Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas everybody. Wishing you all a lovely day and a happy and prosperous new year from our lovely second hand dog Leelu who has changed our world for the better xxx

Turning into winter

Sometimes the days just pass in a blur, work makes you busy and the darker nights just make it feel like there is less time in the day and that actually everything would look much better from under the duvet.

Of course there are no more duvet days or lie ins with a border collie who does an excited 'it's morning, let's go OUT' type squeak that you can hear all the way from the other end of the boat (about  40 feet away).

Leelu has has both learnt and taught himself some new tricks: rolling onto his back and waving his legs in the air is much easier for us to dry his undercarriage after the wet and sometimes muddy walks we go on; if he picks his frisbee up on the way out of the door then we have to throw it for him because, after all, us mere humans can't always be trusted to remember to bring it out; and a recent one learnt after he hurt his paw (doing his dramatic superhero style catches of said frisbee), that if he waves a front paw in the air, he will get cuddles, yes pathetic I know, am trying to stop falling for that!

We have been on many adventures in the mountains of north Wales as I have built up to finally doing my Mountain Leader assessment (which I passed last week, hooray!).  The advantage to this time of year for Leelu is that , in the main, the sheep have been brought down from the mountains for tupping  (mating) and so I have been able to let him off the lead as there are no sheep about.  We have dealt with paths that are not there, walking in the cloud with poor visibility, our first tick removal (eww) and first night that he has slept in a tent.  To be honest, neither of us slept that much, he was fine in the tent as I had put his bed in there but decided that me being right next to him was the best thing ever and that I was just there to fuss him, all night... When I got up at 4am to use the 'facilities' (field), the moon was really bright and the stars were out, so was Leelu with his frisbee so off we went around the field for 15 minutes!

It's brilliant having him in our lives, we are so lucky, no really we are, even on those dark, wet and windy mornings......

Canal Restoration & a sponsored walk

For many, many years, I have been a member of the Waterway Recovery Group which involves a bunch of volunteers roaming around the country restoring canals, repairing / making towpaths, nature reserves etc. and generally making more stretches of canals navigable and pretty.  A few members of WRG have dogs and they can occasionally be found on 'canal camps'  and some even have their own hi viz jacket!

 In July, Leelu & I spent a few days in the very north of Yorkshire with a group of volunteers that were a mix of ages ranging from 18 year old students completing the residential part of their Gold Duke of Edinburgh award through a few 'Middle Agies ' to slightly older. It's fantastic how you can put a bunch of people that have not always met before, from different backgrounds and of different ages together and they all muck in and get along.  On camp we tend to stay in village halls and take it in turn to cook (unless we are lucky enough to have our own cook). Because Leelu was with me, I took our VW camper and the pair of us slept in that, which in hindsight is a great way of getting away from the snorers!

We had suburb weather andLeelu was loved by everyone (except one person who didn't like dogs but I did catch even him throwing the tennis ball at one point!). We did weed clearance from the canal, shrub clearance from the banks, put in some new mooring pins and made a new water point and because we weren't using heavy machinery there was lots of opportunity for the frisbee to be thrown for Leelu, to be honest I didn't really get a look in as everyone else was looking after him!

One day we went to the beach, yes it rained but we loved it, despite nearly falling foul of the 'don't bring your dogs into this area of the beach' rule...oops!

We even had a bit of a look at the mini digger although he struggled to work out the controls

It was a cracking hot sunny camp with some lovely people. Here is his new fan club!

To bring it right up to date, the vans we use to transport the kit and volunteers all over the country really need replacing.  Leelu and I are part of a team doing a sponsored walk along 22 miles of towpath starting and ending at Droitwich in the Midlands.  Flat walking is much more difficult than mountain walking, in my opinion but we did a practice walk of 14.7 miles last Sunday. I was quite tired after it, Leelu of course just wanted me to throw the tennis ball when we got back! We have already reached enough sponsorship that we now have to go do it in fancy dress.  Our theme is 'Snow White and the Seven Wharves' yes wharves not dwarves, we had to make it canal themed somehow. I am going to be 'Buckby wharf.' For those that don't know, a Buckby can is a metal can that sits on top of traditional canal boats and stores water, when you want a drink your pour water out of it.  Leelu will be wearing a 'Waterway Recovery Group' bandana (& my husband is doing first aid cover for the event, phew!).

We would therefore love any sponsorship that you can find.  Please go to http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/rfb where you will see a lovely picture of Jude in her Snow White outfit.  However it looks like her husband, who is also the chairman of WRG and has an MBE will be wearing it if we can get enough money!!

I will be doing updates!

Be more dog...

Summer time in the UK and longer evenings mean that more time is filled playing outdoors and going on holiday and, in my case, getting a new job (hooray) and so technology doesn't seem as important.  This does mean that I have 2 months worth of stories to catch up on in "Leelu world" but I am going to start with today which started with "when technology goes bad" and ends with #tummytickles....

After a cracking couple of weeks canal boating, we had issues with our wifi modem. Why is technology so could when it works and so stressful to sort out when it doesn't?  2 long and expensive calls to the EE help desk came to the conclusion that the dongle was probably dead but needed sending off and please could we take it to the EE store in Chester.....nooo...not town...curses... We hate going into town so in order to make it more pleasant Leelu came with us as we really weren't going to be long, our list of jobs was going to be done quickly and efficiently - drop off the laundry at the launderette, drop off the modem at the shop for repair, doing a quick bit of mobile phone research, finding a coffee shop with wifi so we could at least download our emails, then a walk on the racecourse or in the park with the frisbee was the plan. 

The actual chain of events was:

- drive into town and drop off the laundry, sorted, easy.

- park and walk to the EE shop, realise that it is the Chester races today which means that it is really busy and there are lots of overdressed people tottering down the street and we won't be able to go for a nice play with the frisbee on the racecourse, not without getting under some thundering hooves.....aagghhh....

- have argument with the most unhelpful staff ever in the EE shop who won't believe that we are capable of having a phone conversation with EE technical support and that were doing what they had instructed us to do, go 2 shops down to the car phone warehouse shop where a very helpful lady said that she couldn't help us but there was another EE shop nearby....

- Go to other EE shop, lovely kind helpful and calm staff dealt with our dead wifi dongle, packaged it up ready to go back for repair, as requested by the helpline, why they could do it and other shop couldn't we don't know but it wasn't  helpful in customer experience or stress level terms.

- went and had coffee and paninis sat in the cathedral gardens in the sunshine, We were all much happier there!

- had a quick run around the Roman gardens amongst all of the ruins (it really is a lovely place to visit if you haven't been there!)

- decided to bail and go home but called in the O2 shop as husband really needs a new phone and from there it all went a bit crazy but happy...

Whilst husband was being all grown up, and choosing a phone, the staff got a bit out of hand, Leelu started it and before you know it there was much rolling around on the floor begging for more tummy tickles, so the dog joined in....

I don't know if you are aware of the O2 adverts but they involve an animated real cat strutting its stuff with the tag line 'be more dog' I don't get the tag line in this context and to be honest I don't really care either but as a dog person I do think they should at least have the courtesy to have a real dog in there not some cat with a bit of a complex. We had this debate in the shop and agreed that there should be a shop dog, so Leelu is honorary, temporary shop dog 

As you can see he had a terrible time and to top it off we came away with a new phone and a happy husband too.....

Live life in the moment

Be more dog because dogs are better.🐾

Dinner, Bed & Breakfast

The past 2 weekends have involved husband and I driving great distances over the UK involving both socialising and work.  Leelu would not have liked it - 4-5 hours in the van each way on each trip.  As a dog, it must feel like a bit of a travelling / time machine - you get in and have no idea what view the door will open onto - will it be friendly, like my parents? Or will it be scary - will there be other dogs there, or will it be a great new place to explore?



Leelu has been treated to 2 weekends at my parents - a great big garden lots of fuss, a cat that he ignores but who gingerly steps past him (she is as antisocial as he is!), lovely walks through the woods with my Dad, rabbits to chase in the field and - if he's lucky - double dinner (because both I and my mum have fed him!), or double breakfast when the cat doesn't eat it quick enough and the door might have been left open a crack!


Pets at Home have started sending Leelu mail which made me laugh a lot.  Even better than that, as he turns 8 sometime around now, they have sent a voucher for free birthday dog treats, which is brilliant (although I hope they do cake for the owners too!).



In the photo below you can see that Leelu has discovered sitting on the step on the boat - it makes him almost as tall as us although he was sitting up looking very handsome until i took the photo so now it looks like he is sitting on the naughty step (there is no naughty step)!

In the garden at my parents having a lovely game of catch

Happy walking everyone, I hope you are enjoying the sunshine.

V & L

Spring turning into Summer

Well I say Spring turning into Summer...Summer is definitely here, you can tell.  It's the first of June and hammering down with rain outside,the fire is lit and we are expecting 42mph gusts of winds later - great fun on a canal boat, I think not!

In complete contrast to that, a local walk I did on Saturday was so beautiful and full of nature that this blog is just dedicated to the photos I took.  Enjoy!

 Bee collecting nectar:

 Lots of damsel flies were around, presumably just hatched and drying in the sun;

 Ferns uncurling:

 Dog with frisbee amongst ferns....

 Hawthorn blossom:

 Ferns unfurling:

 Oh and we have some new baby calves in the field.  They are grouping together whilst they learn their place amongst the other heifers in the field:

Well, that's a bit of sunshine - I'm off to walk the dog in the rain...!

Canal walks, Camping and Mountains

We’ve been on a few walking adventures over the past few months – with varied rates of success.  It’s been an exercise in pushing myself and trying to get some walking fitness back into my life, plus seeing how Leelu copes with the different types of walking …oh hang on…dog…walk….!

The first decent sized walk we did was Long Mynd in Shropshire – 11 miles of up, along, down, then up then down again (the last down hurt!!).  It was a beautiful hot and sunny day but I made the mistake of letting Leelu  have the ball to carry and to be fair to him he did – the whole way!!  He was also brave enough to get into some small streams to drink, not into fast flowing ones though, but I felt like it was some kind of breakthrough as he generally doesn’t drink much water, let alone go near any moving water.

We then went to the Lake District for my second mountain since my back op.  We were aiming to go up Bowfell  through Eskdale.  It was the first time we had been camping in the Yellow Bus of Fun (ex-AA VW T4 camper / multipurpose van).  Oh Leelu thought it was great that he was so close to us and he could sit up and put his head on the bed in the morning ‘Are we going out yet…?’  The disadvantage to The Lake District in April is lambing season.  Having been non-dog owners for a while and therefore able to go where we want, the lambing season hadn’t affected us before.  So on the lead he went although husband cunningly secured him via a karabiner to his rucksack so he could still go a little way on the retractable lead. 

All in all it wasn’t the most successful day ever.  Despite lots of flat walking, you need different muscles for mountains and mine had deserted me that day.  On top of that, higher up was rain, then sleet.  The dog was also not having the best time either – cold, wet, sleet, wind, on the lead - so we bailed…to the pub for restorative tea and nachos.  We then went and parked ourselves in the Old Dungeon Ghyll carpark and had a fine evening of great food, beer and chatting (with much admiring of dog by fellow pub goers) and retired to the campervan and listened to the beat of the rain on the roof.  As predicted the next day was a complete washout – Leelu’s face was a picture when we opened the door in the morning and we were in one enormous puddle of water.  We went home.

Two weekends ago, whilst husband was on a course in Audlem, Leelu and I did an 11.5 mile walk down the towpath and back from Audlem to just short of Market Drayton.  Another flat walk but good to get the miles in.  We had a bonus on the way too as we bumped into a volunteer lock keeper that we know and he bought me cake (it’s ok I had treats with me for Leelu, he didn’t miss out!).

Last week was half term so we had a few days in Wales based out of Llanberis.  Unfortunately our plans went awry a little when husband got very poorly sick so I took Leelu and Step-daughter no. 2 , who was staying with us for the week, up to the top of Snowdon via the Llanberis path as neither of them had done it before. 

They were both excellent, despite the steepness (s/d), the boring path, the people and the other dogs (Leelu) and slept lots afterwards.  Actually both s/d and I slept lots because we then went to Bounce Below as a half term treat – its’ a series of big nets in a huge cave that you bound around on and climb up and slide down, great fun and completely exhausting – like a human size version of a snakes and ladders board!  Thursday was a more gentle day.  Fortunately husband got better and took daughter climbing on Idwal Slabs whilst I introduced Leelu to the concept of steep steps with a bit of scrambling.  He didn’t like it.  To make it up to him I then had to stand and play ball with him for ages!

Next on the list of Leelu’s adventures – spending the weekend away at my parents (He won’t like the drive to Wiltshire!).