Holiday Dogs - Sepia Saturday

I meet many dogs in our village. This is a Lhasa Apso named 

Billy

He gives me my first link to our prompt for this week.

Billie Holiday with a dog

One dog which always has a place in our heart belonged to my wife's sister but resided with her mother in the 1950s. He has appeared on my Sepia posts before, but deserves another outing.

Major

Now when we go on holiday we always get involved with dogs - and they regard it as a holiday too. These two we didn't know but they loved a Cornish beach.

Paddling on Crantock beach

My daughter's dogs in Michigan always look on it as a holiday when we are there. One of them was always content to practise his favourite sport alone.

Cody fishing for frogs

Buster however was always impatient when we took him out in Caranton Woods in Cornwall.

Come on you two. Keep up!

The dog park near my daughter's home was a place her dogs always loved. It meant that they could dive in and climb out up a ramp.

Cody, Scout, Lily and Gem after a swim off the jetty

Of course there was also the ever present tennis ball to play with, if Cody didn't wander off to look for a treat by sitting down at somebody's holiday picnic spread.

Scout was named after the girl in Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' even although he is a boy. 

It seems appropriate somehow to finish this post with him on the day that the death of Harper Lee is announced.

Scout - at rest

RIP Harper Lee.

To check how others have interpreted the prompt this week stroll over to the links at Sepia-Saturday-318.

A-Z Challenge 2014 - 'R'

R - Rottweiler, Retriever

Crufts, The greatest dog show in the world, has been on while I have drafted some posts for this year's Challenge. The Best in Breed for the Working Group turned out to be Barney, a Rottweiler. 

I don't have any photos of him but it just so happens that a five months-old puppy has recently come to live in my village.

Max - Rottweiler puppy

Max walks quite well on a lead even at this age and he is getting used to meeting people. Now that he recognises me he wants to play and not sit still to be photographed.

Max

Rottweilers are an ancient breed once used in wild-boar hunting and as a cattle dog. More recently they have been used for police work and as guard dogs.

I introduced you to the "Gang of Four" under 'L' for Labrador.Now it's the Retriever's turn in a second "Gang of Four," also owned by my daughter and her husband.

Black Lab Mutt (Gem), Retrievers - Cody, Scout and Lily

Cody and Scout were special mates since they came from the same breeder. Cody had been cared for there for a long time after his owner died. When Scout was a puppy and and the breeders had a licensing problem their dogs were being taken into care while the problem was sorted out. When the premises were being cleared Cody had hidden Scout in a cupboard and laid down in front of the door so that he would not be found.

They were both 'loaned' out with number of other dogs to stay with Gem and blind Sam (see 'L'). Cody and Scout proved inseparable and they stayed when the other dogs went back. After Sam passed on the new "Gang of Four" was formed when they were joined by Lily, a Golden Retriever puppy.

Cody being teased by Scout

Cody died last summer. He was a dog who had some favourite positions, usually spreadeagled on the floor.

With one eye on his tennis ball

They all like swimming in the lake, probably Scout most of all.

Scout coming back to land

Lily, looking angelic

But as befits the youngest she's the one always in trouble.

Anyone would think she had had a busy day

A-Z Challenge 2013 - 'L'

My A-Z posts this year are based on my garden – flowers, animals, the birds and the bees, butterflies - with a bit of poetry thrown in. For some letters I am expecting to cheat somewhat – a sort of wish they were here.

L – Linnet, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Lupin, Lily

Hail to thee, blithe spirit!

It would have been easy to find a verse for a skylark but I haven’t seen this bird for years. However a species that appeared in the garden this winter is another that inspired Wordsworth to write:

Linnet

Thou, Linnet! In thy green array,

Presiding Spirit here to-day,

Dost lead the revels of the May;

And this is thy dominion.

Bird strikes are quite common on the windows of our home. 

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

This fellow was a bit worse for wear as a result. At the time I had been surprised to see what I thought was a female lesser spotted woodpecker clinging to a sturdy foxglove in the garden. Unfortunately it flew as soon as it sensed my movement at our lounge window. Then I saw the male bird, stunned on the path beneath the window, which it had apparently struck leaving a small contact outline. Initially its head was hunched in its shoulders, its eyes were closed and its beak gaping open. Over the next three-quarters of an hour it slowly recovered. During this time I managed to get a number of photos including the one above. However when it became more lively and I tried to get one more shot, it clung to the adjacent garden wall and within a few seconds it had gone. Its flight path was straight in the same direction as the earlier female bird.

I still see woodpeckers from time to time in adjacent sycamore trees and even attacking the peanuts not put out for them. You will have to wait for ‘W’ to one of those.

Lupins

My corner thronging with lupins bloom

Today I slouch here, with the dispelled gloom.

Colourful nostalgic thoughts fresh as morning dew

Lupins-- my first love its no one but you!

With the lupins, a single flower competes:

Lily

 The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble sheep a threat'ning horn:
While the Lily white shall in love delight,
Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.

OK! OK! I’ll acknowledge that my lily is not white so please accept this one instead

Lily

 Poems:

• To a Skylark – Percy Bysshe Shelley
• The Green Linnet – William Wordsworth
• The Lupins Corner – Supratim
• The Lily – William Blake

Photo attribution:

• Linnet - Mindaugas Urbonas; CC BY-SA 2.5

Mellow Yellow - Thematic Photography

When I saw the 'Mellow Yellow' theme I immediately thought of garden flowers. Now that winter weather has set in we could do with a bit of brightness.

Lonely Lily

 

This the only lily that survived from six planted some years ago; very year it has produced a show like this.

Just why so many flowers have female names I've never been able to work out but here's one from Cornwall.

Iris - at Bedruthan Steps

However I'd better be careful what I say aboutt this one found in the wild at Portrack Nature Reserve by the River Tees.

Snapdragon!

However this old boy was definitely mellow.

Sam - Yellow Labrador

While this young girl was wondering what she had let herself in for.

Waiting for the boat

to paraglide over the sea.

Finally I have a short video for you to watch.

For other mellow yellow views you need to check out Carmi's Thematic-photographic-224

The Black 'Sheep' of the Family

There are two stars in this post. Their names are Lily and Cody.

Cody is the old boy of the family. At 14.1/2 he still wants to play.

Cody - waiting

Somehow with a name like hers you would expect his playmate to be lily white. But ...

Where's that ball?

... she's the black 'sheep' of the family.

A Visit to the Vet's - A Lily (Mis)adventure

From time to time I get emails from my daughter's dogs to whom I'm known as Gramps. Lily's earlier (mis)adventures featured in a couple of my April posts.

Lily dozing

“Gramps,

I have lots of news.

I have a funny vagina.

We’ll get to that in a minute. Apparently, I’m not as feisty as I make out. I went to the vet today. We were late because I refused to get in the car. I hate the car. Mummy got my front paws in, but then I ground them in so hard, that it took her forever to get my back paws in. Then, when she got the others inside the house, I howled so loud that I sounded like a strangled cat, let alone a scaredy one. I was sitting in the driver’s seat when Mummy got in, and I refused to move from it. I drove all the way to the vet sitting on Mummy’s lap, panting heavily and trying not to be sick. I weigh 78.5 pounds too, so Mummy was a little squished by the time we got there.

I growled at all the other dogs inside the vet. Mummy said that was bad. I didn’t try to attack them though because, well, I was firmly hidden between Mummy’s legs.

The vet was nice although he poked me with a sharp thingy a few times. Mummy said it’s necessary if I think I want to chase Rocky and other fun things all the time.

Soooo, anyway….my vagina….it’s shaped funny, so I pee on myself! Isn’t that funny? I thought it was. It’s apparently quite common though, but Mummy or Daddy has to make sure it keeps dry. Mummy found that hugely hilarious. Something to do with my frequent visits to the pond.

I cost $185 today. Mummy said that was more painful than the journey to the vet.

We eventually got home. I rode in the back seat like the feisty girl I really am.

Oh, oh. There was another “incident” this week. Daddy accidentally left two 50lb bags of dog food on the garage floor one work day. We generally don’t touch it, but “somehow” it was opened up and a bunch of food was missing when Mummy got home. Of course, I was blamed…..

…..until dinner time. Guess who wasn’t hungry? Come on..you’ll never guess. SCOUT! SCOUT! SCOUT! Scout did it. Scout, Mummy’s angel boy, did it! Wahoooooo.

Lots of love

Lily”

Scout in the frame

Parallels - Thematic Photography.

This week's theme set by Carmi is Parallel which if you are not careful could be confused with last week's Vertical.


I've elected to concentrate on animals this time - well on dogs and a hamster named Deirdre, an escapologist of some renown.

Lily, a Border Collie, takes the parallel bars at speed.

I wonder whether she could take the parallels of the background fence as well.

Deirdre was a childrens' pet some thirty years ago. It didn't matter to her whether parallel bars were vertical or horizontal, they were there to be gnawed or climbed on the way out of her cage.

Deirdre inside her cage for once.

 Labradors like to be inside the house but are equally at home sunning themselves on the deck but not on the parallel planks, their beds are more comfortable.

Sam and Maxie take it easy.

An engineering structure has parallels too as shown by the main support frame for the Statfjord B platform under construction at Rosenberg Verft. Stavanger in the 1980s.

Statfjord B MSF at Rosenberg Verft

You may draw other parallels by visiting Carmi's thematic photographic 153 parallel

The Man Who Talks to Dogs

A-Z Challenge – ‘D’

Because of my interest in dogs I started to write about the dogs in the village where I live. The outcome – I suppose I now know as many dogs as people and I’ve heard people call me, “The man who talks to dogs.”

The first dog I remember was when I was very young, I’m not sure that I was old enough to go to school. The only photograph (now lost) that I saw of my father was him kneeling on the front lawn with Punch. Punch was an Airedale with a simple attitude to cats – he hated them. Mind you he took it to extremes when he killed the landlord’s cat for being on his lawn.

The first dog that I was allowed to take out for a walk was a white Labrador/Lurcher named Laddie, the gentlest dog you could imagine. He kept us in rabbit meat during WWII. Poor Laddie came to an untimely death when he was chased out off an alleyway behind a village pub straight under the wheels of a lorry.

Flick, the Whippet, came from South Wales. She covered herself in glory in a very short time by catching a hare almost as big as herself. I once wrote a short story based on this event called ‘The Chase.’

Major the Springer Spaniel had a demeanour to match his name. I’ll swear he sat to attention while his photograph was taken. Major was owned by my future wife’s family in Stamford, Lincolnshire.

 Major

My wife and I have never had a dog. One of my sons and my daughter have made up for this. Milly and Cara were the last two Irish Water Spaniels owned by my son. Milly was the most intelligent dog I’ve ever met and not a bad footballer either. She craved chicken bones and was the scourge of the neighbourhood raiding refuse bins for the remains. (You may read about Milly and Cara at http://bobscotney.blogspot.com/2010/04/irish-water-spaniels.html).

Milly and Cara

My daughter who lives in America had two golden (yellow) Labradors, a brother and sister, named Sam and Maxie. They are the stars in my blog post ‘Dogs of Troy’ at http://bobscotney.blogspot.com/2010/09/dogs-of-troy.html

Gem, Sam, Jack and Maxie

 When my daughter moved house, the pack increased to four with the addition of Gem, a black Lab mutt, and Jack, the chocolate Labrador know affectionately as the ‘Brown Bomber.’ Jack is my Lucky Dog (http://bobscotney.blogspot.com/2010/12/lucky-dog.html)

 

Jack

 Only Gem of the ‘originals’ is still alive and she has been joined by the elder statesman, a Retriever named Cody – the most obedient dog I know. He loves fishing in the lake.

 Cody

Scout and Lily are the younger Retrievers in the house. I have been told that it’s my job this summer to train Lily to behave. Wish me luck when I talk to the dogs.

[Posts and photos on North Yorkshire Village Dogs may be found in my blog archives in December 2009, January, March, June, July, September, October and December 2010]