November round up

Frost across the fields

There goes November and all of a sudden we're in December. It's really felt like it over the last couple of days, freezing cold but I can't complain when it looks beautiful outside with frost across the fields.

Work has been fairly quiet but it's starting to get more stressful as we approach Christmas, with lots to do before the break. We've had two new members of staff start in our northern-most office and I've changed the firm of accountants who look after us. We'd been with our previous accountants for sixteen years, but they merged with a firm I used to work for and I simply didn't want to put any money in their pockets. This is why you should always look after your staff!!

Puppy school is going okay, Barney has good days and bad days, but overall I think we're making progress. He's still very excited to see all the other dogs, but will generally do what is asked of him. He's also getting a little calmer at home, not jumping up so much and waiting slightly more patiently. The next Kennel Club Good Citizen gradings are in February, I'm just hoping he may be ready for the bronze level by then. Fingers crossed!  

In other Barney news, we visited the puppy school's dog show in aid of Children in Need, you can read about it here. Barney won waggiest tail and came second in puppy agility, I was very proud!

Staying still for sixty seconds contest

He also went for his first proper haircut and came back looking like a dog rather than a puppy. Luckily after a couple of days of running around, he got his scruffy puppy look back again.

Neat and tidy, even if it wasn't for long

We've been talking about getting a new cooker since we bought the house. One of the rings didn't work, the oven seemed to cook too hot and the temperature scales had long since rubbed off the dials. We eventually had our replacement delivered this month. It has an induction hob which is taking a little getting used to, but overall it's a huge improvement on its predecessor. We can now choose what temperature to cook at, rather than likening the dials to clock faces and cooking things at 7 o'clock! We'd also noticed that out mattress was rather sunken, more than we'd expect as we only bought it last year. We emailed the supplier and had a free replacement delivered without a quibble. Great service from Dreams! We've also been discussing games consoles for ages, and finally bought an Xbox One, so far we've only really played Tomb Raider, but the graphics are amazing and it's keeping our brains busy!

It works!

I met up with a friend in Malmesbury at the start of the month. We ate amazing pizza and had a great evening catching up and putting the world to rights. She's currently working her notice at a firm I used to work for and considering options for afterwards, which is a good place to be. I'm looking forward to seeing her again soon to hear what she's decided upon.

We also repeated our meeting up with another friend at Westonbirt. The weather was a little kinder this time, but I wasn't going to take a chance, fully wrapped up in wellies and padded waterproof! Barney was well behaved off lead, which is always a big relief, although I think it had a lot to do with the sheer quantity of treats that Andrew was putting into him!

Finally, we had my parents and brother over last weekend. It was my parents' birthdays and due to Barney they decided they'd rather come to us, than us go there. We cooked an enormous lasagne and followed that with birthday cake. They commented that it was the best birthday they'd had in a long time, they certainly had no shortage of attention from Barney!

Now onto my progress against my plans for the year...

Read sixteen books
No progress in November, I'm afraid. I think reading ten books over December to hit my target may be a challenge too far!

Find one hundred geocaches
We're still at 534 finds, 46 for the year to date. Whoops.

Meet up with an old friend
I've known the friends I met up with this month for about ten years, we don't meet up often but it's good when we do. 

Blog once a month
I've had a bit of a blogtastic month, as well as my blog about the dog show, I wrote about a couple of our frequent dog walking locations at Lydiard Park and Coate Water, a post about Barney's progression from puppy to adolescent and a Photo an Hour post.  

Watch a new film once a month
With the arrival of the Xbox and probably more due to the start of I'm a Celebrity... (my husband's favourite programme), we've not watched any films this month. They have been a good group on I'm a Celebrity though!

Take six day trips
No progress on this one, I think this may need to wait until next year, but you never know!


December looks as if it will be pretty stressful work-wise and busy out of work. Christmas visiting with Barney will be interesting this year, I'm just hoping it goes better than when we visited my in-laws with him earlier this year, when he pursued their dog and then weed on the rug. Wish me luck!

Photo an hour - November 2016

Saturday 19th November was the date set for this month's Photo an Hour project. It's organised by Jane and Louisa, you'll be able to see more details on their blogs, as well as details as to how to sign up for reminders if you'd like to join in.

10am - Saturday is lie in day, by the time we were up and about the early morning frost had cleared.

11am - Nice cup of tea!

Noon - Car loaded and on our way to puppy school

1pm - Puppy school tea break

2pm - Home and Barney's giving his toy pterodactyl some grief

3pm - a cold miserable day calls for an easy lunch

4pm - And a lit fire

5pm - Barney had raided a piece of wood from the bottom of the wood pile causing a landslide, a quick fix to stop our death wish puppy was required!

6pm - We've bought a new XBox, the set up took a little while!

7pm - Is Strictly time!

8pm - A sleepy puppy

9pm - Let's give Tomb Raider a go!

10pm - Catching up on I'm a Celebrity, Andrew's guilty pleasure

11pm - Bed time

Janet's Puppy Skool Fun Dog Show

A couple of weekends ago our puppy school held a fun dog show in aid of Children in Need. We hadn't actually considered going but after an unusual spell of good behaviour from Barney, we thought we could actually attend without worrying too much about him running amok. 

By the time we got there, we thought we might have made a huge error of judgement, he was so excited to be going to school on a Sunday that he pulled all the way there and when he was met by the sight of new dogs, he could hardly contain himself. We decided to enter him immediately into the 'fastest recall over obstacles' course, in the hope that it would burn off some energy. We paid our £2 which entitled him to two attempts at the course. He'd already done the course in class and loves it, he's like a tiny furry rocket. He wasn't too fast the first time as I think he struggled to control his legs in his over-excitement, but had a fast, clear run at second attempt.

Too fast for Andrew's shutter speed!

Final obstacle!

He was pretty fast, but unfortunately he wasn't a winner when results were announced later. He was still over-excited, so we decided to find a spot to sit in, distracting him with food, until the main classes started. Luckily we didn't have to wait long.

The first class was waggiest tail. Anyone who's ever met Barney will understand that I thought we might be in with a chance. He's a happy little pup, his tail wags pretty constantly and rotates like a helicopter blade when he's excited. I actually worry when his tail is still. We paid our class entry fee and took to the ring. The biggest challenge was to get far enough from other dogs to stop him jumping up. Once we did that I just had a keep the tail going, which wasn't difficult. I was so pleased when we were announced as winners, even if we did have a huge bag of dog food to juggle for the rest of the event!

We won!

Our prize, dog food!

Next was friendliest dog, we entered again, but were skipped over in the judging when all the dogs were shuffled around to make a bit more room. It was probably for the best, we didn't want Barney getting a big head!

We took a seat and decided to sit out the other classes of dog the judges would most like to take home and best trick. I'm glad we didn't enter the best trick class, Barney would have been entirely outclassed, some of the tricks were incredibly complicated. We did however decide to have a go at fun agility against the clock. Barney loves agility but as I tend to do it with him at puppy school, Andrew decided to do it on this occasion. Normally I encourage Barney around the equipment with treats, not Andrew. He decided to lead by example. When I looked over to see him leaping over hurdles I couldn't stop laughing, I'm just glad he didn't give the tunnel a go. Barney didn't have an entirely clear round, took two attempts to do the tunnel and baulked at the larger A frame, but when we got the results, we'd come second in the puppy category. Good work boys!!

Look at the concentration on that face!

Mum doesn't normally do the jumps with me...

Our prize, more food!

After that, we felt we'd earned a cup of tea and piece of cake whilst we watched the sit and stay classes. If you've read this blog before, you'll know that's not one of Barney's strengths. I can't wait until Barney is calm enough to be able to just sit and wait without steam coming out of his ears from the effort!

We also bought a few raffle tickets and won a couple of prizes. 

More food!

A very smart turquoise studded leather collar from the Artful Lurcher

We entered the very last class, a version of musical chairs. When the music stops all the dogs have to sit and the slowest is eliminated. We made it to the third round before Barney's excitement got too much and he was more keen on reaching the treat in my hand than sitting. Nevertheless, he got a rosette for taking part. 

A final rosette for the day

All in all it was a great couple of hours and the event raised over £1,000 for charity. It was good to chat to other dog owners and participate in some of the classes. We've got plenty of food (we'll have to hold on to it for now, as none of it is puppy food) and a smart collar. It also meant Barney was very little trouble when we got home!

September round up

There goes another month, Autumn is well and truly here. It's been a really nice Summer but I'm ready for evenings in front of the fire and getting wrapped up in boots, scarves and jumpers. We celebrated the arrival of Autumn by heading out for a Sunday roast at the pub in our village. It was incredible, we really must do that more often.

We've been taking Barney to puppy school since he was about ten weeks old. We started with puppy playgroup, which was mainly socialisation, with a bit of obedience thrown in. After that we moved onto the next level which was the Kennel Club's Puppy Foundation course. It was based more on training (sitting, staying, walking on a lead etc.) and after four weeks, Barney passed. Hurrah! We've now moved onto the intermediate class at school which may lead to us achieving the bronze level, we'll see how that goes though!

I passed, Mum!

We've also started going on dog walks organised by the puppy school. I have to admit I was massively fed up after the first walk, Barney was jumping up at all the other dogs and was pulling so hard to get to them that he couldn't breathe and was making himself sick. Just a few weeks on (thanks in the main to bribery by sausage) he's much better. He still jumps all over the other dogs given half a chance, but he's not pulling as much and will focus on us rather than his four legged companions if we persuade him enough.

Walkies!

We try not to walk Barney too far whilst he's young, but we took a trip out to Barbury Castle and walked around the site of the Iron Age hill fort. It helped blow the cobwebs away and we'll be back in a few months to do a longer geocaching walk around the area. 

I'm feeling a little windswept

Andrew used to work at Aardman (animators, best known for Wallace and Gromit and their other claymation work) and as a result we were invited to their 40th birthday party. It was held at Colston Hall in Bristol and soon filled up with hundreds of employees, former employees and friends of Aardman. Tim Vine did a slot and there was an incredible live version of Sledgehammer accompanied by the video, animated all those years ago by Nick Park. It was really good to catch up with familiar faces and Aardman always put on a good party.

Happy birthday, Aardman

I've been having physio on my ankle over the last couple of months as it's never really recovered from me spraining it about nine years ago. The physio has been useful but they referred me to a podiatrist which has really helped. They've given me inserts to put into my shoes to make me walk with proper form and exercises to work the muscles which haven't been working together as they should. I can already feel the difference and I'm hoping it'll make walking (and running in due course) much less painful. Hurrah!

I'm still really busy at work, but starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. We've managed to find time for a few interviews to bolster the team. It's been a full on but we've found one really good candidate, hopefully we'll find another to bring on board soon. 

We're still doing jobs around the house, we had a wasps nest destroyed and have ordered a new cooker. Our current one is dying a ring at a time, so hopefully the replacement will arrive whilst it's still partially working. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Now onto my progress against my plans for the year...

Read sixteen books
I had a day off work in the middle of the month with a streaming cold and fancied curling up on the sofa with a book. I picked Raven Black by Ann Cleeves which had been on my Kindle for a few months. It felt a bit like relevant work reading as Shetland comes up a lot at work, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It was just what I needed at the time, enough plot to keep me interested, but nothing complicated.

Find one hundred geocaches
We're still at 534 finds, 46 for the year to date. We normally do a lot when we're on holiday but as this year's holiday was peternity leave it's thrown our numbers out a bit. Hopefully we'll make up a little ground over the remainder of the year. 

Try three gym classes
No progress on this, with the physio and podiatrist I think this will need shelving until next year.

Meet up with an old friend
We saw a few old friends at the Aardman party which was really nice. I've also exchanged emails with a couple of other friends, hopefully we'll be able to coordinate diaries and catch up over the next few months.

Blog once a month
September was a bit of a bad month, with my only blog being my August catch up post. I've got a couple of blogs planned for this month, so hopefully I'll do better in October.

Watch a new film once a month
After watching Divergent last month, we watched Insurgent next which again I really enjoyed. We also watched Super 8, I wasn't sure what to make of it, I didn't even know it was sci fi when it started, but it was better than I expected once it got going. 

Take six day trips
No progress on this one, I think this may need to wait until next year, but you never know!


October has been busy so far (as you can tell by the fact I didn't get around to posting this in the first week of the month...) but I'm hoping things will settle down. I'm looking forward to a few movie nights in front of the fire and walks kicking fallen Autumnal leaves.

August round up

Another month gone and looking back at last month's round up, Barney has done a lot of growing over the last 31 days!

As Barney's got older, we've been able to get out and do more, both with and without him which has been really nice. At the start of the month he was looking really shaggy, with a particularly long fringe, so we thought it was time to take him for his first trip to the dog groomer. I thought he'd be awful, as he fidgets like crazy when we brush him at home, but he was fine. He wimpered a little bit, but the groomers were great, they're a mother and daughter team and seemed to just know intuitively when he needed an extra set of hands. He looked much smarter afterwards, and could see out from under his fringe. It didn't take him long to get back to his usual scruffy self though.

Look at his little legs!

We'd done four weeks at Janet's puppy playgroup, not far from where we live. It was good for socialising him with other puppies, with a bit of training and fun thrown in along the way. In the final week there was a musical chairs competition. As you'd guess they play music and when it stops the puppies have to sit and whoever doesn't sit, or gets up first is out. Astonishingly, Barney won. He was very proud of his winner's bandana, although I think it might have been designed for someone a little bigger!

Still sitting, even though the game had finished

That evening we went for a barbecue at a friends house, who kindly suggested we bring Barney. To be honest, I was expecting mayhem. They have two daughters, a five year old, Ffion, who is scared of dogs (including Barney) and a six month old. There was also another couple invited who hadn't met Barney. He was excited when he got there and wanted to meet everyone, but we once we settled him down with something to chew he was really well behaved. He sat on my knee at the end of the night for a sleep and Ffion even came over to stroke him. The other couple are looking at getting a dog and had ruled out smaller dogs as they thought they'd be over-excitable, but I think Barney may have changed their minds.
 
We took him over to see his brother the next day. The last time they'd met up they barely stopped play fighting for the hour they were together. This time they seemed a little calmer. We even managed to bribe them with treats so we could get a few photos of them together. It's great to see them together and compare and contrast their differences. Barney is definitely little brother.

Luckily they're both motivated by food!

The next weekend we had a couple of friends over who again hadn't met Barney before. Their daughter is nine months old, so we're certainly getting Barney used to children. It was a bit of a struggle containing him as he wanted to meet the visitors, but we didn't want him inadvertently causing any harm as he's still at that stage where everything he encounters goes into his mouth. We went for a walk to distract him, but he was still a bit of a handful. Anyway, it was nice to see them and I don't think they left thinking he was too much of a rabid hound!

We also got to have our first date night out since we've had him, we went out to a local restaurant for our wedding anniversary. The food was amazing, I couldn't finish my dessert so they gave it to me to take home with me. How could I say no?! We came home to a yawning puppy who seemed to have slept the evening away. We can definitely go out more often!

We knew that Pablo had lost his first teeth a few weeks ago and so kept an eye on Barney. He's now lost most of his front incisors (just one to go, I think), and is growing new teeny, perfect teeth. It's so fascinating!

Unfortunately the Dog Tooth Fairy doesn't pay out when he swallows them

We've also been for our first couple of geocaching walks with Barney. It's nice to have him with us when we're out but you can tell when he's had enough as he stops walking nicely and turns into a velociraptor. At least he's not yet eaten a log book!

Time for a water break

Aside from Barney, we've had lots of jobs done around the house. We finally got the septic tank fixed (hurrah!) and then emptied, had the chimney swept and the kitchen work surfaces polished. The house has been a bit of a money pit since we moved in, but we're trying to get on top of things without doing major projects until they really need to be done. We've also made a decision to get the boundary out of the front of the house done next year. That'll be our most costly investment, but hopefully it'll add kerb appeal and a little value when we come to sell. 

Now onto my progress against my plans for the year...

Read sixteen books
No progress on this, in fact I think I should have opted for six, not sixteen. I think I just need to start one on my Kindle and spend some time reading it at lunch time rather than trawling through Twitter or Googling whatever puppy issue is troubling me on any given day.

Find one hundred geocaches
We started the year on 488 finds and we're now at 534, which makes 46 for the year to date. I can't see that we'll make it to one hundred, but hopefully we'll keep doing the odd geocaching walk when we can. It's always a great opportunity to get out and explore a new area. 

Try three gym classes
No progress on this, I'm seeing a physio about my ankle and doing strenghtening and control exercises so I should be able to start more weight bearing exercise shortly. 

Meet up with an old friend
One of the friends we met up with this month I've probably known for over ten years, and we're both quite old, so perhaps that counts?!

Blog once a month
Tick! I wrote about everything we bought when we were getting Barney, so if you're ever in the same position, it may be worth a read. 

Watch a new film once a month
We saw Divergent on DVD this month, I really enjoyed it. Barney less so. There was a snarling German Shepherd near the beginning, and he doesn't really like people fighting. He ran away from the snarling dog and hid behing the sofa when the fighting started. Luckily, he seemed to think sitting on my lap would help, so we managed to watch the film without further interruption.

Take six day trips
No progress on this one, I think this may need to wait until next year, but you never know!


September has already got off to a flying start, so I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of the month holds. I love September, cosy jumpers and the woodburner going at night. I'm just hoping for not too much rain, so we don't have a damp, steaming dog in front of the fire!