If Trevor Howard and Mr Punch had a baby....

it would sound just like Ludvig!

Ludvig chatters most when he is on his own. He will speak with us, however it is when he is on his own that he really chatters - therefore most meal times, when he is on his own we are currently serenaded by a little voice saying 'I love you'.

He seems to have a very 1940s British accent. And both Ian and I independently said he sounded just like Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter. I'm not even sure that Trevor Howard did say 'I love you' - but if he did say it, while doing a Mr Punch impersonation, then that's Ludvig.

It is impossible not to smile with Ludvig. One of his other new noises is a wolf whistle - goodness knows where that came from as I certainly don't wolf whistle, as far as I know, neither does Ian ;)

But it is still quite flattering to be out watering the plants and to get a little wolf whistle or to have someone say 'I love you', even if it is from a Trevor Howard/Mr Punch sounding parrot.

Ludvig is getting quite adventurous with his speaking and is mixing up sentences. Yesterday he surprised us with 'I love you, parrot pop' (which is his parrot ice lolly he has in the afternoon) and I think he may also have asked the parrot pop to 'play me a tune'.

When he starts to say a word or phrase, he begins with making a noise which follows the cadence and then that develops into the word. At the moment, he is making a noise which sounds like 'Petal' - which it obviously isn't - so we're waiting to see what that ends up as.

His barking is all too realistic. The other morning we came back from our walk and I could hear Pixie barking in the house - which I thought was odd as she was with us!

He also mimics my sneezing  - which, again, is quite odd as I don't sneeze very much. But it certainly sounds like me!

We do have to be mindful of what we say in front of him...!!

Daisy at dawn

Here's Daisy enjoying burning off some energy in the morning. She is very sweet - but she is a bit of a lummox. If there was a scale with sleek greyhounds at one end, with their streamlined elegance and speed, Daisy would be at the other end. She could never sneak up on anything as it's like a heard of elephants when she approaches. I'm not sure how she manages to sound so loud - as she isn't a big dog, but she certainly thuds along!

Play me a tune...

Here's Ludvig practising 'My name's Ludvig' and 'Play me a tune, mummy...'

and here's Ian wresting Ludvig. The plan was, Ludvig would sit quietly on his shoulder - Ludvig had other ideas...

and here's Ian again with Ludvig

Semi nocturnal life...

Thanks to Daisy's conviction that any noise, however small, is an invitation to get up and play, we were out on our morning walk this morning at just gone 6, which this time of year is only just getting light.

As we went out the house I was reminded of the strange semi-nocturnal life that people lead. It was busier at that time than any other - people walking dogs, walking sheep, tractors in the fields, cyclists...

Come four o'clock this afternoon, and the village will be like a ghost town for four or five hours.

One thing that I've noticed this year is that we haven't seen the road watering lorry. There used to be a lorry which watered the unmade roads to help keep down the dust, but I don't think it is running any more. Last year the road to the cemetery was tarmaced and I think that must have been the last unmade road to be surfaced within the village, so I guess that means that they don't need the road waterer any more.

When we moved here, there were very few hard-surfaced roads. We've seen a few changes...

Rain dust and new street lights

Woke up this morning to find we had rain dust last night. We've had it before, but previously it's been pink where it's come from the Sahara, last night's was grey, so I guess that means it's come from somewhere else in North Africa. How we know is the patio, well everything, is full of 2p sized drops of dust.

Yesterday was an odd day, complete grey and very hot - but with no storms. Normally when it's like that we get electric storms, but this time we just had the dust rain.

The highlight of the week has undoubtedly been the discovery that the new streetlights on the road to the cemetry have movement censors.  The first time we walked past, we just thought it was a flickering light, as we were aware the light had changed, but hadn't really twigged as to what it was doing. However, as we walked down the road, it was soon apparent that as we walked past a streetlight it brightened.

That has obviously given us hours of fun, trying to discover where the trigger zone is...

I wonder if they'll be replacing other lights in the village with movement censor lights.

Ludvig continues to entertain us with new words. In the afternoon he has a little 'parrot pop', which is a bottle cap I fill with fruit juice and freeze. I'm hoping this will be the first thing he learns to say in context. He has learned to hold the parrot pop with his claw and then lick it like we would like an ice lolly.

Here are two action shots of Daisy. She's very good off the lead and enjoys running around, but doesn't stray too far...