After eight weeks, I just have to accept that 'Ambridge Being Rocked to the Core' actually meant a small wobble when Nigel fell off the roof. Yes, I'm sorry that Nigel died, and in such pantomime fashion (although admittedly we didn't hear David shouting 'it's behind you'), and I'm sure we'll miss his bumbling upperclass buffoonery. However being 'rocked to the core...? I don't think so.
So, we've been waiting with abated breath for the real story to appear.
I have been certain that the trustees were going to throw in something a tad more interesting - such as evicting Lizzee from the house, saying that Nigel had written into the trust fact that the children had to go to boarding school and that Lizzie would have to decide to stay in the house and the children go away or for them to have to leave, leaving the house to Freddie (which although doesn't help now, gives plenty of scope for problems later when he drops out and wants to give the house to a passing band of travelers), the appointment of an evil trustee - oh, need I go on...
Failing that, perhaps David to be wracked with guilt and ends up a gibbering wreck - however he seems to have forgotten the whole reason why there were up there in the first place ie David didn't want to come back the next day to take the banner down.
Or we find out that Nigel was the real father of Daniel (Nigel and Shula had a past) and he leaves a share of the house to Daniel.
Or distant members of Julia's family would turn up or a guilty secret from her colorful past.
But no, it appears that, ignoring Camilla's cringeworthy appearance, the highlight of this rocked-to-the-core Ambridge is in fact David falling asleep before he could open a bottle of wine.
I feel so let down!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Double Dip Woes
In the spirit of double dip depression, I have been suffering from a double dip cold. It started at the beginning of the week, Thursday I was feeling decidedly better and then Friday it started all over again. Ian has been very sympathetic to my sniveling, making suitable comfort food and sympathetic noises. He's now started to cough and splutter, however, which means that I will be able to return the favor.
We've been planning our huerta (kitchen garden). So far it will consist of chillies and okra - and perhaps cotton. I must admit to not being quite as excited by cotton as I was last year. The growing wasn't the problem but the spinning is taking forever! However part of the problem is where my cotton has quite short fibres, so I may look for a long fibre variety which is grown for spinning. Surfice it to say, I have severely downgraded my expectations from us wearing matching handgrown and spun cotton jumpers to us proudly sporting a very small egg cozy each.
We've come to the sad conclusion that we won't see Davy again. We both independently wondered if he actually went off to die. While he didn't seem ill, he was certainly not right in the way he wasn't jumping. Seeing that he hadn't jumped out of our yard for weeks - and the fact he is very vocal - it just seems so unlikely that he would suddenly have jumped over the three or four big walls to get to the road or into the olive groves and if he was stuck he would definitely have called. There is really nothing else that makes sense. I'm sad that we'll never know, however, if this is the case I am pleased that Davy was able to make his own decision and that we didn't start down a road of potentially invasive treatment and difficult decisions.
We've been planning our huerta (kitchen garden). So far it will consist of chillies and okra - and perhaps cotton. I must admit to not being quite as excited by cotton as I was last year. The growing wasn't the problem but the spinning is taking forever! However part of the problem is where my cotton has quite short fibres, so I may look for a long fibre variety which is grown for spinning. Surfice it to say, I have severely downgraded my expectations from us wearing matching handgrown and spun cotton jumpers to us proudly sporting a very small egg cozy each.
We've come to the sad conclusion that we won't see Davy again. We both independently wondered if he actually went off to die. While he didn't seem ill, he was certainly not right in the way he wasn't jumping. Seeing that he hadn't jumped out of our yard for weeks - and the fact he is very vocal - it just seems so unlikely that he would suddenly have jumped over the three or four big walls to get to the road or into the olive groves and if he was stuck he would definitely have called. There is really nothing else that makes sense. I'm sad that we'll never know, however, if this is the case I am pleased that Davy was able to make his own decision and that we didn't start down a road of potentially invasive treatment and difficult decisions.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Dust Busting
Well, you just won't believe how dusty our house is. Oh, well perhaps you will. Even given our dust collection tendency, we are getting over run by dust and disappearing fast. This time it is dust from the building works and dust from our smokey fire. Now they have dug up part of the yard, dust is blowing in from outside, the dogs are bringing it in too. So, on our quest for dust control we invested in a new Dyson.
We also bought some micro fiber cloths. Not sure what we're supposed to do with them, however they always have people selling them at the Feria. For people who spend so little time cleaning, we have a wonderful array of cleaning apparatus.
The lovely weather broke last week and we had a lot of rain. The back yard flooded completely because the rubbish from the building work had blocked one of the drainage holes to next door. I have wondered if part of the regulations that say houses must be responsible for their own water means that we will eventually have to stop sending water through a hole in the wall to next door now. However that's a better question not asked, in case the answer is yes.
The rain slowed the builders down. They did some inside work and dug up outside the house, however they couldn't get going on finishing the top of the wall where they took the roof off. The rain kept washing away the cement. No rain is forecast now for a few days, so hopefully they'll be able to crack on again.
I bought Wilbur a whistling frisbie, however I think it really ought to have been called the whispering frisbie, as it just makes a very gently hhhh sound. Not unlike Pirata, who has the quietest ever meow. I was very excited about taking him out to play with it. After Ian retrieved it from the top of an olive tree, I soon got the hang of throwing it. Wilbur soon got the hang of ignoring it completely and Rosie got the hang of pointing vaguely in the direction of where it went. I therefore also got the hang of running and fetching the frisbie, which wasn't how I planned things at all.
Wilb's lampshade came off last week and he was very happy about that. He really is a lovely dog and shows his happiness by wagging the whole rear half of his body. Just a kind word sends his tail swooshing. We've seemed to have sorted out his barking too. It appears that he barks when he is not sure where he is or where the others are. So Ian's started to carry him into the bedroom at night (Wilbur still doesn't like doors at all), and he curls up on a blanket on the floor and happily sleeps all night. I think the problem before was when we all just 'disappeared' at bed time.
The planning week went well last week. We drew up a schedule for working on our sites, and produced some charts so at least we can now keep an eye on our sites. With us having a few now, it can be difficult to see what is going on (for some odd reason, MakeForBaby is up about 300% since December, but because it is so much smaller than FreeNeedle, that figure got buried).
The sun is out now and it is warm outside - when we go for a walk later we'll be keeping an eye open for asparagus - I think it could be close now.....
Rosie and Wilbur surrounded by debris. They are ignoring their toys and enjoy, instead, bits of packing from bricks. They particularly enjoy the binding straps that they can both get hold of and pull.
Our new Dyson.
The patio to date. We are using their scaffolding as a washing line.
We also bought some micro fiber cloths. Not sure what we're supposed to do with them, however they always have people selling them at the Feria. For people who spend so little time cleaning, we have a wonderful array of cleaning apparatus.
The lovely weather broke last week and we had a lot of rain. The back yard flooded completely because the rubbish from the building work had blocked one of the drainage holes to next door. I have wondered if part of the regulations that say houses must be responsible for their own water means that we will eventually have to stop sending water through a hole in the wall to next door now. However that's a better question not asked, in case the answer is yes.
The rain slowed the builders down. They did some inside work and dug up outside the house, however they couldn't get going on finishing the top of the wall where they took the roof off. The rain kept washing away the cement. No rain is forecast now for a few days, so hopefully they'll be able to crack on again.
I bought Wilbur a whistling frisbie, however I think it really ought to have been called the whispering frisbie, as it just makes a very gently hhhh sound. Not unlike Pirata, who has the quietest ever meow. I was very excited about taking him out to play with it. After Ian retrieved it from the top of an olive tree, I soon got the hang of throwing it. Wilbur soon got the hang of ignoring it completely and Rosie got the hang of pointing vaguely in the direction of where it went. I therefore also got the hang of running and fetching the frisbie, which wasn't how I planned things at all.
Wilb's lampshade came off last week and he was very happy about that. He really is a lovely dog and shows his happiness by wagging the whole rear half of his body. Just a kind word sends his tail swooshing. We've seemed to have sorted out his barking too. It appears that he barks when he is not sure where he is or where the others are. So Ian's started to carry him into the bedroom at night (Wilbur still doesn't like doors at all), and he curls up on a blanket on the floor and happily sleeps all night. I think the problem before was when we all just 'disappeared' at bed time.
The planning week went well last week. We drew up a schedule for working on our sites, and produced some charts so at least we can now keep an eye on our sites. With us having a few now, it can be difficult to see what is going on (for some odd reason, MakeForBaby is up about 300% since December, but because it is so much smaller than FreeNeedle, that figure got buried).
The sun is out now and it is warm outside - when we go for a walk later we'll be keeping an eye open for asparagus - I think it could be close now.....
Rosie and Wilbur surrounded by debris. They are ignoring their toys and enjoy, instead, bits of packing from bricks. They particularly enjoy the binding straps that they can both get hold of and pull.
Our new Dyson.
The patio to date. We are using their scaffolding as a washing line.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
More Pics
Rosie's turned into a bit of a handful over the last few days. Probably due to the fact that Ian and I were congratulating ourselves on having an exceptionally well behaved puppy, a comment that was bound to bring chaos raining down on our heads. I think other factors are the builders are here and working long days, which means she is shut in the living room, and Wilbur's still wearing a lampshade and recovering from his op, which means that they don't get to play so much.
She's been bursting with energy, and now her legs are longer, this has made her very bouncy. It takes two good walks a day to keep her energy down, but as the weather is still glorious, this isn't too much of a hardship. This week she has delightfully been carrying a dried up frog, tissue paper, a bit of a sheep's leg and a plastic bottle.
Hopefully Wilbur's lampshade will be off this week and he can take part in extreme play again. We took Wilbur out for another walk yesterday and he is very good - except he does walk like a cross between Groucho Marks and Marilyn Monroe. We're trying to train him to come to us, however he's inclined to miss. But he doesn't run when he's off the lead, more mooches, so at least if he comes vaguely in our direction we can get him.
We left them on their own again yesterday, while we went shopping and then had a picnic (see Ian's picture here - Ermita - we went to the Ermita the other side of Llerena). Wilbs and Rosie seemed OK again, and Wilbur didn't seem distressed. I think he feels quite comfortable here now, and while the building work hasn't been great for him or Pirata as things keep moving (Pirata still walks around the wall to come to the house, even though it's not there now), he seems to be happy to take it all in his stride.
The inner wall of the courtyard came down this week - what a job! Manuel originally planned bringing a machine in to do it, however when we saw him measuring the gate into the courtyard and frowning, we realized that it was probably going to be a manual job. Mountains of stone came out from that middle wall. Manuel's putting in a septic tank type thing to collect rain water. New building regs means that houses need to be responsible for the drainage of their own rainwater. As our barns used to drain onto the road and into the neighbour's yards, if that now comes into our patio, our drain is unlikely to be able to cope when we have very heavy rain. So this is a good solution.
This is an 'our site' week, which is the week each month we spend working on our sites or our own projects. This week is a planning week. We now have 10 websites. While FreeNeedle is by far our biggest and busiest (over 4 million people visited in the last 12 months!), the others are now starting to bring in the odd centimos here and there, so the aim for this week is to try and draw up a plan to make sure we look after FreeNeedle and also develop the other sites. We're at a stage now where we can't really just bumble along with our sites and we need to start thinking about them as a business.
Here are some more pics, remember if you click on the pic you will see a full size version, to go back to the blog, press the back key.
The wall to the little barn has come down and they've started to take down the wall in the centre of the courtyard.
This is the rubble just from the work they had done above. At least double this amount came from the rest of the wall when it was cleared.
This is how the courtyard looks at the moment. The well will stay, I think that Manuel is proposing steps where the bricks are. The lower part will slope away from the house to help reduce any possible flooding and the new drain will be there somewhere. A raised flower bed will be where petal is. The orange tree will stay, but the lemon tree may go. We've chosen terracota tiles for the patio, which will look lovely with the white walls.
One reason why we wanted to get a big dog as a puppy was so that it got on with the other animals. We've been really pleased that when Rosie is not bouncing round like Tigger, she happily snuggles up with any mix of dogs or cats. Here she is snuggling Tibs.
Rosie helping Ian type.
She's been bursting with energy, and now her legs are longer, this has made her very bouncy. It takes two good walks a day to keep her energy down, but as the weather is still glorious, this isn't too much of a hardship. This week she has delightfully been carrying a dried up frog, tissue paper, a bit of a sheep's leg and a plastic bottle.
Hopefully Wilbur's lampshade will be off this week and he can take part in extreme play again. We took Wilbur out for another walk yesterday and he is very good - except he does walk like a cross between Groucho Marks and Marilyn Monroe. We're trying to train him to come to us, however he's inclined to miss. But he doesn't run when he's off the lead, more mooches, so at least if he comes vaguely in our direction we can get him.
We left them on their own again yesterday, while we went shopping and then had a picnic (see Ian's picture here - Ermita - we went to the Ermita the other side of Llerena). Wilbs and Rosie seemed OK again, and Wilbur didn't seem distressed. I think he feels quite comfortable here now, and while the building work hasn't been great for him or Pirata as things keep moving (Pirata still walks around the wall to come to the house, even though it's not there now), he seems to be happy to take it all in his stride.
The inner wall of the courtyard came down this week - what a job! Manuel originally planned bringing a machine in to do it, however when we saw him measuring the gate into the courtyard and frowning, we realized that it was probably going to be a manual job. Mountains of stone came out from that middle wall. Manuel's putting in a septic tank type thing to collect rain water. New building regs means that houses need to be responsible for the drainage of their own rainwater. As our barns used to drain onto the road and into the neighbour's yards, if that now comes into our patio, our drain is unlikely to be able to cope when we have very heavy rain. So this is a good solution.
This is an 'our site' week, which is the week each month we spend working on our sites or our own projects. This week is a planning week. We now have 10 websites. While FreeNeedle is by far our biggest and busiest (over 4 million people visited in the last 12 months!), the others are now starting to bring in the odd centimos here and there, so the aim for this week is to try and draw up a plan to make sure we look after FreeNeedle and also develop the other sites. We're at a stage now where we can't really just bumble along with our sites and we need to start thinking about them as a business.
Here are some more pics, remember if you click on the pic you will see a full size version, to go back to the blog, press the back key.
The wall to the little barn has come down and they've started to take down the wall in the centre of the courtyard.
This is the rubble just from the work they had done above. At least double this amount came from the rest of the wall when it was cleared.
This is how the courtyard looks at the moment. The well will stay, I think that Manuel is proposing steps where the bricks are. The lower part will slope away from the house to help reduce any possible flooding and the new drain will be there somewhere. A raised flower bed will be where petal is. The orange tree will stay, but the lemon tree may go. We've chosen terracota tiles for the patio, which will look lovely with the white walls.
One reason why we wanted to get a big dog as a puppy was so that it got on with the other animals. We've been really pleased that when Rosie is not bouncing round like Tigger, she happily snuggles up with any mix of dogs or cats. Here she is snuggling Tibs.
Rosie helping Ian type.
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Basil Teaches New Dogs Old Tricks
Basil seems to be enjoying life at the moment teaching Rosie and Wilbur his favorite Big Dog tricks. So far he has been teaching them the standing-in-the-door-so-noone-can-get-in-or-out trick and the lying-in-front-of-the-door-so-they-can't-open-it trick. They both seem to be learning well. Next will be the more advanced stuff, such as lying on the other side of a closed door so we can open the door and then immediately fall over him (Basil finds for this well to work it is better done at night), or finding the busiest place in the room and then standing there, blocking it from all directions.
One of Basil's favorite tricks, which Wilbur seems to be picking up well, is hovering at Ian's shoulder, from about 2 o clock onwards in the afternoon to remind Ian that tea is in about four and a half hours. Obviously for this to work really well, they then need to attach themselves, limpet like, to Ian's side, getting increasingly closer as the time goes on.
Neither Ian or I expected that Basil would still be here now. I think the combination of the very good winter that we've had, with the addition of Rosie and later Wilbur, has helped to give him a bit of a boost. While he is very weak in his back legs, and we have to watch him closely when he tries to play with the others as he can fall over and can't always get back up, he does seem to be enjoying life and has a bit of a spring in his step.
One of Basil's favorite tricks, which Wilbur seems to be picking up well, is hovering at Ian's shoulder, from about 2 o clock onwards in the afternoon to remind Ian that tea is in about four and a half hours. Obviously for this to work really well, they then need to attach themselves, limpet like, to Ian's side, getting increasingly closer as the time goes on.
Neither Ian or I expected that Basil would still be here now. I think the combination of the very good winter that we've had, with the addition of Rosie and later Wilbur, has helped to give him a bit of a boost. While he is very weak in his back legs, and we have to watch him closely when he tries to play with the others as he can fall over and can't always get back up, he does seem to be enjoying life and has a bit of a spring in his step.
Monday, February 07, 2011
Our Very Busy Dogs...
Bob, Henry and Sam
Bob snuggled up with Basil
Basil, Wilbur and Rosie
Rosie with the others
Rosie and Petal (yes, she is a bit of a snuggly dog)
Asparagus, Rosie's Legs and Ricocheting Wilbur
We found our first piece of asparagus yesterday. It was only one, but might mean that asparagussing won't be far away now.
The weather has been fantastic for the last few weeks, with long warm days and only a couple of nights now when it has gone below freezing. However last year was a bumper year for asparagus and we'd had a very wet winter, so I wonder if the warm weather will mean that there isn't so much asparagus.
Rosie has changed shape quite dramatically over the last couple of weeks. Her legs have grown and she no longer looks like a barrel. For a couple of days she looked quite good - however her legs kept on growing and now she looks gangly. She no longer falls over quite so much, as she used to tumble over a lot, but she does get her legs tangled up. She seems to have been quite good to going outside to spend a penny this week, with only one unidentified puddle in the hall and that was the day when Wilbur started wearing his lampshade and she found that a bit scary.
We've noticed that she has webbed toes. I think this is a Griffon thing. She does seem fascinated by water and can't walk past the pillar without 'fighting' the water, which is quite funny. She also seems quite happy running through streams, which none of the others do.
Poor Wilbur. He had to wear a lampshade as he was pulling at his stitches, however it meant that having got to know his way around, he's had to relearn to take account of the extended head room he requires. He walks with his head down, so this hasn't helped either. He's inclined to ricochet off things and at night we hear him ricocheting up and down the hall. Hopefully it will come off today, however he's then have to relearn all over again.
Wilbs has been left on his own for a few times now and he's been fine. He was really pleased when we came home and waggled his whole rear end, which, with his exceptionally long tail was a sight to see.
We've taken Wilbs out for a couple of walks, and he's been good. He follows nicely and the important thing is for Ian and I to remember that he's with us and make sure that we help him where necessary, We've needed to push Wilbur out the front door, and then he's disorientated, however once he gets going he is really good. Probably a rival for Bob on the steady walker front.
We've also been taking Rosie out for extended walks. We've been looking for Davy, and also been trying to make sure that Rosie gets exhausted as she hasn't had Wilbur to play with (had to be careful that she didn't pull at his stitches). She is good at walking off the lead and the other day we had Bob, Sam and Rosie off the lead together and they were all well behaved.
Going out with Rosie would be great fun, if it wasn't for her habit of collecting rubbish. She has started carrying things when she walks. This should look quite cute, and with all the work going on with the olive trees at the moment, she could carry a small olive branch and look like the puppy of peace. However she is much more interested in rubbish, and the other day came back into the village carrying a rusty beer can, cigarette packet and tissue paper. I felt like I was out walking with Steptoe.
The weather has been fantastic for the last few weeks, with long warm days and only a couple of nights now when it has gone below freezing. However last year was a bumper year for asparagus and we'd had a very wet winter, so I wonder if the warm weather will mean that there isn't so much asparagus.
Rosie has changed shape quite dramatically over the last couple of weeks. Her legs have grown and she no longer looks like a barrel. For a couple of days she looked quite good - however her legs kept on growing and now she looks gangly. She no longer falls over quite so much, as she used to tumble over a lot, but she does get her legs tangled up. She seems to have been quite good to going outside to spend a penny this week, with only one unidentified puddle in the hall and that was the day when Wilbur started wearing his lampshade and she found that a bit scary.
We've noticed that she has webbed toes. I think this is a Griffon thing. She does seem fascinated by water and can't walk past the pillar without 'fighting' the water, which is quite funny. She also seems quite happy running through streams, which none of the others do.
Poor Wilbur. He had to wear a lampshade as he was pulling at his stitches, however it meant that having got to know his way around, he's had to relearn to take account of the extended head room he requires. He walks with his head down, so this hasn't helped either. He's inclined to ricochet off things and at night we hear him ricocheting up and down the hall. Hopefully it will come off today, however he's then have to relearn all over again.
Wilbs has been left on his own for a few times now and he's been fine. He was really pleased when we came home and waggled his whole rear end, which, with his exceptionally long tail was a sight to see.
We've taken Wilbs out for a couple of walks, and he's been good. He follows nicely and the important thing is for Ian and I to remember that he's with us and make sure that we help him where necessary, We've needed to push Wilbur out the front door, and then he's disorientated, however once he gets going he is really good. Probably a rival for Bob on the steady walker front.
We've also been taking Rosie out for extended walks. We've been looking for Davy, and also been trying to make sure that Rosie gets exhausted as she hasn't had Wilbur to play with (had to be careful that she didn't pull at his stitches). She is good at walking off the lead and the other day we had Bob, Sam and Rosie off the lead together and they were all well behaved.
Going out with Rosie would be great fun, if it wasn't for her habit of collecting rubbish. She has started carrying things when she walks. This should look quite cute, and with all the work going on with the olive trees at the moment, she could carry a small olive branch and look like the puppy of peace. However she is much more interested in rubbish, and the other day came back into the village carrying a rusty beer can, cigarette packet and tissue paper. I felt like I was out walking with Steptoe.
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Wilbur Goes to the Vet
Wilbur has been to the vet to be vaccinated, chipped and given his passport. The vet was very complementary about him and has given us some vitamin A tablets as a gift for him. While he doesn't expect this to have any miraculous affect on his sight, he does wonder if this might help to stimulate his retina and that may at least give him some indication of light and shade.
Wilbur has also been sterlized. He went on Monday and Ian stayed with him and bought him home, only having to take him straight back as the stitching had come loose and he was bleeding. However what was more worrying - which we didn't know about - was that he had a reaction to the anesthetic and some things in him weren't working and he was filled with gass. The vet gave him some water to try to make him sick and that released the gas and everything was fine. However Wilbur then pulled his stitches out so had to go back yesterday to be stapled. He is now wearing a lampshade and feeling very sorry for himself, but we keep telling him that it is for the best.
Sadly, we've not seen Davy since Sunday night. He was sat beside me on the table when we went to bed, but we couldn't find him in the morning. We shut the cats away when the builders are here, and it is most unusual for Davy not to be here. In fact, although his jumping has got a bit better, it is very unusual for him now to leave the yard, however he must have done as there is no where else he could be. We've got posters up and I know I'll have a willing band of children helping us look, so all we can do now is to hope.
Wilbur has also been sterlized. He went on Monday and Ian stayed with him and bought him home, only having to take him straight back as the stitching had come loose and he was bleeding. However what was more worrying - which we didn't know about - was that he had a reaction to the anesthetic and some things in him weren't working and he was filled with gass. The vet gave him some water to try to make him sick and that released the gas and everything was fine. However Wilbur then pulled his stitches out so had to go back yesterday to be stapled. He is now wearing a lampshade and feeling very sorry for himself, but we keep telling him that it is for the best.
Sadly, we've not seen Davy since Sunday night. He was sat beside me on the table when we went to bed, but we couldn't find him in the morning. We shut the cats away when the builders are here, and it is most unusual for Davy not to be here. In fact, although his jumping has got a bit better, it is very unusual for him now to leave the yard, however he must have done as there is no where else he could be. We've got posters up and I know I'll have a willing band of children helping us look, so all we can do now is to hope.