SHOCKING ENCOUNTER AND A MISSED BORDER TERRIER

Not usually being a fan of anthropomorphism, it pains me to do so here. But....when our little vole friend appeared here, the robin really did looked shocked. Not fearful resulting in immediate flying off, just shocked. 

Robin lands first....

Vole appears.....

Shocking

I have been trying to persuade the other two members of the household that Snippet needs a canine companion for at least two years now and, yesterday, I found a year old Border Terrier on preloved.co.uk who, for many reasons, sounded absolutely perfect for us. Amazingly, when I brought up the subject, it was greeted with some fairly positive comments and I was told to ask our Border Terrier owning friends what they thought before MAYBE getting in touch with the owners who lived pretty locally. So, I spoke to the friends this morning, who were very enthusiastic. I got the go ahead and at about midday, I went back to the web page trying to hold down my excitement, only to find the advert had disappeared! I was ridiculously upset; and I mean RIDICULOUSLY, given the very slim knowledge I had of him. Anyway, it has now been admitted that we are actively looking for a dog, which is great. I watch Snippet standing at the fence, staring at our neighbour's pack of five dogs, or running up and down after them and not being part of the gang. Oh dear, I'm in danger of slipping into anthropomorphism again. Don't get me wrong - he's a very happy dog and he has a great life, but when I see him playing with his 'friends', it adds a whole new dimension to his life. I'll keep you posted....we are looking for a young male, probably not a puppy and preferably already neutered, terrier of some description. A mixed mutt like Snippet would be ideal. Not too small. Stick with what I know I think. If anybody knows of anything suitable in this kind of area, do let me know! It's shocking how many young dogs there are out there for sale where people have realised having one is a massive responsibility that they're not actually ready for. At least they're not abandoning them I suppose but you'd be amazed how much money people want for them. 

Friday's weather was very strange here. the sky was leaden but we somehow managed to swerve its dropping of water or ice most of the day. You could see it falling in the distance but we only had one shower. It was fairly dramatic though, with ice balls the size of Maltesers. 

I love the fresh green of the new beech leaves against the sky in these two

A few more pictures from the last few days:

One of the nesting Nuthatches on the wall; there are definitely squeaks coming from the box now

I got a terrible shock the other day when this huge troop of soldiers appeared on the horizon

I love this beautiful dark purple periwinkle. I'd never seen it before we moved here. It tumbles down the wall from our neighbour's garden

Snippet with Fernworthy Reservoir behind

Favourite pastime 

You may have noticed my hastily cobbled together thing in the sidebar about pet portraits. I drew the lovely John Grey's dogs recently ( http://disasterfilm.blogspot.co.uk/ ) and he has framed them and put them on his blog with a link to here so I thought I'd better get myself organised in case anyone flew over to place an order. Nothing yet! Never mind; maybe one day. Now that John has published them, my next post will be one of those progress-through-a-drawing ones. 

Thanks so much to all of you who left birthday greetings in the comments. It was very, very much appreciated. Until next time, here's the lonely one, soon to be less so I hope. 

BIRTHDAY AND A CLOSE SHAVE

49 today......where did those years go? Anyway, these beautiful flowers are from my mum. When I came down this morning, I found Origami Boy had made me this wonderful banner:

I also got this print which I spotted in a local gallery some months ago and 'mentioned' in an unsubtle manner. I absolutely love it:

I didn't know a lot about Lucy Dawson but, having trawled the internet, I've found a lot more of her work. I love this being white on a coloured background. I think it's one of the most successful drawings I've seen, done in 1937.

Coffee and cake this morning with friends and now sitting waiting for Asda to deliver my shopping. I'm always amazed they come up here; they must be mad! £3.00 well spent; it would cost me more than that in fuel. Once they've been, I can take Snippet out in the delightful gale force winds and rain. Four degrees centigrade this morning and about six now. Lovely. I've just been sent this picture of snow in Princetown last night....they did say it might happen. I'm so happy it missed us:

Shopping is away, Snippet walked and coat dripping all over the floor. 

On Saturday, we had the close shave mentioned in the title. OB and I came back from his tennis lesson (he's no Federer but enjoys running around with his friends), to find a massive branch had fallen off the ENORMOUS beech tree that shadows our garden for most of the year under which we and our direct neighbour, park our cars. You can kind of see how big it is from the picture below but nothing really gives the sense of its majesty. What fell off was the size of a medium sized tree in itself. We don't own it but have very kindly been given enough of it to last us a year once it's seasoned. Partner spent all of Saturday with two others chainsawing it up to get it off the drive it had fallen on. The tractor below was parked in that drive and the falling tree just brushed its mud guard and trashed the trailer. Expensive though the trailer is, it's nothing to what the fairly new tractor would have cost to replace. We are SO lucky it wasn't one of the branches on the other side as it would have destroyed three Land Rovers, one Renault Megane (I could have lived with that), three sheds at least and probably a section of our roof, despite it being 100 feet away. Anyway, I'll stop wittering; here are some pictures:

Sadly, because of what's happened, the whole thing is going to have to come down. It's such a beautiful tree but, on the plus side, our garden will be much lighter and won't be a depository for its millions of falling leaves every year.

To change the subject, have any of you ever lost your entire Blogger reading list? For two days, it completely disappeared. As if to tempt fate, I just checked it AGAIN and it's all back. Very strange. So, apologies if I haven't been visiting recently but a lot of you went off the radar. Here are a few more pictures taken in the brief moments between torrential rain:

Things still not looking very green

Foal A and mum

Daisy and Isaac

Gelding shenanigans 

A new foal G. Two little white socks are the only distinguishing marks. I'm beginning to regret the lack of skewbalds for that reason alone!

Curly heads

Wind ruffled feathers

   

Not sure who this is, it was SO far away. I'm tempted to say it's a Harrier from the shape, possibly Marsh Harrier given the amount of marsh around here. I look forward to your opinions....

The Longstone, with Thornworthy Tor beyond

The visitors to the bird feeding station are getting bigger and bigger!

So, Having eaten nothing since the massive slice of cake at ten this morning, I a stealing myself for the M&S curry I splashed out on yesterday whilst spending the birthday cheque my mum gave me on clothes in Exeter yesterday. I was not allowed to spend it on anything but clothes. Do you think she's trying to tell me something? Until next time, here's Snip again in a rare dry moment.

WHO LIVES IN A HOLE LIKE THIS?

Whilst spreading the bird porridge on the top of the wall that runs up to the kitchen, close to the window, I have noticed this hole and assumed it was abandoned and unused. Today I was proved wrong as I stood waiting for the kettle to boil. Who should appear but a little Bank Vole. Mainly nocturnal, a lump of seedy porridge plonked on it's doorstep was obviously too much to resist. It shot back into the hole often, but was soon out again, snuffling about and eating seeds.  Why should I be so enchanted by a vole yet horrified at the mousy scratchings from the attic? Ridiculous really. Here it is. Full zoom through the not so clean window I'm afraid:

 The bird feeding station was busy today:

Great Tit

Magpie

Dunnock

Blue Tit

 

Nice try Woody....I can see you

What a grim day. Trigger is back in his rug after finding him shivering two mornings ago. The wind has dropped a bit today at least but the rain is hacking down and the sunshine a distant memory. Yesterday, I opened the boot of the car to get the hay and food out and the two black bin backs we use for plastic food container recycling flew out and into a nearby hawthorn tree. They are still there and, when the wind drops completely, I'm going to have to try and retrieve them. Not a great look as the guests from the Michelin starred Gidleigh Park Hotel cross the cattle grid on their prescribed moorland tourist trek. The weekend is here; I hope you all have a lovely one. Until next time.....here's that lovely Woodpecker again.