past history

I've received a request to show a picture of Murphy as a puppy in relation to something else - apparently the one that's on the first entry doesn't really show how wee he was - so see this one with Emily. The other one is Murphy and Eddie "playing" on the trampoline, as they used to.

You forget how wee Murphy was! (it was 3 years ago though, even Emily looks young. -er)

competition

..Murphy has competition in the "picking on Anne" stakes - I was minding my own business last night, making a cup of tea for meself and "him indoors" when suddenly I heard the cat mieowing from the top of the stairs - she NEVER mieows so I ran up to see what was wrong. She ran off under our bed and when I lay down to see underneath, she pounced on me from behind the duvet! - this went on for a while until she got bored and wandered off to force her way into the wardrobe to check out future hidey-holes...

... and then I got moaned at because I forgot about the tea!

swans galore

had a nice day today, unlike poor Richard who had to get a tooth extracted - ouch! While he was undergoing torture Murphy and I went down to the river for a "stroll" (or a mad dash to the bank followed by tearing up and down it, in his case). It was really high and running fast so at least he had the sense not to go in (although he would have if I'd thrown a stick in) and contented himself with splashing about at the edge. The swans were in, so he was able to go and harass them - he kept running up and into the water (they were in the sheltered bit) and barking at them then running away.. on the way back along the bank people were throwing bread to the ducks - Murphy was trotting up and down at the edge of the water eating it all! Nobody seemed to mind, luckily

here's a photo of Gizzy and Murphy temporarily holding a truce and sharing the duvet after we sprang them from doggy prison on our return from honeymoon (it's technically Murphy's but usually Gizzy commandeers it and Murphy's too scared to argue)

Burns Night

hey, couldn't resist - just got the photos from Hallowe'en through to Christmas and had to show the main photo of Murphy on Christmas Day - all frosty as remembered.. hey how handsome is he? That's his Christmas tinsel collar he has on there

btw happy Burns Night, hope you enjoyed your haggis, neeps and tatties, we did

not much going on...

..at the moment. Murphy's ears got almost a clean bill of health on Monday. He stole my bit of Christmas cake tonight - I'd put the plate down on the sofa and he snuck up commando style, belly to the ground (he's obviously been watching too many war films) and waited til I was distracted. Then, faster than the speed of light, the head popped up and - gulp! - it was gone! All that was left was a few crumbs and a munching noise at ground level....

saturday,

well here I am on a Saturday night, sitting on the sofa listening to the washing machine and not watching the football which Richard has on... what an exciting life we lead! I wouldn't mind only we went to the pictures last night (I wanted to go tonight) cos richard wanted to be in tonight for the kids.. and both are out at parties! Still, at least I saw The Golden Compass twice on consecutive days instead of twice on the same day (went to see it today with the girl I take out every couple of weeks after having seen it last night). It's actually better the second time. And I got to spend an hour and a half curling Emily's hair, only burnt us both a couple of times with her curling tongs - it was just a shame that it started to fall out (the curls, not the hair!) quite quickly so she ended up tying it up.. oh well, we got to see Madagascar while we did it so time not entirely wasted, and I know how I'd do it better next time, if she ever lets me near her head again...

Murphy's ears are better and he's definitely back to his old self - out barking at midnight last night, forcing me to get up, stand on the bidet in the ensuite and shout out the window to him to go to his bed. It does work. Then of course Andy tried to sneak in at 1am to pick up his work stuff for today (not actually sleeping here last night) so woke him up and more barking... then Gizzy took advantage of me forgetting to shut the bedroom door after the last dog-admonishment and strolled in to stand on Richard and purr in his ear - not happily received at 2am, I can't imagine why...

by the way here's Gizzy's impression of Murphy...

repercussions

oh dear...

we've just come in after a bite to eat and thought we'd been stink-bombed! how can I put it nicely? - Murphy sure had something fairly wrong with his tummy!

richard's birthday

Happy birthday Richard! here is the official birthday photo to you from us -(I know it's supposed to be of you but we thought we looked better yesterday)

As a present specially for today, and in case we were planning on assuming Murphy was fine now that his latest paw crisis has passed, he combined continued head-shaking with completely refusing his breakfast this morning! Argh - he's NEVER done that! what could be the matter? Have I poisoned him by insisting he let me clean out his ears with the latest ear-stuff? Or has he picked up some lurgy on a walk, or from eating some rubbish from the track (previously a quarry so who knows what may one day come to the surface... not a thought to carry with you if you're dog-walking in the dark)

Perhaps he got a piece of richard's birthday chocolate log that I made yesterday - I don't know what it's going to taste like, I never read the instructions very well before I started so had to go back a step a couple of times, oops! By the time I'd finished I was practically head to toe in chocolate, just as well I wasn't trying to surprise richard (I suspect that'll come when he tastes it).

Anyway, back to murfs - I was so worried I came home at lunchtime, and was rewarded with the munster almost swicking a slice of bread and butter that was on a plate clearly too near the edge of the table... Whew! Appetites are never gone long in this household..

back to normal

well we're all settling in again. Gizzy's back to ambushing me in the bathroom in the mornings, Murphy's back to the vet with his latest ailment. Andy (No. 2 stepson) is back to being out and Emily is being very helpful as I try to get going on MSN'ing - more difficult (and fun!) than you would think

I had one of those random encounters in the vets yesterday morning (after having to run out a partner's meeting half way through to make the appointment). After calming Murphy down after half strangling him with his collar to stop him retaliating to the previous patient's "come on and have a go if you think you're hard enough!" growls (it was an alsation!) I glanced over at another woman there - and she was peering at me too .... and lo and behold ! It was Nicola Gunn from school in Glasgow! All married and with her son (looked about 8) with her and the dog..I couldn't believe it! I haven't seen her for over 20 years and there she was, looking all fab and trendy - and still talking nighteen to the dozen.. (people don't change, do they?) and she's married to a guy who was in my year at Uni and they live pretty close. . . spooky!

Anyway, I digress . . . Murphy is now on more antibiotics for his ear (which now reacting to the drops we were giving him to clear the infection he had in it last week) - as ever it's no problem getting him to take them, he thinks they're sweeties

and we've really confused him by letting him up on the sofa last night and the night before.. I think we'll have to stop it he doesn't know if he's coming or going and lies there looking terribly guilty before it finally gets too much for him and he slinks off to a doggy haunt at ground level...

home again.... (sigh)

oh dear..we're back and sitting here listening to the rain just CHUCKING it down! welcome home...

Murphy had the time of his life while we were away - the dogwalker took him, her 3 dogs and the other 2 dogs she was looking after to stay with her brother who's a gamekeeper on an estate and has 11 working dogs... Murphy was apparently the boss of all 17 of them - pottered around doing his own thing except if someone put a paw wrong or behaved inappropriately, in which case he turned up to sort them out!

Needless to say he's mooching about being a bit down now he's back with boring old us..and Gizzy's not too happy to have him back either, she ran out last night when Richard and Emily took Murfs out for a quick walk, hid behind a gatepost and leapt out at him, got both paws round his neck and smacked him one (then ran away)

welcome home!

2008 so far

God almighty, what a way to start a New Year... from the house you can almost see round the whole bay and from about 6pm there were regular intermittent bangs..from 11.30 it was constant and you could see (and hear) fireworks all round the bay, behind us up the hills and everywhere!
We had our own as well we set off at midnight (along with the rest of the world).. it was very moving really, although I'd say if you lived through the Blitz in London you'd be terrified! Then we were visited by three very glamorous early twenties Norwegians who popped in for a toast, a drink, a dance and then disappeared again into the darkness (we were in the garden at this time)

And today we went for a walk to get a bit of fresh air into everyone - the weather was cold, very still and bright - have a look at the photos, will you? It was beautiful! The last one is three swords (modern) commemorating something or other - I suspect the unification of Norway round about 872AD.