harriet outside the Kennel

apparently Christmas is like my birthday except that you get more presents. Tomorrow is Christmas, I'm expecting a few surprises. All the snow has gone now but it was very beautiful while it lasted. Maybe Christmas will be white.

sunrise over Stoke Climsland today

Spot has just heard about Christmas. He wants one.

bladderseed

mum sulking in the meadow full of cornish bladderseed. For those of you who are interested this is a real rarity, named for its seeds as below

the Boss

this is Kit Hill, the boss says that the Boss is talking to us

walks

A family group. Frodo and Lily couldn't come because Am B's mum had being seeing Phil in Plymouth and his harmonica playing Delilah and didn't get back until midnight and they were still in BED at ELEVEN am!! More walks for dogs or we strike.

summer orchids

for example this is mum and a butterfly orchid (the greater butterfly orchid for those like the boss who are interested in these things) both posing in the same meadow.

Sunday walk

Uncle Maxtaking his exercise. He is running away from Devon and the Tamar Valley. These meadows are protected and full of interesting flowers.

there's trouble on the moors

that's better. I think all those grumpy folk mocking the Bodmin Jam 1000 are being very unfair. The boss says the weatherman forecast snow showers turning to rain. Some shower and no rain! And he says that if you live in Cornwall you know it's going to rain. And how else can we get to Trago Mill. Did Trago shut? I feel that this photo shows me in my more raffish mode, keeping one ear back ay my age is difficult you know.

I think I'm getting a cold

Is this a Spot I see before my nose?

Cornish lanes

the boss insisted on just one more snowy lane picture, he thinks the sinuous curves rest easy on the eye. Cornish lanes seem very rounded when you stop and look, maybe it's the way the hedgerows are trimmed (like this earlier post http://tamar-valley-life.blogspot.com/2005/11/cornish-lanes-near-my-house.html ) and more to come.

Who would live anywhere else? It's not exactly a dog's life here.

and today

and today it looks like this, Stoke Climsland drowns in snow, England grinds to halt. Only yesterday it was thus http://tamar-valley-life.blogspot.com/2005/11/stoke-climsland.html

twigs

the boss says lurchers aren't bright enough to twig this, barking mad I say.











and the BBC showed this picture! the boss is v pleased, see
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4472970.stm

chasing

and Harri got off her bottom for a bit of a run around, not that she can keep up with me, oh what a lovely birthday.

snow

well, it was worth waiting for, wasn't it. Even mum got frisky.

nightmares

talking of nightmares, here are two we met earlier this year, plus lesser spotted heath orchid, wild camera and book on flowers, all in a field of Cornish bladderseed (eaten in this case by the villains in the picture)

good night all

Stoke Climsland

This is the view from the bottom of my garden. Stoke Climsland Church looms over us all sending out ringing messages to the faithful. Lily and Frodo live on Kit Hill (just visible in the background like a great geological breast feeding Cornwall). And there is still no news of the missing ducks. Is there anything that young farmers won't eat? Am I safe?

orange trees

Autumn is late but now it is deep and colourful, tomorrow it will snow, and everything will stop.
I am looking out of the window, waiting for the snow. It never snows on my birthday.

The boss has fenced us in, who will come and let us out? Lurchers unite, down with 6 foot fences. This is my barkist manifesto. More biscuits, down with the walking classes .... must go, supper is calling

hanging out 2

Some feathered friends keeping an eye on the big boss down below. These are not the missing ducks. Where are those ducks and does no one care??


This mutilated tree is very photogenic and the boss likes snapping it. Why chop off its head, who is to blame? I want to know.

http://tamar-valley-life.blogspot.com/2005/11/cornwalls-ablaze-tonight.html

hanging out

the boss's boss doing her chores

good morning

I have my frosty look on this morning. Another great day for a birthday. Love to you all.

Lily ...

just to cheer you up, my favourite sister (after Harri of course).

the end of another staggering day

the boss seems to be getting a bit melancholic about the future and all that (hysterical even). This rainbow lives in Devon, just by the Tamar. He needs cheering up. Give him one of your bones, Hendrix.

more oil cans from the river bank

Max is examining this attractive yellow oil can, might as well leave it in the hedgerow as pick it up and take it back. along with the beer bottles, coke cans, take away polystyrene hamburger boxes. How about fining every fast food joint for every item of litter found within, say, ten miles of the premises. it would stop then. And a tenner for every tesco's bag. Or, bright idea, they pay 10p for each one returned?
Or let,s just sod the planet and disappear under a mountain of rubbish.

meg

on the left is my sister Meg who lives in Oxshot. She is very pretty and looks like a black version of Harri. Like Jackson she has her own settee. Jackson (aka Toby) was named for Michael J because he was such a sweet little boy (see below).

beds in the countryside

who wants to sleep here? why do this to the world you live in? I do not understand people.

tonight

tonight's spectacle, and the rooks flying home

Spot is tired of birthdays when noone buys him any presents.

the ducks of Venterdon

who has taken these ducks. The Venterdon Ducklings liked feeding them, the children at Stoke Climsland primary liked feeding them, we liked them. Who stole them and why? What is the point of people who steal ducks? Why is an agricultural college full of students knee deep in beer cans and litter? Spot wants to know. Does anyone at Duchy College care? Is there no hope for you all? Is sociopathy an evolutionary strategy to exploit social cohesion? Why do they have to steal ducks?

Lidwell

Lidwell postbox and mail pony.

early days

our official birthday photograph

Moonset

Sunrise in Cornwall, strange colours and a hard frost. It wasn't raining today, but no doubt it will soon.

spirits

further to our log carrying, dad caught this image of our canine spirits following on close behind. When I say Dad I mean boss, but he is a father figure to us all and has to make payments to the CSA (canine support agency) re pigs' ears and so on.

harriet's fan club

I found this pic of a hunk of meat at the bottom of Harriet's basket. Looks kinda moody doesn't he, maybe an Elvis of dogs, or even maybe a Hendrix. Anyway no poodlefaking round here. Apparently his dad can't blog his pictures. When he can we'll name his blog.

log training

mum insists we practice running around carrying tree trunks although no one knows why. The boss says it's the canine equivalent of bringing home the bacon.

Tamar river

autumnal Tamar, Greenscoombe woods between Luckett and Latchley, quiet river.

enchanter's nightshade

I thought I might help out some of the less well favoured blogs (for example see http://frodoandlily.blogspot.com/) by providing pictures of flowers they think they have seen in the woods. According to the boss it was known to the anglo saxons as aelfthone and they used it as a protection against elves; it does not appear to have worked well locally. It is a very small flower and has only two very notched petals. It likes dark woods. At the top left of this pic you can see the seeds covered in bristles which are specially designed for lurcher coats.

Cornwall's ablaze tonight

someone has set fire to the West tonight. Goodnight Frodo and Lily. Goodnight Hendrix.
And who sawed the top off that Douglas pine and why?? Was it Mr West?

In the mouth of the terranosaurus

here we are, all four of us gobbled up by the beast. Harri is petrified and trembles at the knee at the mere thought of another trip, I simply refuse to get in. This produces a steady supply of gravy bones; with further training the boss may become quite biddable although he is a bit slow at times.

Kissing

and Harri giving mum one back

Kisses

mum giving Harri an affectionate kiss

fetching

us that is not her. We have to give Amafrodalily (Frodo and Lily's best friend) throwing lessons every Sunday but we have to bring the ball back for her because she can't get it herself.

dog tooth lichen

we found this lichen on our walk up the hill in Greenscombe woods. It doesn't look anything like my teeth. The boss tells me that dog generally means useless in this context as in no scent like dog rose and dog violet. All that means is that they can't smell them. Actually I think they smell very sweet.

Saturdays

more rain forecast, no one cares

the double cuckoo flower itself

the boss was very pleased to find this, it took him ages to identify it but eventually it turned up in one of his favourite books, Flora Britannica, by Richard Mabey. Poor Mr Mabey got depressed after writing his book. The boss says it's not that surprising because anyone who loves the wild should be feeling down about it just now. I think there are too many of them for the good of the planet. Mind you there are quite a lot of us.

mum sulking in field

She wouldn't talk to anyone afterwards. This is in a field by the river Inny. In it grow some beautiful double Cuckoo Flowers (Cardamine pratensis). The flowers have many alternative names milkmaids, lady's smock and the double form is rare except around here. Not that mum could give a cuckoo.

Dad

Dad with his boss. He's the blue one. The only blue thing that happened that day was our conception. Mum wasn't that keen on him although she fancied his young nephew.

water rates

It's raining today. Boss says his water rates are far too high, and look at all this water going to waste. You can't see me because I was swept away. Mum says great great great great grandad was an otter hound which is why she can swim like a fish. My family tree is very interesting and includes dear hounds and bedlam terroirs. Dad was a blue whippit (of him more later). Harri's dad was a faroe.

who dug the hole in the lawn?

wasn't me gov, just old mine workings, normal for Cornwall I would say.