The Further Adventures of Spud the Dog, 12th May 2013

Poor Spud, he has sensitive skin

After the first day that resembled spring, one which Spud spent charging around the field  overnight he developed a sore looking patch on his neck, about the size of a 50p piece, it was troubling him, it was obviously very itchy. So Mr Uphilldowndale took him off to the vets. Where they shaved the fur off around the patch, Mr Uhdd said Spuds skin coloured up and started to swell in a flash. Poor Spud.

Spud came home with steroid cream, antibiotics, a fish oil supplement for his food and an £80 bill.

Dodger the kitten-cat decided after that upset, what everyone needed was a nice cup of tea, so he put the kettle on.

The kitten-cats have, by their measure a very productive week, amongst others, we’ve got up in the morning to find a dead jackdaw (I’d have liked to see how they got it through the cat flap!)

and a poor shrew that ended up with its head stuck in the mop bucket, not a nice way to go.

I can report Spud is looking much better and adores the fish oil on his food. We just hope that unlike me, Spud is not allergic t the antibiotics.

The Further Adventures of Spud the Dog, April 22nd 2013

I’m still here, I had a little bit of business to attend to down in Nottingham last week, then we had, wait for it, something that passed for a pleasant weather for being in the garden. I was so excited. There is much to be done, with everything that happened last autumn, the garden certainly didn’t get to put to bed for what turned out to be a long and harsh winter.

There are cheery little survivors though

  

I was more hindered than helped in my endeavours by Spud the dog and the kitten cats. Spud was impatient  to play ball,

The kitten cats just wanted to be in on the action.

Trashing a neat pile of clippings for the bonfire and spreading them all over the lawn

Spud took the line,

if you can’t beat them join them.

Don’t Mention the Snow

Spud the dog, braves the blizzard.

There is no getting out of the lane this morning.

Spare a thought for those battling the elements

http://youtu.be/T6RLu-LwRZM

Hide and Seek

It’s been a strange sort of week.

The tooth drama rolls on sapping my energy as the weeks pass, today I’ve taken up the  offer of a second round of antibiotics prescribed by my dentist, ‘just in case’. Getting to the root cause of the pain has turned  into a  tedious game of hide and seek. I can tell you it hurts most when I drive up hill (don’t laugh it isn’t funny, remember? I live at the top of a hill. Maybe there is a reason for this?) Mr Uphilldowndale and the boys can vouch for the fact my sense of humour is AWOL too.

Something else disappeared this week, Police Inspector Gadget blog. This leaves a gapping hole in the blogosphere, as long as I’ve been  blogging Gadget has been popping by here, he was especially fond of Spud the dog.  One of his clear crisp text messages told me he’d written his last post and was pulling the blog. No fuss no drama. 24 hours later it was gone.

Gadget is always a man of his word, I know that. The news didn’t surprise me and yet it did, after all, seven years of blogging, 12 million hits and up to five hundred comments or more per post, not to mention the book,  has to be a huge part of someone’s life.

My camera has not seen the light of day this week, so I’ll leave you with a suitably occluded  image from my visit to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park a few weeks ago.

It’s taken from the inside of Basket #7 by Winter/Horbelt

The Further Adventures of Spud the Dog, March 3rd 2013

Spud the dog, retrieved a toy Landrover  from the rock pile* today . Goodness know how long it must have been there,  it must be years,  it’s a long time now since the boys played with such things.  It must have been pre Spud, which is just as well, seeing Spuds enthusiasm for  trying to chew the tyres off  it this morning.

‘Back in the day’ there would have been endless opportunity for Spud to have devoured all sorts of toys. I can’t but wonder what made him dig it out today, for he must have passed it a thousand times before.

Just as the boys specification for toys has changed, its all mountain bikes and computer games these days, so has the families idea of a suitable car. Our trusty family estate car, age 17, and with generous 290,000 miles on the clock will be off to pastures new any day soon.

I know, this post is a day late, I’m afraid  toothache got the better of me last night.

* All the stone, we’ve ever dug up,  or pulled down, since we moved here over twenty years ago. We have aspirations to make it into something more than a cairn, one day, one day.

The Further Adventures of Spud the Dog 17th February 2013

This week we’ve had snow and gales, sunshine, fog and everything in between.

Spring however is just starting to peek out from behind its lace curtain. Look here is a kitten-cat, some snowdrops and dappled sunshine.

This week is half term, and I’m very much hoping to extract this blog from its winter stupor. A visit to The Yorkshire sculpture park is on my radar. But it looks like we’ve missed the Mark Hearld exhibition, which is annoying.

But, where is Spud the dog? That is all you want to know.

The Further Adventures of Spud the Dog 10th February 2013

Poor spud the dog has been upstaged by his feline friends this week. Spud can’t really see what all the fuss is about  with snow,

It’s tricky these days to take a turn around the field  without the company of the cats, whether Spud and I like it or not.

The kitten-cats however are less keen to get their paws to deep in the stuff. They prefer to tiptoe along the wall wherever possible.

They only came down to play when I pulled the mono-pod out of the bag, then quite frankly they were a pain, the idea is it helps steady the camera, not when it has two cats trying to run up and down it, doesn’t.

It is quite frankly enough to drive you up the pole.

Hare Today

The snow keeps coming and going, this morning we woke to delicate confection,  a butter cream topping of snow upon a squelchy sponge of a soggy muddy field (I despair of keeping the mud out of the house) the light was  diffused and sort of floury for want of a better word, I rather liked it.

Spud the dog, Jammy and Dodger the kitten-cats  all came with me for my turn around the field, but I’ll save the resulting mayhem for tomorrow.

We’ve more snow forecast for tomorrow, how much remains to be seen.  Here earlier drifts lie under today’s ‘top dressing’.

I was just about to go back indoors to toast my cold toes when I spotted a brown hare in the next field.

I do like hares, but I never get very close. Maybe I need a longer lens…

He lolloped over by the sheep, before exiting over the ridge.

Derbyshire Harrier has some lovely shots of mountain hares, over on his Flickr page

Winter Walk

Nothing finer than a  winter walk for  the restoration of equilibrium, Mr Uphilldowndale and I were both in need the other afternoon. We went down by the river, always a good move.

Up through the woods and across the fields.

Spud had a high old time, you can just see him here, heading off  towards a rather handsome wall, that’s topped with snow.

At the moment freezing rain is hammering against the windows and the rising wind has been piling snow back into the lanes this afternoon. The forecast is for the weather to get warmer over the weekend and for the snow to melt; we’ll be glad to see the back of it for a while I think. The weather conditions have led to tragedy.

We walked back past the church, not a bat or a bear in sight.

I saw some photos of ‘ zombie snowmen’ in the press this week, I had to admire the skill in their making, their location was described as a disused graveyard in Bristol,  it led me to wonder, how can  graveyard be disused? Its not like a factory is it? Isn’t always going to be ‘in use’ by its residents?

The Further Adventures of Spud the Dog, 20th Jan 2013

Spud likes the snow, he even manages to look tidy in it.

Snow is more user friendly to a dog than mud. (Did I ever tell you about the time an neighbours Chow Chow dog, wallowed in the outfall from our septic tank, one hot summers afternoon? There is mud and there is mud, there are muddy dogs and there are muddy muddy smelly dogs.)

Snow is a new adventure for Jammy and Dodger the kitten- cats

But, at the end of the day, keeping snug and securing the lions share of the sofa is the priority.

 

‘Mum! The cats have got a mouse in the porch!’ Said the boys.

‘Well go and get it off them then’. said I.

No one volunteered.

Ever helpful, Spud the dog stuck his head out through the cat flap, from the kitchen into the porch, and stretched as far as he could, and a bit more besides. He plucked the now deceased rodent from off the door mat in the porch and brought it back through the cat flap into the kitchen and presented it to me.

‘Well thank you Spud, what a helpful doggy you are!’ Now what do I do with it?