Lack of electricity, choppings, burnings, visitings.

[bunn]

On Thursday...
when we were walking the hounds, we could see the Red Arrows performing in the distance at Fowey regatta. I don't know why this made the news today that one of them crashed seem more close, but oddly, it did.

On Friday...
the electricity company decided we didn't need electricity today. So I packed up all 5 dogs and my laptop (which had staged a recovery after the Coffee Incident, although I am awaiting delivery of a new one which Mr Sony is making for me as I type. )  I went to my Mum's house, hoping there would be electricity there.  (I needed to get Flash his Mr Sneeze toy and his many coats anyway).

There was electricity, but once I had got there and set everything up, I found that the keys b, n, and 'space' on my keyboard had decided they weren't needed that day either.  It's quite remarkable how often you need b & n, but really I don't think anyone could work without a spacebar.

That evening it was fine, so we resolved to tackle the jungle that is our garden, and hacked, chopped and burned.  This was something of a theme for the weekend.
On Saturday...
More hacking, chopping and burning!    In particular, I felled a hazel tree which had been offending the eyes of our neighbour, who had on several occasions mentioned his concern that it might be about to savagely rip our guttering from the wall. 

When I had just finished removing it, our neighbour came out of his house, looked up, removed his pipe from under his moustache, and said "Oh, I say!".  Truly, he is a man fallen out of the Twenties...

And I did some work in the evening, to compensate for my having not done anything much on Friday.
On Sunday...
I went to visit my mother, who is looking a great deal better and is now able to walk a little (very slowly) on her shiny new hip.  I took grapes (how stereotypical! But that's what she wanted), as she is on restricted fluids - something to do with sodium levels - and wanted fruit (is that cheating?)   She is still not quite right but is definitely improving and I am hoping that the broken hip will pin her down long enough that she will jolly well have to hang about in one place and get better as she has been under the weather for ages and pinging about the place like a hyperactive flea volunteering for everything can't help.

With a bit of luck, if there is space in Tavistock hospital next week, she can move there, which will be easier to get to and a step towards getting her back home.  I think it's going to be a while before she can have her dogs back though.

While we hacked and burned today, we were watched by an interested goat in next door's garden.  I noticed this goat a couple of weeks ago, and wondered if it were deliberate or accidental.  I'm now thinking that surely it must be deliberate.  After two weeks, surely even the most careless garden owner would have noticed the presence of a goat?  I know this is Cornwall, hence the uncertainty, but even so.

We discovered that the fire on Saturday had been so hot that we were able to just pull the ashes off the top and add new foliage (and some paraffin) and get it going again.   philmophlegm is now so familiar with paraffin that he has given it a pet name.  Paraffin is now 'Pari'.  I am a bit worried about this, though it must be admitted that a truly awesome amount of *stuff* has been burnt, and no people (or goats).  Hurray!

The hounds are all doing well.  I got another shot with all 5, though I still haven't got the 'Russian Dolls' sighthound shot. Or one with the six cats as well: now *that* would be a feat.

Comments

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I love the "we iz in prizon, mum" photo!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

The ridiculous thing is that that gate doesn't have a proper latch, it's only held in place by the hedge, so really any of them - specially Duke - could push it open. But we have never had a dog, or foster dog, that tried this. Magic Closed Gate is Closed! Even Az, who can work Yale locks is baffled by it.

I used to be terribly careful to never leave them unsupervised in that section of the garden lest they work it out but I'm blasé about it by now. Probably this will come back and bite me on the bum at some point.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Our dog watches the cats open the living room door, but has never, ever tried to open it himself, even when it is left slightly ajar.

Which is why, I suppose, we think our cats are smarter...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure intelligence goes on species boundaries here. In our house looking at problemsolving intelligence, Az lurcher would be at the top, followed by Perl the Scouse Streetcat.

After that - Henning hairy bear cat, Smudge collieX, Flash whippet, (though I'm not quite sure where Flash fits yet), and Yama Bungle (the evil Bengal brother).

Then Mollydog greyhound, who has a decent brain but is far too lazy to actually use it unless she really has to.

Then the dopes : Kjetil hairy bear cat, Duke Lurcher, Footie cat and Suma Bungle (the attractive but dim Bengal brother).

All our cats are in pairs, and each pair has one clever/evil one, and one comically dim one. I'm not sure if this is a universal law.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Mm, me too :-)

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Your neighbour is clearly a dastardly smuggler. He might actually be from a different world, one where tin is the most valuable substance in the universe, so he's come to Cornwall to acquire it. Unfortunately, the source material used in the "how to blend in with the natives" course was about 90 years out of date, hence the pipe and the "Oh, I say." The hazel tree was interfering with his communications home, hazel being a old tree and a magical one. I'm not entirely sure how the goat comes in to things, but it is clearly phasing in and out of this world. Once Lychett Matravers turns up at Buttventure, he will draw out the magical goat and get to the bottom of its mystery. The lack of electricity and the sudden loss of B, N and space are probably tied into it somehow, too.

How on earth do you manage to fit five dogs into your car?

I felt extra-sad about the Red Arrows because they flew very low over our house a few weeks ago while displaying in Cowes Week. It's an irrational feeling, but it's there.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

The neighbour certainly wears quite Chrestomanci-ish dressing-gowns on occasion.

Five dogs in the car required a certain amount of Dog Tetris to get it right. We started off with Mollydog & Duke in the boot and everyone else on the back seat, but Az objected to that, as he luuuuuurves Mollydog and MUST BE WITH HER even on a 10 minute car journey (of course, at the house he quite often snoozes in another room to her for hours, but apparently that is Different.)

Then we put Molls & Az in the boot with Flash, and Duke and Smudge on the back seat, but Smudge felt that Duke was Too Big and refused to get in with him after a couple of journeys.

So now we have Smudge, Az, and Molls in the boot, and Duke and Flash on the back seat. Everyone seems to be content with this arrangement, at least for now, and it leaves room for philmophlegm as well.

[huinare.livejournal.com]

What lovely hounds. Sight hounds are awesome.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I think so. They are like dogs out of the Book of Kells. :-)