"D" is for Dog.

Day 4 of the A- Z challenge means that today it is “D”  I am going to continue with the theme of blessings. 

“D” is for Dogs. Dogs are my passion. I have loved dogs my entire life. My Mum used to say that even as a tiny tot in my pushchair I would reach out for any that were nearby.

I was never allowed a dog as a child as my parents weren't really doggie people, although my Dad did come to love Alfie and Loulou in the last few years of his life.

My Mum used to say “when you have your own home you can have as many dogs as you like”. We have had 6 so far. At one time we had 4 together. Currently we just have one.

In the last 3 years I have been able to take my passion one step further by doing volunteer work for Three Counties Dog Rescue. I now regard myself as having over 70 dogs. Every one, of our small band of volunteers at Three Counties, treat the dogs just as we do our own. We love every single one of them. I just wish they could all find loving homes. Sadly as one goes out to a home another little soul comes in.

Here are some photos of the 6 doggie blessings that I have been privileged to have in my life.

Buick.

Sandy.

Rosie.

Alfie.

Loulou.

Beanie.

Jilly

"C" is for Coralie

Day 3 of the A- Z challenge so it is the letter “C”. Seeing as I have been thinking so much about blessings recently, I have decided to keep this easy today. I am also aiming to make it shorter as apparently that is good!.

“C” is for Coralie. Coralie is my 2^nd child and eldest daughter. She is an incredible woman who I am terribly proud of. Many of you know that she hasn't had the easiest of rides with her health.

She suffered for many years with all kinds of women’s problems and other stomach issues. This culminated last year when she was very ill and had several lots of major surgery. Some of you know the details. I won't go into it all here.

The wonderful news is that she is finally back to full health and ready for anything. In her words “I feel like I can do anything now” I know that she can.

One of her many pursuits is cycling. She got into it seriously a few years back. She has done quite a few rides for charity. This October is her biggest yet. She is doing the “Cycle Africa Challenge” in aid of women’s cancer charities. They are Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust, Breast Cancer Care and Ovarian Cancer Action. It is a huge challenge. I am so proud of her. Did I say that already?

Here are a few photos of her on her bike.

 

 

 

If anyone would like to donate a few pennies to this cause then you can visit her Just Giving page here: https://www.justgiving.com/coralie-c-huson/

At the bottom of this blog post I have copied Coralie's own words from her page. (in Pink)

Children are one of the biggest blessings a person can have and I have been blessed 5 times. Coralie is one of those blessings.

Story

I read recently that 1:4 people will encounter cancer at some point in their lifetime. I don’t know how such a statistic is calculated but it is scary. I am one of 5 children, that means one of us will be affected by cancer, or one of my 5 nieces and nephews. What a thought. I figure we all need to pitch in and do something about it.

Some clever people carry out research into medicines and procedures, some people wear a ribbon or a band in support of a charity, some donate monthly or put coins in a collecting tin. Me? I am going to cycle many long and sweaty miles across Tanzania to raise money for women’s cancer charities.

 

Many of you know how much I love my bike, how much I enjoy being out on the road. But make no mistake, this is a big challenge. 9 days away from my boys, 9 days of heat, (I hate being hot!) and six solid days of cycling in a different climate, on different terrain, with a group of women I have yet to meet! I can't wait, but what a challenge!!!

Thanks for taking the time to visit my Just Giving page.

Donating through Just Giving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with Just Giving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

I am thankful for whatever pennies and pounds you are able to donate. They are going to a good cause.

THANK YOU.

Jilly

B i s for Blessings and Beaine Boy.

I must be on a blogging roll. I managed 2 yesterday and now here I am ready to do day 2 of the A-Z challenge.

I think mainly it is because today is an easy one, it is the letter B. Now when I restarted my blog last week I was doing some posts on blessings which begins with a B. There is another that begins with B and that is Beanie.

Beanie is our newly adopted dog. He first came into our lives back in December 2014 when he came into the care of the Three Counties Dog Rescue where both Simon and I do volunteer work.

He was a very sad boy. He came from a very poor background. A family who did not love him or care for him and in fact kept him in a state of dreadful neglect and illness. He lived permanently outside in a concrete yard in all weathers.

It is a long story of how he came to be handed over to Three Counties and one that serves no purpose to be shared here. He was in such a dreadful state that he went straight into the hospital unit at our Vets where Michelle the head Vet diagnosed demodectic mange and severe malnutrition. He spent 6 weeks in the hospital under the care of the wonderful Vets and nurses and they got him back on his feet so he could come to the kennels.

Simon loved him straight away. Here are some photos form that first day.

 

 

 

As many of you will know already we lost our beloved Loulou in January on the same day as the dreadful fire at the kennels. It was an awful time for us.

We always knew that we would take another dog into our home very quickly as we can't bare being without a doggy companion. Not to mention that we have a home and love to give and there are all those dogs just waiting for someone to come along for them.

We had also promised ourselves that when the time came we would take either one of the oldies or one of the long termers. For all kinds of reasons it didn’t work out like that and Beanie was neither. However it has helped to heal our consciences to know that he almost certainly would have become a long termer as he is a Staffy cross and he is white. People don’t want Staffies and they don’t like white dogs. Sounds funny that, doesn’t it? Trust me it's true.

So on the 23^rd of January 2015 Beanie came home with us. As I said previously he is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross, the Vet believes he is crossed with an English Bull Terrier but without DNA testing we won't ever really know. It doesn’t matter.

He was around a year old when he came to us in January but sadly we do not know his actual date of birth so his birthday will be celebrated each year on the day he came home.

Here are some photos from that first day at home.

 

 

 

 

 

We have now had him for 10 weeks and it seems like he has always been here. He is truly a blessing. He has made it a little easier to bare the loss of our Loulou although I still miss her every single day as I do our others that went before her. Buick, Sandy, Rosie and Alfie were all true blessings.

Beanie is adorable, he loves to play and his favourite toy is a very chewed up rugby ball.

 

He loves every single person that he meets but sadly he is very nervous around other dogs. We are working on that but given his background he may always be that way.

We are so grateful to Burghley Vets for getting him back to health and to Three Counties for allowing us to adopt him. We are truly blessed.

More photos:

 

 

 

Assuming I am able to keep up my blogging habit you can expect to see many more photos of Beanie over the coming weeks!

Jilly

A - Z Challenge - A is for Art.

My cousin Wendy is taking part in a blog challenge this month. Blogging from A - Z. One post a day, every day except Sundays. You can find out about it here: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/what-is-blogging-from-to-z.html

I have just read Wendy's post for today which is A is for ancestry. Wendy is keeping to a family theme for the whole month I think. However I don’t think you have to do that, I think you can just have a different thing every day. A bit like I did way back in my Yahoo days.

Anyway, I don’t want to actually join the challenge as I am pretty certain I will fail. But, I thought I might join in from time to time. So today is the letter A.

My theme is Art. I want to know what art means to you? How do you define what is art and what isn't?

That definition is something I have always had a problem with. When I was at secondary school we had lessons called “art”. We mainly drew things and did some painting. I was hopeless at it. To this day I still cannot draw. Although, that said, I guess everyone that can make a mark on paper can draw. It is in the eye of the beholder if it is good or not.

Because of those “art” lessons I have always thought that art was about drawing. I do know that many other things come under the heading too but I am thinking about drawing and painting right now.

So, what makes something art? For me I think it is when something is a true representation. Something that looks real. I really do not like abstract stuff. As for some of the stuff that looks like a 2 year old may have done it, well I just don’t see how that can be art.

I guess it is all to do with how we actually define that word isn’t it. “Art is a visual expression of an idea” according to the dictionary. So I can see that my limited view of it being just about paintings isn't quite right! I know that really

I think my problem is where do we draw the line? So a beautifully handmade quilt is art. An intricate piece of handmade jewellery is art. A lovingly hand knitted garment is art. A hand embroidered doodle is art. Hand crafted paper flower bouquets are art.

I can agree with all the above. Here are a few examples. Do you think they are art? **

Handmade Chainmaille by Victoria Sol:  

Hand Embroidered doodle by Kim's Handmade Cave. 

Handmade paper flower bouquets by Dawn the Funky Flower Girl

Hand knitted Cushion by The Feminine Touch

Needle felted Hamlet Hamster made by Jenny of Mythillogical

What does not in anyway constitute art for me are things such as “My Bed” by British artist Tracey Emin. I mean come on, how is that art? It is just a horrid example of what a room looks like when it is left uncleaned for a few days! She is clearly a sloven not an artist. This “room” was sold at auction in 2014 for a little over 2.5 million pounds!

If there are any takers out there I can create you a piece of art like that in no time at all. It isn't art. It's bullshit. Actually wasn't there another so called artist who actually painted with shit? Don't get me started!

What are your thoughts? What constitutes art for you? Do you have any examples?

I am going to finish now with a cherished piece of art from my own home. It was painted by my Dad and I love it.

** The above examples of art are by some of the members of the Etsy team that I belong to. Craft Britannia.

Jilly. 

Bloody British Weather

Afternoon all, just a quick pop in to let you know where I am at. First of all, yes I know I had said that I was going to try and do daily blogs but hey ho, I also knew that was never going to happen! I do have a good excuse though. We were away. No internet access.

Do you know, it's actually a funny thing about internet access. We went away in February and were staying at Wareham Forest. It is a rural area in Dorset, but that said it is also just a few miles from a very busy, urban, tourist area.

On our van Tallulah, we had between us, 2 smart phones. 2 Ipads, a very expensive Snooper GPS unit, all singing and dancing with internet, plus our own MI-Fi hotspot. Could we get on the internet? Not on your Nelly. Could we get a phone signal? Absolutely no chance. Somehow, I thought things were better than that nowadays. Obviously not.

Anyway, we were away with no internet. As some of you know we should still be away. We had planned to be way until Eater Monday. We were going to travel the North Norfolk coast and then go to Verity's for Easter.

We managed just one night. We went on Monday to Brancaster and had quite a nice day despite it being very cold.  A few photos:

Things started to go wrong around dinner time when we visited 2 dog friendly pubs where we thought we could have a nice meal out. What we hadn't thought about was that “dog friendly” means the world and his wife are there complete with their family of dogs! This is therefore not going to work for us as Beanie is nervous of other dogs. So it was a long walk in the wind and rain back to the van for pasties and beans.

Earlier in the day Simon had attempted to put up our Drive Away awning, despite the wind! He has only ever tested it once before, last summer when we purchased it. Of course by now he has forgotten how to do it and has lost the instructions. He did get it up but it didn't actually look quite right. The wind did not help and in fact it proved impossible to attach to the van mostly because of the wind. I kept telling him it was way too windy, but men always know best until the wife proves to be right!

So, we went to bed. It wasn't pleasant and the wind was picking up more and more and the rain was torrential. After about a quarter of an hour I got up. It was bloody scary. The wind was rocking the van quite violently and actually making me feel sick. Imagine being on a boat in really rough sea or on a plane with the worst turbulence ever. You have some idea.

Long story short, I spent the night sitting in the drivers seat with my feet propped on the seats opposite, trying to console Beanie who wasn’t entirely happy with this new experience. Simon of course stayed in the bed although he didn’t sleep much.

After a very long night where I was checking my watch about every 20 minutes, just longing for dawn to come, Simon finally got up. I was able to inform him that our lovely new awning which we have yet to use was now lying in a tangled, muddy mess on the ground. I watched it gradually go down over the course of the night. Nothing I could do. I have no idea at the moment if it is salvageable or not. It is currently in a heap in the back of the van waiting for a dry, non windy day so we can get it out in the garden and survey the damage.

With rain and strong winds forecast to go on until today we decided that after just one night it was best to head for home. I could barely move. A night spent sitting upright had made me very stiff and set off my lower back pain again. Just when I thought I had got rid of it. I also had the beginnings of a migraine almost certainly due to the stress of it all.

And so we are at home. Feeling pretty fed up. We had been looking forward so much to our first, longer foray. Right now, I am seriously considering if “motor-homing” is really for me. Something always seems to go tits up. (For my Merikan friends, who may not know that expression; it means gone wrong!).

JILLY