Home Again

We've all been away - in separate directions.

I was despatched to see my friends at the kennels where they appreciate what a fine canine specimen I am, while H and L went north. They were lucky enough to stay in a perfect cottage in the heart of the Perthshire countryside, with paths from the door, a quality village shop ten minutes walk away and dry weather all week.

Photographs were taken and here's the evidence. Typical southern Highland landscapes, tumbling streams, mirror smooth lochs, solid stone houses, turreted white harled larger 'estate' properties, red deer, roe deer, red squirrels, buzzards and rabbits. The perfect spot for a chocolate labrador, it must be said. They have promised to take me next time....

The cottage was a TV free zone but the twosome had taken their own entertainment

for him, his guitar and a new guitar magazine

for her, more stitchery and books

for them both, a fine bottle of malt whisky

Creating a Stir!

CRAFTERNOON TEA

Sat 22nd September at 2.30pm

Southdean Village Hall

There will be tea, coffee, home baked cakes and a

luscious CHOCOLATE fountain.

You can watch

a quilter, a handknitter, a patchworker and a hand spinner

busy being creative and you can have

your delicious afternoon tea

served by MEN in KILTS

all in return for a generous donation to

Macmillan Cancer Support

as part of the World's Biggest Coffee Morning!

Yup, her ladyship has rustled up some trusty textile friends to demonstrate and her gin drinking buddy to provide the chocolate fountain, smiled very sweetly at some kind hearted Scotsmen (erm, and a Geordie) and is hoping for LOTS of support for this venture at the village hall. She thinks the world of Macmillan nurses because the whole family had such support from them when her Dad was ill and this seemed like too good an opportunity to miss.

Sunny Sunday

Well, I'd love to be able to post lots of pics showing the creativity of the folks but there's precious little going on that makes for elegant images. Hugh has been verrrrry busy working long hours on things which have nowt to do with painting - mainly putting up and taking down fences for the illustrious Thirlestane Horse Trials (three day palaver at Lauder, forty minutes north of here) and building aviaries for a new neighbour who keeps raptors (lovely word that, and not bad for a three year old labrador). Specifically a buzzard and a Harris hawk for those of you who know about these things. And he's been cutting grass by the acre with the wee Fergie tractor as well as with a mower. As well as all that the poor lad has been working on getting the 4x4 off road event in the forests sorted out and has more of that to come before the day itself on 9th September. Oh, and he's off doing a charity cycle ride today - my hero!

Lindsay - hmmm, bit of admin stuff, bit of painting (walls and doors - she hates painting doors) and quite a lot of destruction of built-in wardrobes. I understand that Part l of the Great Plan is for us to move next door to where the grass is greener and the sun shines longer. This entails much pondering over paint charts, endless washing of brushes, long periods spent contemplating bare walls and muttering over the amount of 'stuff' there is to contend with. When all this gets too much she takes it out on the garden.

I have to report a nasty trend developing chez nous.

Name calling.

They seem to consider that I am unusually inquisitive and a little officious in my attitude at times. In recent days I have been referred to as The Chocolate Policeman, Agent Ash of the FBI (Furry Brown Inspectorate) and even Deputy Dawg. I am plotting revenge....

Crumbs of comfort

Her ladyship remembered to take the camera with her the other morning when she took me for a walk so here are her tasteful images taken just up the road from here. We do all realise how lucky we are to live surrounded by such glorious countryside, honest we do. The reason the fields are nice and green and lush is because the blinking rain is back with us again and this makes for more flooded boggy bits in the garden and hens plodging about in mud baths.

Showtime Blues

Well, Southdean Show was a success APPARENTLY. You can read a brief summary on Lindsay's blog but AS I WAS NOT THERE it is really only a human account. I understand there were no animals allowed at all - because of some blinking cattle disease - so I cannot give you my usual full report. Perhaps normal service will be resumed next summer. Harrumph.

The Sun Shines Again!

Hallelujah! I get longer walks again. The downside is that there is not as much mud to play in but I can live with that - I'm just happy to be investigating all the living things out there, and a few of the dead ones too.

Do you like this painting - it's called Big Sky (yes, really) and it sold on the opening night of the current exhibition. His Lordship was fairly pleased about that.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, I can also bring you the first image of the 2007 Southdean Show rag doll which you have, of course, all been eagerly awaiting. For those of interested in such things, she is a fine example of recycling - brown upholstery remnant cotton body, jumble sale blouse fabric, gifted skirt fabric, hair from silk and linen yarn L has had in stock for twenty years, necklace is a bracelet that she made, ribbons from my late lamented friend next door and pantaloons of the finest embroidered linen which started out in Devon, went to Portugal and made it all the way back to Chesters. Now all you have to do is pay up, guess her name and she's yours, on 11th August at the Show. And I have been asked to point out that it took YEARS to plait all of her hair...

Meanwhile, the main activity round here still seems to be in the form of destruction but L has also been out with paint brushes and rollers inside and Hugh is set to build aviaries for a neighbour outside so there is evidence of constructive work too.

Summertime Blues

I am not doing too badly for walks these days but I had expected more opportunities to lie in the garden and soak up some sun, instead of which the place is still a quagmire. There has been some sunshine in between the showers so the fruit is ripening regardless - Lindsay has been gathering it in and freezing most of it to make jam with later in the year. The rest is getting devoured at breakfast time.

I realise you don't all know the layout of my house and that of my late lamented biscuit supplier next door, but the two houses are connected by an internal corridor. If all the doors are open, I can really get quite a turn of speed up running down hallways, doing handbrake turns at the ends and haring back again. Makes a bit of a mess of the carpets and rugs but I am a dog and dogs don't do vacuuming or worrying about the odd bit of damage (I have been known to misjudge things and hit the walls/tables/bookcases/people).

There's a lot of other stuff going on still - not much in the way of ART but stacks of bits for other people, some of it paid and some not - in the last few weeks there has been gardening (paid and unpaid), grass cutting (paid and unpaid), logo designing (paid), preparations for the Village Show (unpaid) and yet more sorting out and letter writing and dealing with officialdom (definitely unpaid), AND only one instance of baking (possibly a record, this) .

H and L are doing much scheming with drawings and tape measures and pacing out and photographing but it's all a mystery to me. If I learn something useful I'll be sure to let you know but in the meantime I think I'll just have to let them get on with whatever it is they think they are doing.

Brave New World

I'm back!

Actually I was never away but I had things to do, places to be, humans to comfort and all that unsung hero type stuff that is a dog's lot.

There have been good bits and bad bits in the last few weeks - my neighbour dog Pepper (a bit of a dumb redhead setter type) has upped sticks and gone to live with Lindsay's wee brother, leaving me to make free with her doggy chocs. There has been an awful lot of scene shifting going on next door and I don't think it is done yet.

Lindsay's big brother stayed for a while so I managed to blag some milk and cookies by doing the big sad eyes routine. Now it is all quiet but there's the promise of a visitor lady this coming week so I may try the same tack then.

The incessant rain has caused grumbling by Hugh - can't get out to cut grass with the tractor, can't get to do his regular gardening jobs for others, poly tunnel is flooded, hen run is flooded etc etc. There are supposed to be pics inserted at this point to display waterlogged strawberries and the sad sight of a mudbath where the purple sprouting broccoli should be but someone has failed to load them onto the computer...

Hugh did manage to marshall at an off road event elsewhere in the Borders last weekend - he really enjoyed the landscape on the private estate the club were using

The exhibition is up and running - the private view was last Friday evening which was a very wet and miserable one. But our generous friends came along and livened up the proceedings considerably - and three of Hugh's works were sold that night! Then yesterday Humphrey, our website building hero, went along to photograph the work so that we can get them onto The Workhouse website - images here soon too!

Thank you

This is just a big thank you to everyone who has sent cards and e-mailed support. Lindsay and Hugh are doing OK though there's still a bit to get through. The good news is that a stash of dog treats has been uncovered next door and I am doing quite nicely, thank you very much....

Sad Day

Bad news at home so no posting just now. My lovely supplier of biscuits next door, Lindsay's Mum, died quite suddenly and we will be at sixes and sevens for a while.

xx Ash

Part ll -

Some herby views here, to start with. The healthy bits...
As to slugs, Lindsay has only read about using sawdust to keep the critters off but she has been out today putting mounds of very coarse shavings round the tenderest of the plants. The shavings are sold as horse bedding and we usually use them for the hens if we don't have any straw for their houses and nest boxes. This year, though, the slugs that are doing the damage are titchy teeny wee things which are difficult to spot. So we'll just have to see whether the sawdust idea works or whether they are so wee they just squirm underneath or through the soil. Coffee grounds worked for a while last year but you have to drink a mountain of coffee and also every time you water the plants you wash some more grounds away.

An admission about fennel tea - Lindsay loves its light aniseedy taste but it comes in a paper sachet that you drop straight in the cup! So this was (is?) to be the year when she grows her own and gathers the seeds, dries them and uses them to make her own tea. No research has been done by her ladyship - typical, really - and she's out of Dr Stuart's Wild Fennel Teabags at the moment so she cannot even dissect a teabag to examine the contents. However, this will be remedied and you'll get the full saga before long!

Roll on summer

Lots of growth in the garden though not all of it is edible (I know, I've tried...) First we had a sunny April, then a rainy May, so everything is up and running, including the slugs which have found their way to some of Lindsay's seedlings. She's planning to build some sawdust walls to stop the little blighters in their tracks but she'd better be quick.
Either slugs or rabbits have been feasting on the more tender leaf type herbs too - a new wild fennel plant has been eaten to the ground. L was looking forward to drinking it as she's a bit of a fennel tea freak these days (it balances out the less healthy cake and chocolate habits, she likes to think).
Apart from gardening, it's quiet here, as H and L are forever up in their workrooms, slaving over masterpieces - I'll post some work up once we have decent shots. Humphrey who built The Workhouse website will be photographing all the exhibition works later in the month.

Dog Days

Yesterday, folks, was a peach of a day! It was obvious there was something up since the vacuum cleaner and duster were in evidence early on - always a giveaway.

Hugh took me out first thing (Exercise No 1) and I was just snoring in my bed (essential when recharging the batteries) when my long lost friends arrived in force. I was fussed over and petted for hours. Louise and Frances had been prewarned so they had jeans on and no-one (except Lindsay - so what?) shouted at me when I jumped up at them.

We did a tour of the garden where H & L showed off the wee hens, the big hens, the polytunnels and willow fences and all that stuff, then more coffee and wine and a huge big buffet salady lunch and more attention.

And then a ride in the Land Rover - 6 humans, one dog (and let me assure you that I was in a front seat, not relegated to the back like L) - and then Exercise No 2 - a run around up and down a forest track and a bit of playing chase with my best pal Dougie.

Home for afternoon tea which included various home bakes and the biggest chocolate cake in the world baked by Frances - oh, and more games with Dougie as you can see from the stylish picture above. He was also quite good for slipping me the odd morsel of cake when no-one was looking.

Sadly, they had to go but L took me out for another walk in another bit of the forestry after my tea (Exercise No 3) before I collapsed into my bed. If only every day could be like this

..........................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The Evidence

Just in case there was any doubt, here's the proof of that sorry state of affairs last week. This photograph was taken one lunchtime when we had headed up a woodland track to find a sunny spot. The thermos and coffee are all too visible, along with some paint bespattered legs, but do you see so much as a morsel for me in the back of the Land Rover?

Back from the brink...

Well, here I am again after a fairly traumatic time spent in the back of a Land Rover. You're already familiar with the catalogue of neglect and hardship visited upon me by the arty ones - well they have surpassed themselves this time. I was lulled into thinking WE were off on an adventure. We set off, loaded up with thermos and nourishments for humans and canines, and my lead and my bed, and we drove ... for all of half an hour. Then parked up at an unknown farmhouse. I was presented with some water and a dry biscuit and left, for several hours, while they disappeared to paint a stable. They returned. We drove to a nearby footpath where I was allowed a little exercise and another biscuit and then the whole story was repeated, on and off, for three whole days. Admittedly every time they returned there was more evidence of paint and more general rattiness so I don't think it was much fun (not to mention the collection of flea (?) bites amassed by a certain someone) and I know we have to keep the wolf from the door and all that but could I not have been allowed in? Hmmm? Think of the wasted sniffs and smells! Mental cruelty, really.

I tried to get some chick pix from the latest hatching but they were all out of focus and not worthy of posting here. Herself's vintage image will have to suffice for today. Meanwhile it's time the older lot faced the big wide world and so they'll be going outside to sleep in their own henhouse from now on, instead of in the shed with a big heat lamp for warmth. As long as they work out to take cover when it rains they'll be fine but, if they run true to form they will not work out how to go to bed on their own for at least a week. This means H and L out there at bedtime every night, on hands and knees in the hen run, catching the daft wee souls and walking them up the ramp and into the henhouse, till they finally get the hang of it!

On a clear day ....

Hello! How come there's only a week left in April? Where did it go? Since I last posted there's been a Easter Egg Hunt for the local children, a 60th birthday party and then yesterday a Book Sale (with Coffee and Cake, naturally) all at the Hall across the road from here. What a thriving mini-metropolis this tiny village is! I managed to stick my nose in at the end of the Book Sale but otherwise these events happened without the benefit of my skills. Underappreciated again...

The lambs in the fields are getting fat, our little chicks are not so cute any more, although there are more due out of the incubator next weekend so maybe I will get photographs this time round, and the 'new' shed has been painted and re-felted.

On Friday night the arty types attended the private view at the brand new wee Gallery on the Green in Denholm which features Hugh's work as well as a very talented local pastel artist and other folks' too. Looks like it will be carrying some interesting craftwork and I believe Lindsay spotted some fancy locally made chocolate bars with exotic flavours- cue more 'testing'.

So far today Lindsay has been doing paperwork and splattering blackboard paint about (in a meaningful way...) while Hugh and his pal Joe and our neighbour Steve (of birthday party fame)and lots of others are all off doing a sponsored walk up the Eildon hills by Melrose. The pic is a view from the top on a clear day and here's a bit of explanation for you - isn't the internet wonderful?

Eildons, The, a “triple-crested eminence” near Melrose, 1385 ft., and overlooking Teviotdale to the S., associated with Sir Walter Scott and Thomas the Rhymer; they are of volcanic origin, and are said to have been cleft in three by the wizard Michael Scott, when he was out of employment.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)

Chocolate Easter Greetings

I think we'll stick to purples and yellowy greens for this post, as befits Easter and springtime and all that stuff. It's been quite an exciting week for this brown dog as herself is now based at home. I have had longer walks from her which is A GOOD THING but I've also noticed a tendency to disappear up the metal ladder to her garret clutching jam jars of water only to reappear some time later with paint on her clothes and in her hair. She claims there's some on canvas too but I have yet to see the evidence.

There was a birthday outing to the beach - it was grand fun although I can report that the water was not much above freezing. I ran miles on the sand with Hugh in hot pursuit (some of the time). Then H and L visited The Alnwick Garden which looks nothing like our own humble field. Huge great cascades of water and fountains and groovy metal and watery sculptures and a gigantic tree house. I would have enjoyed the water but for some CURIOUS reason dogs don't get to visit. Ho hum.

However, there were compensations - Lindsay moved lots of aged horse manure into the vegetable beds in the polytunnel, to give them a boost before plants go in and I was of inestimable assistance in this job, as I am sure you can appreciate. My friend Joe was here giving Hugh lots of help with a new (to us) shed which is going to be a very swanky kennel and maternity unit is due course, if L does not take it over as a potting shed first.

One of Lindsay's presents was a great book called Rustic Retreats - A build-it-yourself guide - H and L have over-active imaginations and are always rattling on about making stuff in the garden so it looks like we are in for hut/shack/bower thingy for all those romantic evenings that they (don't) spend out there - ho hum, more wasted time that would be better spent walking me.

I'll leave you with this morning's selection of sunny Borders images. If you see the Easter Bunny, he's mine to chase, OK?

All Fools Day

Well, the great day has arrived for her ladyship. The Border Tart is now launched. If you have not caught up with her at her own blog yet here you'll find there's a tea party going on and that some kind folks have already bought goodies from the site. Please help to spread the word - you know how it works - sales means happy people here at home and happy people means BONES...

Meanwhile, the sun is shining and Hugh has drawn the short straw yet again and is outside cleaning out the hens. There are lots of little bundles of black and yellow fluff under the heat light now too so I will get some pictures posted up here as soon as I can.

Now I must return to my assistant duties - I feel the teaparty needs my attendance.

Winter's back

The spring weather has been and gone and collapsed - we had a few days of sunshine last weekend which saw great activity in the garden and happy moods all round. Now it's back to grey skies and rain. As a well waterproofed hound I am of course only too pleased to splash about in rain-sodden fields but I do note a marked lack of enthusiasm in the arty ones.

April is going to be busy - her ladyship has now stopped paid employment to concentrate on arty pursuits full time. I hope the Workhouse name does not prove too apposite in the coming months. (Good word that, coming from a labrador, don't you think? I quite impressed myself) There's the imminent launch of the Border Tart and several outings lined up for Hugh's pics.

The ones above are both for sale online - they are acrylics on canvas panels, 30cm x 40cm x 4cm deep, and are £80 each including postage (UK) or £85 (all other countries). The duck is called Giles and he's a richer colour than may be showing on your screen, very orangey at bottom left corner. That's the commercial over with, folks. Update: BOTH SOLD!

I am contemplating allowing Hugh a monthly guest spot on the blog - possibly entitled The Oily Rag - so that he can rattle on about Land Rover adventures. Now don't hold your breath....

Mad March Hares

I've been chasing hares - not catching any, I admit, but I have been trying hard. And there was SNOW this morning which as any fule kno, makes for extra special sniffs. However, it was just as well there was fun to be had because yesterday was a very long quiet day with no exercise as him and her set off at five o'clock (without giving me breakfast) to drive down to Herefordshire and back (550 miles) to pick up some unsold pictures from a gallery. They has rain, wind, drizzle and then glorious spring sunshine (that was the farthest south bit) then the same in reverse on the way home.

I spent the day next door with Lindsay's mama - and they eventually re-appeared at nearly nine o'clock. It transpired they had decided to visit the Royal Air Force Museum near Telford on the way home, so they were both spouting bizarre facts about ejector seats, transporter planes and the Cold War. Bit of a mystery to me but they see to have enjoyed themselves, bless 'em.

Hugh's latest landscapes are gathering in preparation for various exhibitions locally over the next few months. The one above is called On the Skyline and is 36" x 14" with lots more detail than you can see here. Bulk supplies of paint and canvases have arrived. Lindsay is all excited because lots of them are for her and she is itching to clear a space in the scrap store up the ladder that she calls her room, and get started.

Meanwhile, she made lemon curd for the recent jumble sale - it always looks and tastes lusciously rich because it's our own hens' eggs - and those girlies know how to eat! There are eggs in the incubator which should hatch in a couple of weeks' time so watch this space for cute chick pics. L is also toying with the idea of offering people the chance to sponsor a chick for a year for a one off cost of £10 - you get chick pics and updates and then lemon curd or meringues made with your chick's eggs when she's old enough to lay 'em!