Cheeky Monkey

We have all settled down now and I was able to go to the market on Thursday where I picked up 3 orders for waistcoats and 1 for a customised ring pillow. I had asked Kim next door to listen out for any fights or problems, but she said everything was quiet all day, so they must have slept until I came back.

Digger has become quite cheeky in that he will pick up one of Peggy's toys and wave it in front of her nose, then race under my skirt where he thinks he will be safe...not the brightest spark in the pack. Other times he will headbut her then race into the garden with her at his heels where they mock fight and charge round at the rate of knots before coming back to their baskets for a snooze. I tried to get him to sleep with Peggy in the kitchen at night but it is too early yet and I had to relent and let him back into the living room. I was also advised not to send him to social club but to let him have space for a couple of months. He is quite docile when out on walks round the estate, but I have no idea what he would be like in company with a lot of other dogs, so we'll take that slowly. Apart from that, the dog therapist says I am doing everything right and he should be OK. They are outside at the moment, playing with some poor bug that attracted Peggy's attention.

A night's sleep...

The plan went well last night, and I got the first good night's sleep since I left home for Cheshire. There is nothing like your own bed as many people know, and my back makes it difficult to sleep elsewhere. Digby slept in the living room on the settee after I had put a child gate across the bedroom door. He could see me but his bed was on the other side and once he realised I was not going to let him in, he went downstairs and onto the settee. He barked for a while so I went down to him and shouted at him and from then on, he was as quiet as a baby.

Today he has been a really happy dog, playing with Peggy and having little sleeps, and seems to be settling in comfortably. I was able to take my car in for its MOT which, unfortunately, it failed and now I have to sort it out. Mother rang to tell me her cat Silvester had a tumour and had to be put to sleep. I was worried about her being alone and encouraged her to think of giving a home to a rescue cat. She was concerned that if she got a young cat it would have to be rehomed if she died, but as I pointed out, she doesn't have to get a kitten and there must be other cats that need rehoming because their owner has died. She'll think about it.

My third worry is Bert who has had several mini strokes and is well under the weather. He gets his scan results tomorrow and I'm hoping there is something the doctor can do for him. Again, unfortunately he has a low tolerance for the drugs they give him and stops taking them before they have chance to have any effect.

I paid for my holiday today, a week on the Isle of Wight in October with Gareth's mother-in-law, Maureen, so it isn't all bad news and hopefully will get better.

A little darling, a little horror

Digby is a little darling - most of the time. During the day he will play with Peggy, have sleeps in his basket and sit beside me on the settee. However, night-time is a different matter...he is very nervous of noises, especially next door, and barks consistantly for hours. This is not acceptable to my neighbours who have to get up at 05:30 to go to work and I have to find a way to stop him. I called the rehoming centre for help and now have a plan. We'll see if tonight proves to be different because on the whole he is fitting into the family very well.

Peggy went to her social club this morning and Digby missed her quite badly. He searched all round the house then sat in his basket until she came home an hour later. I've arranged for him to join the social club and take turns at going every fortnight with Peggy going the alternate weeks. I think this will help him adjust to playing with other dogs, because it certainly did Peggy good - she is a different dog since she started going there.

At the moment he is trying to drag his large basket into the middle of the kitchen and has scattered all the contents in his wake - not sure why he is doing this, but no doubt he knows what he is doing. He goes on his own into the garden frequently and has learned to get in and out of the dogflap so he is all set for the winter.

I was able to do some more journalling for my mother today and achieved a surprise for her. A doorway that opens and shows her wedding photo (one of those I pinched during my visit). I also finished that set of pages and only have one signature left to complete. I just hope she likes it and takes it lightheartedly as is meant. The words conveyed are Caring and Nurturing. The middle page is Impatient, but I showed that picture earlier on - I think?

An additon to the family

What a week I have had! I made some more pages for my mother's journal before leaving for Cheshire, about 300 miles north of Devon. I started out at 06:15 and arrived at 11:00 after a reasonable run up the M5 and onto the M6 - that was a bit hairy and needed a lot of concentration. That afternoon I chatted to my mother, got settled in and sifted through all her old photos. It seems every time I go through them I see different things about my past life and jogs to my memory. I managed to sort out a pile of wonderful photos for my mother's journal and gathered lots of ideas for presenting them. Wednesday was doing the list of jobs she had accumulated, with shopping for large items and two copies of the Argos catalogue which weighed me down plus shopping from M&S etc. Then the afternoon was taken up with my daughter Stephanie and her daughter as they had flown over from Munich to Stephanie's father for a short visit. The evening was taken up with a trip to the local pub with Bert where I enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine and a meal. It's the only time I get to be chauffered by him so I enjoy every minute of being looked after.

It was also on this day that I learned that the lady who lives 2 doors away had died and left a tiny dog stranded for 3 days beside her body. Such a sad tale and I went next door to offer a home if needed. The lady's daughter asked me to phone her and we discussed Digby's needs and I went to see her on the Thursday afternoon. Digby was delightful and full of fun and it was agreed that I take him to Devon with me the next day and see if he would gell with my other Jack Russell, Peggy. I had been looking for a companion for her for some time and this seemed a golden opportunity.

On Thursday Mum and I went to the NEC at Birmingham to see the Festival of Quilts. The displays were breathtaking and my favourite suppliers were tucked at the back so I could browse to my heart's content. However, the journey back was tiring, with several hour-long delays at J14-16 and Arclid crossroads, then when we set off for Hazel Grove there were road works along the way. Stephanie came over again that evening to chat and tell us about her own experiences before I went to my bed well tired.

On Friday I was up early, packed and boarded ready for the arrival of Digby and his 'life in a suitcase'. It was a sad and emotional farewell before I set off down to the M6 motorway and home. Digby was a total pet, he slept in his basket all the way, and we stopped for a little comfort break halfway down the M5 and he never moved much at all. There was a short delay at Birmingham but the M5 was mostly clear so I was able to make a much shorter journey than I had thought. I parked up at home and showed Digby round his new home and left him in the garden whilst I went for Peggy. I brought her through the house and into the garden so they could meet with plenty of room for sorting themselves out. The meeting went better than I had hoped, a lot of squaring off, then nose to tailling, then Peggy showed Digby round (at a gallop). We went for a walk with the double harness but as Peggy's gait is a lot faster than Digby's he was galloped round without chance of a wee or sniff at anything.

The evening was a jockeying for position at my side and I managed to get them both settled, but when I wanted to get to bed, it became a little fraught. I had been advised to put one of them into my cage in case they fought during the night, so first I tried Digby in it, but he was not used to one and kept barking, then I tried Peggy, but he still kept barking. So in the end I shut Peggy in the kitchen and let Digby sleep by my side on the bed - just this once! Even so, he heard next door's occupants going to bed and getting up and kept letting me know with soft waffles, so sleep was a long time coming.

Today was much better, they are still squaring off every now and then, but each dog is equal and not backing down so they would tussle and then have a breather then rush around the garden together. The territory is subtly being divided and each dog establishing their own routine without any acrimony. I have high hopes that they will gell in the next few days.

Amongst all this I managed to pick up my book prize, and what a prize! and do some shopping for food for the dogs and myself. I took the dogs for a walk this afternoon on separate leads and it proved to be much better. Peggy went on the expander lead and at her usual pace, and Digby was on his own lead and trotting beside me. He managed to get in a lot more sniffs and wees as we went round the estate. He was also good at picking up the commands I use with Peggy and followed her lead as to what to do.

He has proved to be very affectionate and friendly and even picked out a toy to play with this afternoon and to take trips into the garden on his own. Next he has to learn how to use the dog flap after I have made a step outside the back door for his little legs.

More course work...and fun

I have almost caught up with my wii fit scores, but not quite. However I did decide to have a go at the step aerobics, a really fun exercise except I got it massively wrong the first time. Well, you would if you were a beginner! It was OK to go up, up, down, down but when they went side to side I lost the plot and my score was a miserable 83. But I persevered and the second time I got a score of 189. This morning I tried again and took that up to 230 and unlocked a Step Plus and I just had to have a go. Again up, down - no problem, side to side = OK but then they went one further - swing your leg but do not step - Huh! then again turn sideways and step onto the board and even further still - go faster!!! I think I'll give that one a miss until I master the Step Basics.

I got good marks for my latest course work. I decided to change HESITANT to LEARN because I thought it married with STRUCTURE. As I explained to Sue, I love to learn something new every day but I tend to jump in at the deep end and forget you need to know the basic structure of any technique before you can meet your aspirations - and I find my skills don't meet my aspirations frequently.

For the LEARN I created a stencil of a tree with lots of leaves and marked each leaf with a source of learning i.e. libraries, mistakes, history etc. and put it on a colourful background that I had made.

For the STRUCTURE I drew a market square with streets leading off, the streets had names like Structure Street, Routine Lane, Guideline Grove with houses in a formation to suggest strength and stability. They lead to Creativity Park where imagination could soar and where I'd like to be all the time but I have to go through the other lanes first.

Our course work was mainly about stamps and stencils that we could make ourselves so I put together some pictures of the stamps I made from carved blocks, children's fun foam and string etc.

The blue painting is showing a carved leaf stamp using gold lumiere paint and seemed to get the most mention from my fellow students. I haven't completed all the work yet and still have to get out my glue gun and heat gun to finish but some of my supplies have not yet arrived and are holding me up. Still plenty of time yet for the postman to arrive.

holidays are hard work

Last week was not what I had in mind. I took Peggy to the vets and found she was having a phantom pregnancy which meant no toys, and a change of environment to snap her out of it. Fortunately I was going on holiday and she was booked into Kennels, so this was ideal.

Bert arrived on the Friday and Saturday was booked out to a wedding. My son's wife's sister was getting married to the plumber who had updated all the plumbing in my house, and we had been invited, which was nice. However, Granny died at the weekend before and the funeral was on the Thursday before the wedding which meant everyone was not quite their best. The wedding went off amazingly well with the groom getting his name wrong and causing laughter in the aisles. Sunday was a day of rest before heading off to Plymouth for a week's holiday.

Unfortunately, Bert was ill and the weather was bad, rain..rain..rain and the bed in the hotel was uncomfortable. We walked miles to find a place to rest, Ed did his best to make the week more pleasurable, and I went fish hunting for something to do. It was very interesting to find that Plymouth has fish as a symbol and you can find them in all sorts of forms throughout Plymouth; from fish mobiles in the Drake Circus to tiny silver fish buried in the walkway up to the Aquarium. I will be making an art journal with all the pictures I have taken soon, when I have recovered from the holiday (!)

This week Sue has set us some more word challenges and we get to play with stamps and paint, mostly stamps made by hand with found objects like rubber bands. We have to take two more of our words and make journal pages, then a page on a specific list (10 words describing a perfect day, a good marriage, a happy childhood). I have chosen Structure and Hesitant and have ideas for the Structure page - I'll post it as soon as I work my way through the course work of lesson 9/10.

My physio is not best pleased with my progress, and had advised me not to go to the market for the next two weeks, but to concentrate on my exercises. It was odd how a week away from the wii fit had made me slip back, not by much but enough to make a difference to my scores. After a week on an uncomfortable bed with little sleep, I ached all over and found it hard to get going again. Maybe a little gardening will help, my passion flower has taken over the trellis and is now marching down the garden and weeds have attached themselves between the gravel and slate (I don't know how they do that) and need pulling up.

On a more positive note, I also had two lovely surprises - one was winning two packets of mistyfuse for the work I am doing for my course - the other was winning a book of choice for my blue mirror work for the Fibre and Stitch ezine. I chose an art journalling book recommended by Sue and am eagerly awaiting its arrival.