At the beginning …

… is always a good place to start, especially for a journey.

Things are happening in my life that are stressful – in the words of the well known “Serenity Prayer” …

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

… well I know I cannot change the stressful things directly – they are caused by other peoples’ decisions; decisions that those other people have the right and choice to make.  Some of those stresses will naturally dissolve away – others will have a significant impact on my future  and in the long term they are probably a positive outcome for me – but getting to the outcome is the stressful bit.

The Owner of the Black Boar

Go Slow or Go Slower?

It is midnight and I want to cry … my computer has got the jitters or hayfever or sommat and cannot make its mind up between Slow or Slower … I will hopefully get back on track tomorrow when I have had a sleep and found the patience to manipulate the wild thing into behaving with decorum again …

I Don’t Understand Why People Rely on Deception?

This is not about me or anyone really close to me … it is an observational piece about real life events though, as I see them.

A couple who have been a couple for around 15 years but married for 4 or 5 years; both use controls over the other on a daily basis; he is not allowed friends she doesn’t know, she is manipulated by withdrawing attention from her and so it goes on – a vicious spiral of deceit – because he does have secret friends and so to get his own way he is all over her like a rash.  I don’t get it – they are each adults of more or less sound mind but they are behaving like children in the school yard.

They constantly live outwith their means and wonder why life is a struggle and each blame the other.

Nettles Sting!

It has been quite a day – but first a whine – my hand hurts!  I got stung by a stinging nettle; I rubbed it with a dock leaf (which took me minutes to find) but my hand still hurts 7 hours later!!

I was working on tutorial stuff this morning, which si not exciting enough to write about.  Then I took my boys for their constitutional … things heated up a little!  Look at this foxglove about to flower – it must have come from seed spread from a garden since (1) there are no other foxgloves in the spinney and (2) it is not the native foxglove colour but a soft creamy yellow flower.

Shortly after seeing this Pup started seriously hunting and then a point.  He would not come off point and he tried to flush but something was preventing him.  I tootled on over to find him pointing into a pile of brashings (fallen twigs and branches).  Peering in I could see fur.  Pup poked as far as he could with his nose and I am sure that touched the furry someone but furry someone wasn’t budging!

300!

This is the 300th post in this blog …

I started out looking to record a journey to serenity … I am still travelling but life is pretty serene in most aspects these days and when it gets a bit pear shaped I can cope much better with it … usually.

I loved this pretty mainly purple garden when I passed it the other day – it contains some of my favourite flowers – alliums and aquilegia (granny’s bonnet) and it just looked spectacular as an example of an old cottage garden … simply lovely.

Twined through the grasses and nettles in this roadside verge is another favourite – a purple vetch

and here with the now almost over bluebells pretty little white starry flowers

Do you think any of them are called Daisy? or are they all Buttercups?

So there is a little 300th post bouquet of garden and wild flowers – this next one isn’t quite showing it’s full glory yet – I cut out the dead stems from this plant in Evelyn’s garden the other week and now these huge flower buds have appeared:

It is amazing how much the plants have come on in a short space of time for being tidied and weeds removed – there are now two huge red peonies about to open, an azalea in flower and aquilegia filling a few corners here and there along side bright yellow poppies.

And going full circle – I find myself constantly looking at unused buildings sizing them up with a curious eye to my future … isn’t this pretty? and complete with a weather vane; I think this was possibly a granary.

I now have several variations on the TickTock layout so hopefully next week we might be able to consider some cost ideas before going back to the owner … fingers crossed

We Hunted … the wildest and most terrifying …

… tennis ball!  More explanation will follow but first just look at the body language here …

It took over half an hour to get those – they wouldn’t sit next to each other.  Then I used the ‘mat’ technique to get them to sit on the mat … Dog had to shuffle his mat over first …. and EVERY time I got them sat up Pup followed me as I backed away with the camera.

I had a meeting this morning which went well and helped to crystallise some Project Tick Tock thoughts.  After I came home from that  I had a lengthy text exchange with a very miserable Toxic … who just maybe about ready to listen … we’ll see.

Then the boys and I went for a mooch.  After Pup’s hunts this past week I knew I couldn’t let him keep hunting without a ‘find’ and since he doesn’t know exactly what it is he is hunting that presents an issue.   I planted a tennis ball on our way into the spinney and let him hunt back.  He wasn’t as fluid as the last time but when we got back to the start he did scent out and find the tennis ball and fetch it to me.  I will have to try and take him a few more times when I know there will be no other dogs – no good me planting stuff for him to find if someone snaffles it!  Then I will be able to start planting some of his dummies rather than  the tennis balls.

He does know that he is hunting creatures because twice today he has pointed blackbirds and neither time did he chase them.  My problem with his spinney hunting is he is scenting rabbits but he has never seen a live rabbit, is unaware that the run and doesn’t understand when they have gone underground and the scent just stops.  We’ll get there.

I’ll finish with a gosling update:  I have seen two different hatches of goslings but one of those I haven’t seen apart from when they were tiny.  These though I see frequently – they were originally three and now only two but they are growing really well:

Pre-Flight Checks

If you are going to try and tell another person what to do and how to behave here are a few preliminaries to consider:

1. Do you have the authority to tell them what to do?
2. Have you got your facts straight?  Do you know the law? Do you know if the person has the permission to be doing what they already are doing?
3. Don’t try to give the impression you are somebody you are not!

As you already know I count myself privileged to be able to walk my boys on a local Estate.  So today as we walked down the drive a car appeared behind us.  Pup was immediately recalled and sat up and I popped a finger through his collar.

The car stopped and the chap wound down his window :

“Would you put your dog on a lead.  This is a private estate and we have pheasants on the nest.”

“My dog is under control (didn’t say but thought as I have just demonstrated) and the Factor knows I come here like this”

“Nae Bother” and off he went in hos beat up little car with his sprog all wide eyed and gormless in the back – to go through the newly installed gates to the big house and tenanted cottages.

Did he do his checks first? No!

• The law states a dog must be under control; the Factor’s Notices state that dogs should be under control at all times.  There is no legal requirement to use a lead.
• It is a private estate; there are about 4 pheasant nests on the whole estate and they are not where we walk.
• The private estate is not gated at the part I use so unless I am doing damage there are laws about access as well.
• He had no idea that I knew he wasn’t the landowner and that the landowner will know about me because the Factor will have told him.
• He also clearly has no idea that the landowner chairs a group focussing on access to land for recreational purposes and would be mortified that one of his tenants was countering that work.
• Finally he has no idea that I intend to joint that group because it links to my other pursuits.

In other news I have got a date for my Walk Leader training which will allow me to go on and start the Steps for Health Group Woo Hoo!