Counting sleeps

After a very busy day (last minute food shopping, collecting the turkey, icing the cake etc) I thought I would escape the wind and rain and have a quick snooze.  But no ... out came the phone and I have to have my photo taken, still at least I'm not wearing any of those an 'tler thingys.

With only two more sleeps to go until we get to see what all the fuss has been about and how many of those presents are for us!), Murphy and I would just like to say to all our friends out there

Nadolig hapus 

That means Happy Christmas in our mother tongue, or at last I hope it does!

Have a great one everyone, stay safe and may all your doggy wishes come true!

Finally!

In the space of three hours last night we went from having nothing obvious in the house that said we were nearly at Christmas to having our tree up and all the rooms decorated and we managed to fit in dinner too.

Well done Mum and Dad!

By the way, I've checked the parcels and they are fake ones.  Only 6 sleeps until the real ones appear!

Day with friends

On Monday we met up with all the gang - Fergus, Dougal, Max, Inca and Milly, for a great walk in Clumber before the hoomans all went off for their pre-Christmas lunch.

I can always rely on Mum ... she brought sausages for all of us dogs to enjoy while we sat, very patiently I should add, in the cars waiting for them to finish munching.

A lovely day, yummy treats and then home for a BIG sleep!

Suspicious packages

Mum said we have another 7 sleeps to wait before we can open these, but that didn't stop us from having a good sniff!

Wrappin'

We've been exceedingly busy in the last few days wrapping Christmas presents for everyone.  Dad has gone to Ireland this week and had a car full of presents to deliver when he got there - I never knew he was a Secret Santa!

Yesterday we went to see Nana.  She hasn't been very well lately, so we cheered her up and wrapped her presents too.  I didn't see any for Murphy and me, but perhaps they have already been sent to Father Christmas ready for delivery to us.

Today we went for a walk in Clumber.  It was really foggy (atmospheric Mum called it) and all felt a bit weird and very quiet.

Not sure this was the best angle to take of us ... certainly not the usual pose for our Murph'

Busy time

Dad has been on holiday from work this week so we have busy doing lots of shopping for Christmas presents.  Not too many look like they could be for us, but I'm sure we'll get lots of stuff to fill our stockings.

Only two sleeps before we get to open the first window on our Advent Calendar!!!!!

Where's he off to?

Murphy writes:
Mum was busy this morning making biscuits for us while she listened to a whole load of stuff on the radio about the cricket in Australia that starts tonight.

I didn't realise that Merlin had decided to dig his way down there to watch it.

It will be on the telly silly!

Busy time

We have been busy again this week with all the usual stuff and Mum being away from home for a day too. Last Thursday we put our caravan to bed for the winter which meant it was brought home and washed before being put back into storage and its cover going on.  It looks quite impressive when its on ..

I have also been told that we have started our Christmas shopping this week - well at least Mum was buying things on her 'puter yesterday while she was watching the rugby.  I am also happy to say the Christmas drawer has a couple of things in it for us already - I know because I can smell the yummies whenever I go into the room!

We were very upset recently when we learned that the  biscuit cakes we have every night were being discontinued by Laughing Dog because they were not great sellers. I can't understand that because we loved them.  So Mum has been busy making another favourite of ours which is garlic and parmesan biscuits, but she has made giant ones so we can have those every evening instead.  They still don't last very long though.

Mistaken identity

So, there we were having a very nice walk along Lime Tree Avenue at Clumber Park yesterday morning when a nice man with two (quite large) English Springers stopped Mum for a chat.  He said we were very handsome and were we Clumber Spaniels????  Mum replied 'no, but perhaps they should be'???

Now this raises a couple of questions for me.  Firstly, how could you mistake Murphy shown here in one of his regular 'look at me I'm gorgeous' poses with a Clumber.

I don't know who this chap is (we got his picture from the tinternet) and whilst he is quite handsome, he's not a patch on our Murph.

Secondly, I am concerned at Mum's response, but I'm putting that down to the fact we were in Clumber Park at the time and NOT because she would ever dream of changing us.

It's a real shame we didn't meet that man and his English the day before when we were with Dougal - we would have shown them what Welshies are all about!!!


We had a great walk with Dougal, although he did look a bit strange when he got out of the car as he was on his own.  Fergus, Max and Inca were all at home having a rest as they have been working lately.  Mum even let me off my lead for a bit so Dougal and I could have a good play and game of chase.  I was very good and came back every time I was called - by Auntie Debbie of course!

Entertaining

Murphy and I have been very busy this last week entertaining our humans' Mums.  Firstly it was Dad's turn to have his Mum to stay.  We haven't seen her for some time, so she was thrilled when we both remembered her and made a great big fuss when she arrived.  I wasn't so sure how happy I was to have her here a few hours later as she stole my chair in the lounge!  Mum said it didn't matter as I could share the sofa with her, so all was well in the end!

This week Mum went to see my human cousin Victoria and came back with Nana!  She smelt suspiciously like she had also spent some time with Tigger too.  We've been out and about quite a lot, so are looking forward to a quieter weekend.

Right now the house smells lovely.  It's a mix of fresh baking, garlic and cheese - Mum has been making some of our favourite biscuits. I can't wait for bedtime when we can have one!

Back online

Hurray, I'm back and able to post.  I've been having some problems getting access to my blog lately, but finally Mum has managed to sort it out.

So we have been home from holiday about three weeks now and have been really busy, although Mum would say she can't think what we've been busy at!
We've had lots of walks - some very wet ones - and been to work with Mum on a couple of days.  We also had a visit from Tigger for Sunday lunch last weekend, and after lunch Mum and I took him and his Mum for a walk around the village.  It was a good job I was there because his Mum got really confused as to where we were in the fields - Tigger didn't seem to mind though.
We've also had a visit from Auntie Kim who called in for coffee and cake one day minus Holly and Milly I should add.  We were still pleased to see her though!

We have been sprayed on our tummies and legs with some special stuff that is supposed to help keep away nasties like ticks and mites and protect us from the SCI disease that always arrives at this time of year.  It's horrible as we know from Fergus's experience a couple of year ago, so putting up with the spray wasn't so bad.

Mum took these two pictures of us at Clumber last week on one of those wet walks.

It's a feather that has me so riveted!

I'm not sure if we'll get any sort of walk today as it's pouring with rain - we would be soaked just going to the car!

Last day

Friday was our last day away, so after supervising the taking down of the awning, Murphy and I took Mum and Dad for a last run on the beach at Beadnell.

Have you ever seen Murphy that wet before?


Poor Smurph, he fell over in the sea and went right under the water. To say he was not impressed is an understatement, especially as Mum laughed!

Not a happy Welshie

We had a good holiday, if a little strange with Dad on his crutches.  They came home with us, but thankfully he doesn't need to use them anymore.  Handy that, now he's heading back to work?!

Thursday

The weather was much better today when we got up, so Mum decided we would go on another leg of our ARC (another ruined castle) tour.







This time it was to Norham Castle which was once known as 'the most dangerous and adventurous place in the country', apparently.










I made sure I had a good look around

Can you spot Murphy and me in this one????
We are peaking around the corner at the edge of the grass.

The big surprise of the day came after we had finished at Norham.

WE WENT TO SCOTLAND!!!!

We went to visit Paxton House, which was really nice and very dog friendly.

We saw a few of these

then had a lovely walk along the River Tweed

As we drove home we went to see the Union Bridge which is a chain bridge over the Tweed built in 1820.

Now Mum is not too good with bridges, especially ones that are not made of stone, so she was very pleased to see that our car was too heavy to drive across.

Not only does she not like driving over dodgy looking bridges, but she can't bear to walk on them either, so it was left to Dad (only one crutch today, that's why we have so many photos) to take this.







I really enjoyed my first visit to Scotland.  Murphy of course had been before when he was quite small, but was still as tired as me at the end of the day.

Today is Wednesday

So, what are we up to today?  Well if you take a look at the photo below, I think you can guess...

Yep, not a lot!

Rain and fog

That's what we woke up to yesterday, so of course that meant it was Roman Day!

We always seem to have a visit to some roman ruins when it rains and yesterday was no different in that we went to Vindolanda.  We have been to other parts of Hadrian's Wall before and have always been allowed to have a wander around, but because they are still digging at Vindolanda (where is my human cousin Victoria when you need her - she's an archaeologist!) we weren't allowed in.  Little do they know how good a digger I am.

After visiting the Roman Army Museum, Dad took his crutches and camera (not much stops him getting a photograph) around the fort site and Mum took Murphy and me for a walk.  She managed to take this with her phone peering over the wall around the site.








Then she took this one of me - ok so it's not the real wall, but it looks a bit like it

Dad took these along with quite a few more ..

History day

And not a Roman in sight!  Usually when we have a history day we go to some Roman fort remains, but not today, although I am sure we will see some before the holiday is over.

Today we went to Flodden Field where there was a great battle 500 years ago last week.  This big monument is at the top of a hill that overlooks the battle field.

It was no problem for us to climb up to see it and the view, but it was a bit of a struggle for poor Dad because he is walking with crutches this week having hurt his back.  (Murphy has quite enjoyed him feeling poorly as they've been snoozing on the bed all week!)

After the monument we went to Etal Castle.  Murphy has been there before a few years ago before I was even thought of Mum said.  I think he enjoyed it again today in the sunshine with me.

On the way home, we stopped off at Bamburgh beach for a walk ..

Beaches and Welshies everywhere

We've been here just three days and already Mum has taken us to three different beaches for our daily walk.

On Sunday we went to one of our favourite beaches up here and that's Beadnell Beach.  It was very windy (in fact it's been very windy all of the time so far) so there were loads of waves to jump. Yesterday we navigated our way across the dunes onto the beach at Bamburgh and walked along to the castle.  Thankfully, Murphy did his pathfinder bit and got us back to the car.

Today was the most exciting.  We went to Alnmouth, but before we even made it onto the beach we met three, yes three, Welshies! They live in Norfolk and are on holiday here staying quite close to where we are.  It was very noisy (lots of barking from everyone) and amazing to see them - actually I think the humans were as excited as us dogs.  That was especially the case when ANOTHER Welshie appeared! She lives locally and was just out for her regular walk.  Well of course she wasn't able to get off that easily and had to stop to have a chat with the rest of us.  Six Welshies and four excited humans all in one place - we did as they say stop traffic ... well a couple of people walking past did stop to look at us all together!

I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring.

Update

I've been quiet over the last couple of weeks, mainly because Mum has been so busy with work and other stuff.  Murthy and I have also been busy meeting up with friends.  We've had a day out at Clumber with Tigger and his family along with Aunty Debbie, Uncle Dave and their gang.  They also came and spent the day with us last week - I was shattered when they went home!  On Thursday we met the gang again and our friend Milly for a walk.  We hadn't seen Milly for ages, so it was great fun.

Then on Friday our 'van came home and on Saturday we headed off on holiday for two whole weeks! We have come to Northumberland where today it is very wet and very windy, still that won't stop us having fun.

Who's cool?

Well actually, I'm not sure either of us look particularly cool!

What was Mum thinking?  And yes, I do have my eye on a bird across the field 

Perhaps Murphy gets the prize with this pose....

Chatsworth update

Ok, so Mum says she didn't take me with her today because it was going to be very busy and I don't like crowds.  I can accept that and she did bring me some yummy biscuits as a present, so the day ended well for me - poor Dad just got a packet of seeds for the garden.

Mum has headed off to the Chatsworth Game Fair today and took MURPHY leaving me at home !!! Whats that all about? #notahappypuppy.

Mum's home!

Mum has been away for a week which is why I haven't posted anything for a while because she turned her 'puter off and I had no access.  Anyway, she is home again now and so normal service can be resumed.

Murphy and I have had a week at home with Dad.  We have been very well behaved and Murphy has eaten up all his meals.  Dad has taken us on walks every day and played some games with me in the garden.  He tried to get me to retrieve my new dummy when we were out, but I was too busy so nothing new there.

Mum went to France to stay with Tigger so she was at least happy to have doggie contact and cuddles for the week even if it wasn't with us.  She stayed with Tigger and his Mum at their flat - here's the view from the flat across to the park and the beach.

Tigger took her to see lots of interesting places that she says we may go to next year once we've applied for our pet passports. Some of them he wasn't allowed in - except for the cafes which in France let dogs sit on the terrace with their owners which is just as well as both Mum and Aunty Christine are bonkers about coffee.  One place they went to that Tigger couldn't go into was this castle in Falaise.

Tigger and his Mum waited in the sunshine while Mum went around the castle. So, the question is... who's asleep here?

I am told it was only Tigger who was snoozing!  Here he is later in the day looking far more alert!

We are planning to have a Grand Doggie Day Out with Tigger and friends in a couple of weeks, so it will be good to see him again.  For now though, it's nice to have Mum back here for myself, and Murph of course!

Funny week

We had a lovely day out last Tuesday with Dougal and Fergus, going for a walk somewhere we hadn't been before. There was water so we all know what that means .... Fergus was in!

The rest of the week went as usual with some good walks in the village.  

Mum is going away for a couple of days today, so Dad is in charge.  There's lots of food in the fridge for us and Dad had ice cream so we'll be fine. 

Surprise visitors

Well a surprise for Murphy and me, not Mum as she was expecting Aunty Fi and Percy to turn up this morning - perhaps that's why she made cake last night??

After a cup of tea and said cake we all went to Clumber for a walk across the fields which Percy just loved. Shortly after we set off, Percy found a big stick, well a mini log really, and carried it the whole way of our walk and only let it go when we got back to the car.  It must have been so heavy for him, and his Mum never offered to carry it once!

Back home to a welcome drink and a biscuit for all of us while Mum and Aunty Fi had lunch.  Then it was just time for a quick game before Percy had to leave.

Weekend away

We are back from another lovely lazy weekend at Woodhall Spa.  No pictures to post as Dad said he was having a break after taking so many at the Welshie Fun Weekend - over 900 in two and a bit days!

We went for a walk on Saturday but after a while Mum and Murphy went back to the 'van as it was getting a bit warm for the Murph-dog and he refused to go any further.  Dad and I carried on and had a great time until I came across some pesky little plants that had tiny brown seeds that stick to a boy like there's no tomorrow!  I was covered - so much so that when Mum saw me she though I had been in some mud somewhere as my legs were so  brown.  It took them both over an hour to get me cleaned up and involved a lot of brushing and some scissors.

On Sunday morning we met Dougal and the gang for a walk on our beach at Theddlethorpe which was lovely as it was sunny with a slight breeze, so just perfect for walking along the beach and having a swim.  In the afternoon we went back to the 'van for a snooze before we headed home on Monday.

We don't have any more trips away now for ages, in fact not until September when we are off to Northumberland for two whole weeks.  There are still some rumours circulating that Mum is going to stay with Tigger in France for a few days next month although she's keeping quiet about it.  When she goes, we will have a 'boys week' with Dad.  I hope she leaves lots of meals prepared for us all!

Still here!

We had a lovely weekend which included a visit to see my other cousin Hannah which was really nice once I had got over my initial nervousness. (Still don't know why she scares me as she always has treats and a cuddle for me!).
The big news of the weekend is that I wasn't given away free with the tent.  Phew!  Thankfully Victoria is going  on holiday with a Labrador called Toby and his owner, so our tent isn't big enough!

On Sunday we went for a walk in Clumber and ended up in an area we had never been before - even Murphy and he's been going there since he was a teeny weeny 10 years ago!  We came across some more of the long-horned cows that have moved in for the summer - they look really scary close up but are actually quite friendly.

Murphy has had a sore leg this week, so he's on restricted walks and isn't coming with us today to meet Aunty Fi and Percy.  He won't mind though because when it's warm like it is, Mum lets him snooze in the lounge in the afternoon to keep cool.

This weekend we are off to Woodhall again for a few days and hopefully meeting up with Dougal and the gang.  Hurrah!

Free Welshie?

We have a tent.  I never knew we did until Dad brought it out of the garage this morning and put the inner bit of it up on the lawn.  I think it goes back to the days before Mum - she doesn't do tents!

Anyway Dad has offered it to my human cousin Victoria for her summer holiday and said I came free with it. What a cheek!

Actually I hope she keeps it.  I don't want Dad getting any ideas that Murphy and I could sleep in this when we go away in the 'van!

Fun Weekend

We are back from our weekend in Derbyshire and the WSSC Birthday Celebrations.  We had a fantastic time meeting up with our bestest friends Fergus, Dougal, Max and Inca (oh, they brought Auntie Debbie and Uncle Dave with them as well) as well as old  friends Milly and Poppy.

Dad took loads of photos, so I hope you are sitting somewhere comfy if you intend to read on.

Mum spent a lot of time trying to keep us cool over the weekend - she said the gazebo thingy came into it's own!

Here we are keeping cool on Friday afternoon before the fun began...

Fergus on the other paw found underneath the caravan the coolest place









On Saturday morning Inca and I went off to do some gundog training stuff which left Murphy as photographers assistant, although he look a bit reluctant here!

Uncle Dave took these shots of Inca and Me - thank you Uncle Dave for getting the shots of me carrying a dummy!

On Sunday more Welshies arrived and there was showing, agility and racing for us to enjoy. Murphy came second in the Veteran class (although I think he should have won it) and brought home a lovely blue rosette.

Max won Best Treat Catcher and came second in the Scurry completing the course in about 9 seconds (I'm not sure of the exact time, he was so quick). He was beaten by a whisker by an Irish Water Spaniel who I thought spent all of their time swimming not running about.

To everyone's surprise, including himself, Murphy made the quarter-finals of the Welshie v Welshie Race which Mum said was amazing as he was at least 5 years older than any of the other competitors!  I was knocked out by none other than Dougal.  I'm going to have to practice - can't have the little brother beating me!

We had a lovely, if very hot, weekend and to top it all there was a cake - sadly not for us, but we had lots of other treats so that was fine.