Surprise

We had a surprise visit yesterday from friend Eunice, a friend with treats again but this time bearing Christmas gifts for us and Tilly. She last visited us in October when she was on a late camping trip. I'm not going to rain on her parade as she will no doubt write all about her stay at a campsite new to her and about eight miles away from where we live. She knocked on our window as our doorbell isn't working and I must get that sorted, but I'm so glad she did as it was a real surprise to see her. We'd just returned home from taking Tilly for a walk at the harbour and I'd called in the supermarket and bought a few more goodies and put those away. It was so windy at the harbour that I looked a sight with my hair having been blown all over the place, I still haven't had it cut since it's grown back following chemo last year. I was perturbed this morning when I let Tilly outside and knowing how wet and windy it's been overnight so I  do hope Eunice has been comfortable in her van with her two dogs Poppie and Snowy. We have room here so she is welcome to stay with us but we don't think the dogs would get along so we'll have to work something out for the future.

I'm going to get all the washing, ironing and dusting done today as I never like to see in the New Year with jobs that need doing. I haven't started on the jigsaw or book or perfume I had for Christmas yet so that's something else I need to put right.

I don't read much anymore having problems with my sight but this book seems like easy reading and a touch of nostalgia. I've always been a fan of Jilly Cooper and read all her romantic novels which would have been in the 1970's and I've read some of  her non-fiction books too. She is a lover of greyhounds as is my daughter and I admire Jilly Cooper for highlighting the plight of  some ex-racers, too shocking for me to link to the articles. I have a nice memory of seeing her back in the day. Mum and I were in London having a cigarette and we were standing outside Harrods, yes I'm afraid we both smoked back then and Jilly Cooper walked right past and looked straight at us, disapprovingly I expect. My son is not so starstruck at as he works in central London and sees celebs all the time :)

 

Christmas 2021

I hope you have all had a very good Christmas. For us Christmas has been so very different from last year, not perfect but it's been a good one. Having Tilly with us this year has been like having a child in the house. 

On Christmas Eve we went to the garden centre hoping to have a coffee and mince pie but the cafe was closed and there were only a couple of people in the place but the young sales assistant made such a fuss of Tilly he asked if we could leave her with him. So we bought her a few toys just in case she was on Santa's naughty list, not much chance of that but any excuse to spoil her some more. At home my cooking went like clockwork and our evening meal was delicious. The mulled wine was lovely before bedtime.

We were up early on Christmas Day. Tilly dived headlong into her gift bag, it was bigger than either mine or hubby's gift bags and she knew which one was for her.

Like a child she wanted to break into her selection box before breakfast

 

Tearing off the wrapping paper from her presents was fun 

 

and what a good haul of edible treats she has too

She went on her walk to see the horse and Jezebel came to the fence and enjoyed her carrot. Dinner was lovely and we had no room for pudding so we finished the cheesecake while watching the Queen's Christmas message which was a very personal one for her this year. 

Today is Boxing Day and a day to remember my Mum who had a Boxing Day birthday. Mum was a year younger than the Queen but left this Earth quite a few years ago. She always spent Christmastime with us and of course we still miss her. 

Hubby and I have decided not to have a cooked meal again today and just finish the cooked meat and salad. It's raining outside but Tilly will go for her walk as usual. I won't be writing a review of the year as I always used to do, what with the pandemic and restrictions and everything else and with no plans for the future I'll just continue to live each day as it comes.

Merry Christmas

So I went to Sainsbury's yesterday morning to buy all my fresh food. I thought I would get there early so as  to avoid the crowds, arrived just before 8.30 a.m. and it was packed. Oh well, I got everything I needed and that's it now, we're all ready for the next couple of days. Sainsbury's had sent me some vouchers to tempt me back in as I used to shop there regularly so having £6 off my bill was very nice. I got a big bag of carrots for 19p too and most of those will keep Jezebel the horse happy for a few days or so I thought. I took Tilly to see her after putting the shopping away but a couple of people with a small dog had beaten me to it, thrown some carrots over the fence to her and she was happily munching away. She normally comes to the fence to see us and will eat out of my hand so I'll be trying again and again and again. :)

The day before yesterday Tilly had an appointment with the groomer for a spa treatment and should have been having a wash, blow dry and trim. It turned out we'd had a wasted journey as although I had the appointment written on a card it turns out the groomer hadn't actually booked her in. On the previous visit the groomer was really stressed  and was having to close her shop and self isolate although she said she'd had a negative test result but had to phone all her clients to cancel their appointments. Luckily I didn't catch the virus from her and doubtful I would have passed it on to anyone else even though she did go on to become quite ill with it. Tilly is now booked in for a full groom in the New Year just a week before her visit to the vets for a little operation...ssshhh please don't tell her as I feel bad enough about it already :(

I'm going to cook the gammon joint and the turkey breast crown today. We will have fish for tea and a slice of the cutest snowman cheesecake I've ever seen, even the checkout operator passed comment on it. I'll enjoy a glass of mulled wine before bedtime tonight and wake to enjoy watching Tilly with her new toys that's if Santa visits her, I'm sure he will she's been a good girl :)

I wish all my blog readers a very Merry Christmas.

I love this song

The festive feeling

That festive feeling has finally crept up on me. It was good to see our friendly neighbourhood giraffe has got into the spirit of things and is wearing his rather crazy Santa hat.

 

 I visited the garden centre last week as they usually do a lovely festive display but it wasn't quite as impressive as last year although it did look like they may have a grotto ready and waiting for Santa's visit. I liked the rather large illuminated teddy bear and nativity scene.

 

I'm pretty much sorted for Christmas now and was lucky enough to secure a late evening grocery delivery slot yesterday and it certainly does help having a delivery pass and priority slots available to me. Hubby wanted the new James Bond film which was released  on DVD yesterday so that came with the shopping and is one more gift to wrap. I will go and buy my fresh food on Thursday and I'll get up early and hopefully the store won't be too busy.

I had a surprise parcel delivered yesterday from son and daughter-in-law who live in London and was thrilled with DIL's drawings of our family on the enclosed beautiful Christmas card, so let me introduce them and us to you :)

 It seems such a long time since we've seen them and they are longing to meet Tilly, they are both as mad about dogs as we are but living in a flat they are not allowed to keep a dog.

 It's been a year since we've seen our daughter, son-in-law and their dogs. Separation is awful but it is what is and they have to live their lives as best they can once they've flown the nest.

The changing weather

After what had seemed like days of  constant rain at the beginning of last week was followed by some nice calm days when it was a joy to get down to the beach with Tilly. She loves running round on the sand although she does do a fair bit of nose to the ground sniffing and that's when I get the chance to take a few photos of her.. When I arrived at the harbour yesterday afternoon I was impressed with how blue the sky was and even with my poor eyesight I could see an aeroplane as clear as day.

While I was on the beach I could see the fog rolling in and decided it was best to get off the beach and head for home. Between taking that first and last photo below a mere thirty-six minutes had passed and the sky had turned black and it was so  cold I could barely feel my fingers.

On the way home I noticed our friendly neighbourhood giraffe had finally taken off his sunglasses and donned his festive hat but I was too cold to stop and take a photo so I will hopefully do that today. I call this hot chocolate weather when all I want to do is get back to my nice warm home and sit with my hands wrapped around a cup hot chocolate topped with squirty cream and mini marshmallows of course :)

No parties here

I'm wondering why the news of the Downing Street party has taken a year to be reported. The  party took place on the 18th December last year and that was the day my daughter's father-in-law died in a hospice. He didn't die alone as son-in-law had had a phone call to attend and thankfully his Dad died Covid-free.  In the few weeks leading up to that day his family stood outside the window with only one visitor at a time allowed at the bedside. His other son and family would drive from here in Wales to stand outside that window. The strain on my daughter affected her greatly and only a handful of people know the extent of what happened within our family. To see that video yesterday showing Downing Street staff joking about that party was truly insulting.

I don't often write about politics on this blog but this tweet from Adam Price a Welsh politician sums up my thoughts perfectly.

"While we longed, they laughed. While we mourned, they mocked. While we stuck to the guidance, they stuck two fingers up. It really is one rule for them and another for everyone else. It’s time to stop the party. The Prime Minister must go."

Chaos

Another storm has arrived with strong winds and rain. This morning I needed to go to the retail park for a few food items and so walked Tilly at the harbour first and what a mistake that was as the wind almost blew us off our feet. I haven't shown you Tilly's raincoat before, it's a doggy camo jacket. I took the photo last month although I bought the coat four or five months ago thinking she would grow into it, she hasn't!

I think you can see from the photo how high the water is

 

I settled down to write my Christmas cards this afternoon and they're ready to be posted tomorrow. I'm not feeling very Christmassy yet as we have decided against putting up the tree as it would have been a magnet for the young Tilly. This will be her first Christmas and we will take great delight in watching her rip open her presents but we'll have to stop her from shredding and eating the wrapping paper. So this is the extent of our decorations. The advent calendar lights up and has been filled with individually wrapped meaty treats for Tilly leaving no room for the couple of sweets a day I had planned for myself and hubby. I've put the garland on the mantelpiece and some ornaments on the hearth and yes, I've had to buy a fireguard to keep Tilly off the hearth.

and amidst all the chaos Tilly causes she's even taken over my blog...or she thinks she has :-)

The doggy do

So today was the final day at dog training class and it was the fun day for the Saturday puppy and beginners classes combined. There must have been fifteen or sixteen dogs there and I think Tilly found it a bit overwhelming as she was much more bouncy than usual. Unfortunately our trainer was unwell and didn't attend so the class was organised by the two trainers from the puppy classes.

I dressed Tilly in her bandana and snowdog outfit at home to get her used to wearing it. It was difficult to take a good photo of her as she wasn't too happy until she got used to it. I wore my Christmas jumper and socks but she wasn't too bothered what I was wearing.

Tilly didn't win the fancy dress competition and it was a good turn out of outfits. She did win first prize for best tricks though and did her party piece really well. She did her shake a paw, down and rollover routine and then she did her twirls standing on her two back legs. I was so proud of her and she won a rosette and a big bag of gravy bones and she does love gravy bones.

 

Then they played a game of musical mats and Tilly and I got down to just five remaining mats  before we were forced out. One of my new friends commented I must have been exhausted after all that walking around and I actually was glad to sit down. They played a game of Simon Says but Tilly wasn't having any of that she'd decided she wasn't going to play that game. At the end of the games all the puppies were given their certificates as we were on the first course and then it was time to leave.

I had a quick word with Millie's dad and Tilly's little cockapoo lookalike who'd we'd met on the very first class but as Millie had been ill she's had to do the puppy class all over again and it was nice to see her again. I asked if I could take a last photo of her and  said we wouldn't be doing any more classes and it had been nice while it lasted and we'd learned a lot along the way. All good things must come to an end.

After the storm

The weather has been very changeable following the weekend's storm. It was awful yesterday, very windy  and rained for most of the day. In contrast it was calm on Tuesday and while out on a walk with Tilly I saw someone fixing their roof. I was able to take photos from the back and the front of the house and I couldn't resist taking a couple of photos as my heart was in my mouth for him up there like that. There wasn't  even anyone holding the ladder for him.

I'd been out trying to find where a parcel of mine had been delivered. I'd checked my emails before leaving the house only to discover the parcel was showing as having been delivered but not to me it hadn't. There is a street with a similar name and I tried there first and the man who answered the door had taken in the parcel thinking it was for him. He was a night shift worker and not only had the delivery person disturbed his sleep but so had I an hour or so later. I made my feelings known to the delivery company and did receive an apology and I'd apologised to the man who had my parcel. I have it now so no harm done.

I saw a nice sight while out walking Tilly, the odd looking sheep all in a line making there way through a gap in the fence, it made me smile. 

 

I'm pleased to say I've checked that roof again today and the man looks like he did a good job, I just hope he completed it with no mishaps.