Lets Go Boating!

Good morning!

Leelu in the Cairngorms in February doing his best 'snow dog' impression

I realise that it has been 'some time' since my last blog post in November - eek, sorry to all Leelu fans out there! So here's a summary of what has been happening in the life of Leelu... tennis balls, walks, frisbee, sleep, mountains, snow, tennis balls, mountains, tennis balls, sleep,football and in the past couple of days - sunbathing - yes that yellow thing in the sky has made it really warm for the last couple, almost looking like summer!

A new toy for flinging and chasing around the field!

Scotland in December, admiring the view 

Glen Clova, Scotland over the New Year, it was very windy!

From May, Jason, Leelu & I are embarking on a journey around the canal network in England on our narrowboat. We have all of April to do some work on the boat and get her ready for the trip, jobs that you don't tend to do day to day such as replacing the floor in the back cabin!  Leelu is ready, he has his food and he has his lifejacket at the ready!

So if you want to come and visit us on the canals over the summer, follow our new website https://daysaway.wixsite.com/website where you can also access these blogs as well as the adventures of the humans where he resides!  We also have a new facebook page https://www.facebook.com/daysawayadventures/ 

All Change - a new life plan

I recently heard a podcast host say that actually the best way to get an audience is not to say what amazing things you have done but to say what a terrible time you are currently going through because many people will identify with your situation.  Overwork which then led to work-related stress has been my 'terrible time' virtually since April this year but here I am, definitely on the brighter side of it with a lot more determination and a long term goal. Having literally just made the decision to escape the food manufacturing industry that I have been working in for the last 24 years, with the exception of a couple of years between the ages of 29 and 31 when i went travelling, it's a kind of odd, yet liberating, feeling, so now I am just working out my short term plan.

So whilst i had enforced time away from work when i was off with stress, it was my second hand dog that helped me through.  Another creature that wants to drag you out walking miles along the towpath or play in the field with the cows and the frisbee (That's a great image that I am going to leave just there!) or whilst you don't always feel that you can contact even your closest friends, you don't want to worry your parents and your husband is on expedition on the other side of the world, it's the dog that gets you out of bed every day, or rather he is willing to get out of his bed for the promise of a walk really early in the morning because your head is awake and buzzing with stupidness.  We caught some lovely sunrises, sunsets, moonlight and heat of the day walks and walked miles, all from the narrowboat mooring. 






In April we did a fabulous walk along the Nantlle ridge in Wales where Leelu did some more scrambling.  Once he gets into it he is really good.  The harness helps us to assist him up or down






We've had chilling out time in the sunshine on the mooring:

We've changed his food, he was so bored with his food which we decided was just like the inside of a malteser (with less taste), despite it being what he has eaten for his whole life, lots of research and advice and practical considerations were taken and the result is a happier dog with a shiny coat who eats all of his food and the occasional bone from the butchers - now he has learnt what to do with it!



We've learnt about Yellow Dog and got him a smart yellow bandana which has helped other people to keep their friendly, or otherwise, dogs away from him, he still can't cope, even if the other dog ignores him completely he still has to keep an eye, just in case they might suddenly want to come and attack him....

We've also done lots of hill walking with Ellen - I didn't have the energy to do mountain walking and Ellen is working towards her Hill the Moorland Leader qualification.  The best thing about Ellen, according to Leelu?  She always brings sausages!




So while I work out a short term plan and get over laryngitis, a plea - we've recently discovered how much fun an old football can be, even more fun than a tennis ball or frisbee.  We found one in the woods but it was disintegrating.  We found another floating past in the canal but then managed to kick it back in to the canal way out of reach.  Any old footballs would be welcomed!

Viv & Leelu x

March Mornings

I have to say that I am really enjoying the morning walks so far this month. It's much lighter when we go out so I no longer need my big bright yellow hi viz 'minion' coat and can resort to my royal blue waterproof and fleece instead. 

Life just seems so much better when you are getting up when it is just light and as the sun is rising, there have been some beautiful sunrises.  Last week there were some lovely cold, still mornings with a thick layer of frost on the ground, although it was still very muddy under foot, not that Leelu cares as long as the frisbee is flying high for him to chase!

This time of year sees the start of spring and whilst the ground is slowly drying out we have had some lovely walks listening to the blackbirds and thrushes singing, watching the Canada and pink footed geese fly overhead, the rooks building their nests, the daffodils flowering and not forgetting the bloomin pied wagtail couple that have come back to our mooring for the third year running and whose lovely tune I wake up to each morning! I've even put a nesting box up for them this year as there is no longer a secret wood pile or canoe to build a nest in or under! I hope they use it.

We have also had the 'teenage ' swans, last years young, group up together and come and mob us!

On our Saturday morning walk up the towpath we even saw the rubbish boat moored.  That is the boat that goes and fishes out all sorts of delights from in the canal (as opposed to a boat that is rubbish!).  We checked it for errant tennis balls but didn't see any so carried on.

We had to do a vet visit last week when I finally found the small bump on his shoulder that I had found and then lost again (that was a slightly embarrassing moment at the vets...er... He has a bump but I, err, can't find it...). The concern was that the bump is the same place that I removed a tick from at the end of last year, although clearly i can't have removed it properly.  It had obviously been itching him as he wrecked his collar trying to itch his shoulder against the brick wall.  Got some magic steroid cream and had a good chat to the vet about Lyme disease and also am going to get some combined flea and tick treatment to give him over the summer which is useful to know.

This weekend has been designated bath time, he doesn't know yet but will no doubt be practising his baleful look!

Happy spring everyone!

Viv & Leelu

The first 12 months

In 2 days time we will be celebrating the first day that 'Umlilo' was brought into our lives.  Now commonly known to you all as 'Leelu' the frisbee and tennis ball addicted border collie that currently spends most of his time quite muddy due to the very wet state of the fields next to where our boat is moored, loves his bed, cuddles, us, my parents, in fact many human beings...but not other dogs, especially Labradors whom is quite traumatised by.  Just as well we live in the middle of nowhere. 

His nemesis, TJ, a black barrel of a lab with a leg at each corner, can't half move when he spots Leelu in the field .  He has been known to joyously jump on him (whilst our hero naps in the sunshine under the picnic bench outside!).  Leelu doesn't make much noise at all , everything is communicated with the eyes but husband actually heard him bark when TJ appeared unexpectedly at our gate. We've not heard him before or since though.

We do now have a lovely couple who do, amongst other things, dog walking for those days when both of us are at work.  They have been taking him out with Lucy, the quietest, sweetest older lady Labrador.  He does what we call his 'snarly face' (on account of not making much verbal noise) which she ignores and carries on pottering about.

Then we come to a black lab (although a very tiny 3 yo) called Daisy.  Daisy belongs to the friend of husband. 4 of us had a great stomp up on Kinder from Edale, even going via Kinder Downfall to see if it was "in" (a joke you either get or you don't) just before new year.  As we were walking with another dog (even though she was ignoring him) , I still gave him the safety tennis ball, it's a bit like a security blanket for him. After 3 hours of throwing the ball and throwing the ball, I took it off him, he had got used to her being around, despite her also expressing love for the tennis ball which caused a bit of a collision that shocked them both.  At first he wandered about a bit, then he started following her , then he started following her in a right old nose to tail fashion.  And that is when our boy dog first discovered girl dogs!

The scar he arrived with from barbed wire, or another dog, whichever your point of view and it doesn't matter, healed well, he got used to us, our vet says that he is in great condition, he copes with other dogs but he doesn't have to like them, he plays in the field every day, gets great walks in the mountains (sadly not every day), has slept in a tent, sleeps in the camper van with us when we go away, had a great new ruffwear harnesses which makes lifting him over stiles so much easier, and  gets lots of fuss, his own bed by the stove, which sometimes gets lit just for him, yogurt pots to lick out and cheese as a treat , although more recently bacon rind from my Mum!

Thank you for coming into our lives, we couldn't imagine life without you. Except for lie ins of course!

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!