Bramble Bashing

[bunn]

Today we pulled up and burned a great number of brambles. But, crucially, smaller brambles and fewer of them than last year. It doesn't seem to be possible to completely remove them from our stony soil and mature trees, but I feel we are beating them down.

The plum woodlet is now entirely bramble-free, so we should be able to see the ramsons and bluebells. The fruit area still needs doing, but I don't think that is too bad, having been cleared several times now.

There was almost a disaster, as Next Door but One cat Stumpy came to see what we were up to, and Az was there, keeping us company. Az has never shown any interest in chasing any of our cats, but for some reason he has appointed himself Stumpy's Nemesis, and chases him relentlessly when he gets the chance. Luckily he thought the mewing was one of our cats, and I managed to grab his collar before he saw that it wasn't.

Mollydog seems to enjoy gardening sessions much more now Az is with us: they spent a fair bit of time chasing each other round the garden. This made a welcome change from Mollydog's previous habit of wingeing constantly about the coldness of the environment, the lack of carpets and television, and the general extreme boringness of gardening from the greyhound perspective.

Comments

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

How do you know that Mollydog is pining for carpets and television?

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Well, Ok, I don't know, but I deduce it from her manner. She looks at the grass and sighs heavily. She sits down, then stands up again, looking accusingly at the ground. She whimpers pathetically and hunches over, the very image of a horribly abused greyhound who is being forced to stay outside by her cruel owners.

Quite often she will go into the house (if the door is left open for her or stand by the door, if closed) and scream at the top of her voice (which is quite loud!). She keeps this up until I come down from the top of the garden and turn the TV on. Then she sits in her beanbag in a very decided manner.

This is a dog that will not sit on a stone floor unless you put a cushion or a fleece down for her. She has strong views on comfort!

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

She's a greyhound- what else do you expect!

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Interesting. What is it about the TV that she likes, do you think? The sounds? The visuals? My cats always seem supremely uninterested in the TV. The only exception is when there are birds on TV. During nature programmes about birds, they gnash their teeth, and rear up, batting at the TV screen. They don't react to cats on the screen, though, and never react to the sound, so matter how loud it is.

On a similar subject, are dogs interested in mirrors? My cats refuse pointedly even to look towards a mirror, even if I hold them up before one. However, I read somewhere online that small kittens are intrigued by mirrors, but they seem to quickly learn that they're not worth bothering about, so older cats ignore them.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

She rarely looks at the screen, so I can only assume that she likes the sound of it. Unless it emits some strange radiation invisible to people but which is pleasant to dogs...

[chainmailmaiden]

I can just imagine her doing that :-)

Though I have to say I don't blame her for her views on comfort, I share most of them.

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

Including the one about dried tripe?

[bunn.livejournal.com]

The oddest thing is that Az doesn't have any of these greyhoundy traits. He will sit on the floor, he doesn't scream like Veruca Salt... He may look like a greyhound, but inside he's a bit of a collie, I reckon.

[chainmailmaiden]

I might do, I've never tried it :-)

It does seem a lot more appealing in its dried crunchy form than in the fresh wobbly form - yuk!