and went off to visit Noble Falls.  It is about 25mins from where we live.

Someone was a little bit excited to be getting a bonus walk! (The same someone who is excited quite a lot of the time.)

 

Mum walks Angus on a Halti because he is a little bit strong for her aging joints if he takes it into his head to suddenly lunge. He sulks a bit but he behaves himself very well while wearing it.  Usually he only wears it while they walk to and from the bush or training so he was horrified to find he had to be on lead for the whole walk this day.  There is a busy country road nearby to this falls and when he and Tuppence get together they are inclined to range too widely.  Better safe than sorry!

Angus doing his, "I hate my Halti but I'm a good boy," face.
 

It's a really pretty spot here in winter. I usually try to get across here at least once each winter.  In summer the Wooroloo Brook dries up so it's not so nice then.   The water is pretty low for this time of year, actually.  Sometimes that little fall you can see at the back of this photo and behind mum in the one below is spread right across that shelf of rock.

This is a very short video I did four years ago when Tuppence and Angus were just a twinkle in my mum's eye.  This was Rosie, Buffy and I, and you can see how much more water there is going over the falls.  I was sitting a little left of where mum is standing in the above pic.

   
 We walked along a little walk trail that goes beside the water for a while. I usually come in the morning so it was lovely to see the way the late afternoon sun shone across the water.

After we had a little walk we sat on a rock near the falls and soaked up some negative ions.  The dogs would have preferred more walk!

But once they realised we were stopped for now. They sat and enjoyed the sights as well.

Sweet Rosie, happy as ever.

Tuppence.  I don't often get a smiling photo of her because when she is smiling she is usually also on the move. 

It is a great place for paddling but some places are very slippery so we got to enjoy watching a kid inevitably fall into the water (sorry no photo).  When did I turn into the person who was watching instead of the person falling on her arse in the water?  Not sure it is a good thing, but then no way was I going to try to skate round on the slippery wet rocks while being towed by two Labradors!

The site of best slippage and wet bums.

Instead of going paddling, we sedately sat and enjoyed the peaceful water.

   
  Then we went home, feeling happy. 

Dogs of My High Pack: Tam Part Two

Here is Part one if you'd like to read that first. Here's my Buffy story if you'd like to read that too.

Oh boy have I been having fun finding photos!  I get a little bit sad here and there but then I find another one that makes me smile and glad Tam was in our lives.  She was such a character!

You can see in these two pics how much her fur on her face changed as she got older.  For some reason GWP puppies have a fuzzy bit on top of their nose, but as they mature all the fur ends up in their beard.   

She never really loved water as much as Buffy or your average Lab, but we did teach her to swim by swimming ourselves and coaxing her in, and if there were ducks to chase, she would go in anywhere.  Also, she always loved to cool her tummy in a nice muddy spot.

When Sally came to join our family as a 10 month old rehome, both Tam and Buffy loved her to bits and it seemed to help their own relationship too.  A happy Goldie in the house could make anyone more cheerful.  :)  I'll talk about Sally another time. It is a bit of a sad story.

Tam always wanted the next thing to happen.  I know they say dogs are happy in the moment but that wasn't true of Tam. With her it was always, "When is it dinner?"  "When are we walking?"  "What fun thing can we do next?"  She loved to be in the car and off somewhere. 

She loved social events where she could get lots of attention...

and beg for treats...

Once Rosie joined the family, we were once more five everywhere we went.  Buffy played with Rosie more than Tam did, because Tam was a bit annoyed that she had to share the love even more, but she was never mean to puppy Rosie.   

I was happy with more doggy company.  For me as far as dogs go, the more the merrier.  Luckily I draw the line at three, but I wouldn't, oh I wouldn't, if I didn't control myself.  I am happiest in a pack, even in a pack of dogs with demon red eyes.   :)

This is my all time fave pic of the three dogs together.   

Tam had to share a lot of the attention in those days. Andyroo and I had three dogs, mum had three dogs, and my sis had two, so family events were rather doggy! (And we loved it!) 

From left to right there are, in front, Rosie, Kelly, Jock, Buffy, and Kate, and the three behind are Tess, Freyja and Tam. All looking at a ball!

Tam still got the ball as much as she could.  She was a ball fiend all her life.  

As she got older she got quite woolly!

 

But she started to feel the heat in summer so we took to clipping her just for the hot months.  She looked like a Schnauzer!  It always a gave her a new lease of life and she'd be like a puppy again.

And of course she got painted quite a lot! This is the face you get if you tie a dog to the table leg to paint them: 

Unlike Buffy, Tam did age a lot as she got older. Her front feet bothered her, and then her back as well. We managed it as well as we could, but in the end we had to let her go. I think this is one of the last photos we have of her.  She looks a bit like a salty old sea-dog here but actually she was still as cheerful, noisy, grumpy, opinionated and snuggly as ever, it was her body that let her down. I do wonder if she too had Lyme.  She got tick bites that same day as Andrew and I. Perhaps that is what gave her the arthritis.  We'll never know.

 I like best to think of her as she was for all those years, full of life, fun and noise!

 

Goodbye Tammy, we will snuggle again one day!

Dogs of My high Pack: Tam (Part One)

I'm not even sure I can capture what this dog was truly like. She was the funniest, sweetest, noisiest, grumbliest, snuggliest dog ever.  She was our first German Wirehaired Pointer.  

We had to let her go three days shy of her twelfth birthday due to a combination of back arthritis and pancreatitis.  That was in 2011 and I still miss her.  Not hard to do when you felt and heard her all day long!

Really, she was daddy's girl first and foremost... 

But if he wasn't home, she was happy enough with me, and we did many fun things together.

We don't really have any early puppy photos of her, because she actually belonged to my future (at the time) stepdad at first.  I do remember meeting her at eight weeks, and her sitting on my foot and looking up at me, and me thinking, "This dog is supposed to be mine!" but actually she only became ours at six months old when it became obvious she wasn't keen enough on water to be a top flight retrieving dog.  We were very happy about that!


This is her and mum's young Kate not long before Tam became ours. 

This is the one of the earliest pics I could find of her, with my niece who is now 22.  I have a very early one but do you think I can find it?  

I think she was not yet ours, or maybe just, when we took this photo, yet she was already a fan of Andrew.  :)

They played and played.

We belonged to a local dog obedience club then and they always enjoyed dressing up for fun nights.  Tam never minded costumes as long as she got lots of treats and attention for wearing them!

She had the most charming and funny face ever!

  All her life she liked to do this with tablecloths and curtains...

And all her life she liked to bark, trill, squeal, snort, growl, grumble, and bark some more. I've never owned such a noisy dog.  She announced our arrival anywhere, she announced our leaving anywhere, she commented on everything all day long.  Here she is commenting on a kong game with Buffy and young Rosie.

 She also liked to snuggle, or at least touch.  If you were with Tam, she was touching you, either on your lap, leaning on you, or resting her head on your knee or foot.  That or she was sitting up at the table with you!

       We went to field trials and training (which she was mad for, look at those crazy eyes!)...

We went to retrieving trials and training...

And later on I did obedience trials with her. We got our CD but by CDX her front feet were starting to bother her, and her tyro handler (me) kept making mistakes in the trials so we never titled at that level.  We had lot of fun training though, and every now and then we had a very good trial!  (Note prize sash held very carefully upside down! D'oh!)

 A year after Tam came to live with us, we got Buffy.  Tam accepted her but they were never really friends like Rosie and Tuppence are.  There was a lot of jealousy between them at times.  Poor Tam! She really wanted to be the only dog and have ALL the attention ALL the time!

Still, she had a lot of fun even once Buffy came along.

  

 

Anyway, more about Tam another time.  I have lots more photos!