Hot Hot Hot

Well it looks like we have summer here in the UK for maybe a couple of days.

I'm not a fan of intense heat and prefer spring and autumn to summer.  It is so much more comfortable to be out and about in cooler conditions and definitely preferable for sleeping.  Not that we have been getting much sleep recently as the equivalent of the Jeremy Kyle show have moved into a rented house over the back from us. 1am they decided to take themselves and their loud conversations inside last night. Anyway the forecast is for cooler conditions from tomorrow so maybe sleep will come easier.

This lady will be happier (I hope) when the sun turns the thermostat down a few degrees.  She is in season at the moment and is not happy at all.  When she is in season she pees more frequently, the weather means she needs more water so therefore is peeing even more.  Poor love is being hounded by our male dog who, despite having been castrated, is very randy and won't leave her alone.

My husband on the other hand loves the warm weather and would spend his time outside if he wasn't working.  He took our youngest camping in the Yorkshire countryside on saturday for the night before the weather got stupidly hot.  Boring, moaning old me refuses to go. My excuse is nobody to look after the dogs as the eldest teens wouldn't hear them if it involved getting up before 11am. The real reason (and he knows it) is that I prefer to have comfort and practicality surrounding me on my holiday.  Having to tramp through a muddy field to a toilet in the early hours of the morning is just not going to happen.  Caravans yes (with a proper flushing toilet) tents absolutely not!

The place they went to looked gorgeous from the photos he brought back and I wouldn't mind a drive out there (just not overnight).

This photo makes my heart jump a bit with terror - look at that slope!

and this one - well it sums up my little man.  He has aspergers and has to know everything about everything and apparently he NEEDED to know the workings of this train carriage.  He never stops talking and last time they went camping middle man went with them aswell. He texted me several times saying he was fed up of little mans random facts about things he had no desire to know.  Aspergers meets autism with those two. People say they are the same thing but not so with my two. Their traits are so different it is unbelievable.

Anyway back to trying to cool down.  I've given up with my hair.  It is straight but even the power of three day frizz free from Frizz-Ease isn't working so for the first time in  a very long time my hair is tied up. My face has a nice red glow and sheen and not from the sun I would add lol.

Furminator

I have heard a lot about the Furminator but was always put off by the cost.  The large dog one was anything upwards of £25 so when I saw that Amazon had them at greatly reduced prices, mine was £6.97 including postage, I just had to get one.

Anybody with dogs will know just how much they shed.  One of mine is a labrador and the other is a labrador cross and both have the same type of coat.  They shed a massive amount of coat and not just at moulting time.  The yellow lab is particularly bad and my carpet has a permanent top layer of blonde hairs despite using the Dyson every day.

I've tried undercoat rakes and they got a lot of the dead down out but there is still a lot left which eventually provides the top layer to the carpet.

The Furminator arrived and I set to work.  Daisy (blonde bimbo lab) was far too giddy to groom her properly but it did remove quite a bit of undercoat.  Charlie (black lab cross) loves being groomed a bit too much at times and gets rather *lets just say amorous*.  He loves his belly combing and the furminator removed lots of undercoat from that area.  Once I managed to get him over his *amorous* stage I used it on the rest of his coat and managed to get a lot more than the undercoat rake has EVER done.



Picture is a bit blurry

I will try using it again on Daisy when she is less giddy but she has been due in season for a couple of weeks now and giddiness and general misbehaviour usually means the season is imminent so I might have to wait a couple of weeks before she will co-operate. 

All in all though with the amount of dead coat it removed from Charlie I would definitely recommend it especially with the current prices on Amazon or even Ebay.  They do them for cats too.

Skywatch At The Seaside

Despite a gorgeous weekend we are now back to drab grey skies which to be honest I actually prefer as it is cooler and I hate the hot weather.  Somewhere inbetween the freezing temperature of winter and the heat of summer is just right for me.  OK so we don't get much heat for much of the time but I don't like it when it is red hot.

So with grey skies here I decided to grab another picture from our jaunt to the seaside a couple of weekends ago.

and here is some of the rest of it

we had cheesy chips (fries) by the harbour with the seagulls for company

there were icecreams

and a donkey ride

Daisy had her first beach experience.  Living too far from the coast to visit too often we hadn't actually ever taken her until now.

The first thing she wanted to do was dig

but soon discovered the sea once we threw her toy in there.  Unfortunately she decided she was going to swim out and not get the toy which ended up with me wading in to get it.  After the swim out for a few seconds she didn't attempt it again but was happy to go a little way in.

there was also digging by the boys

the beach we went to is at Bridlington on the yorkshire coast.  Dogs are allowed to go on the south beach past a certain point.  South beach runs for miles.  Once the tide is out there is extensive space for dogs to run and kids to play.

Eeeeeeeeee

I will admit straightaway that I struggled a bit finding things to do during the E fortnight which finished on thursday.  Onto F from yesterday which is slightly easier.

Main one was ENT (ear nose and throat) clinic where they decided my son needs his tonsils out whenever his name comes up on the waiting list.  Fingers crossed it will stop the massive number of ear infections and tonsillitis he has been plagued with most of his life.

I read my Elizabeth Elgin book I mentioned in a previous blog post.

We had enchiladas and I had a clearout of my wardrobe and sold a few items on Ebay.

No pictures though I'm afraid apart from this one of Daisy's ears

BY2010 Blog Hop

This month we are starting at K's Crafty Corner

This is the sketch

I dug out some Basic Grey June Bug papers for this together with some Primaflowers and Heidi Swapp butterflies.

Here are the rest of the blogs taking part in this blog hop so please, if you have the time, visit all of them to see what they have done with the sketch.

http://kscraftycorner.blogspot.com/


http://chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.com/

http://cardsbyjones.blogspot.com/

http://libertycottage.blogspot.com/

http://socksandscrapbooks.blogspot.com/

http://clearingthebrambles.blogspot.com/

Round Up Of The D Words

The D Words

For a recap of what the A-Z year long challenge is please see this site

For D we did a few things

First of all double d which is Daisy Dog having a sniff at the remains of a snowman

Driving in dense fog

Looking around the 'dorms' at uni

We had quite a few desserts.  This one is Key Lime Pie from the Hairy Bikers recipe made with Oreos on the base.

Diggers from the roadworks the other day

Daffodils

and  I dyed my hair much darker than it was before

We also ate double chocolate icecream, donuts, watched Dancing on Ice, daddy got drunk, had Dr Pepper (yuk), my dad joined facebook.

My poor little man had a trip to the doctors yet again for poorly ears and ended up with double strength medicine.

Leeds United players with D words are Michael Doyle and Davide Somme.

Now onto music - as always Red Hot Chili Peppers and the tracks I have picked for D are

Dani California and

Desecration Smile.  This is my favourite video they have ever made (well maybe with the exception of Road Trippin) and definitely in my top 5 of their songs.

Walks 5 and 6

I'm cheating a little bit with the aim of catching up with 52 walks in a year with my camera.  This morning the dogs went on separate walks and I took the camera both times so these are walks 5 and 6.

Daisy's turn was first. There were no other dogs around so she came off the lead for a run and a play with her ball.  The ball was OK for a while but she soon preferred rolling in the mud.

Check out the ears - I'm sure she thinks she's Dumbo

We dropped her off at home and picked up Charlie.  Unfortunately between us leaving the park and getting back there a few minutes later 4 dogs had arrived including one quite scary looking one which meant Charlie was staying on his lead and the very muddy ball had to stay in it's poop bag.

We had a walk around though and he messed in the puddles.

Walk 4

Still playing catch up but remembering to take the camera is something I keep forgetting.

Anyway walk 4 today was just an ordinary dog walk that I do every so often when I want exercise rather than letting them off their leads.  As you can see we went past a football/soccer field.  It is actually owned by a school and there are notices all over saying  KEEP YOUR DOG ON A LEASH.  Some of the local football teams use it so I think it is only respectful to not let the dogs on it.  I wouldn't like to think I was washing anything unsavoury off my son from an irresponsible dog owner.

This picture shows just how much of a problem litter is near the field.  That big thing is a for sale sign from a house just dumped in the undergrowth.

Departing from that particular area is via these steps up to the busy main road.  I wish I had thought to video the dogs going up them.  One very elegant male dog and one very ungainly female dog. 

This was them pushing one another to see who could get there first.

Just after I took that photo it started snowing so we were rather wet by the time we got home.

Tomorrow I'll be doing my A to Z round up of the C words plus my scrapbook layouts of A and B.

In honor of Charlie in the picture just above here is Charlie by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  This song plus Charlie from Lost are where his name came from.

Walk 3

Still playing catch up with this so I might have to squeeze in another walk before the end of the week.

Phone camera rather than proper camera so quality is rubbish.

Abandoned shopping trolley

Then we went to the park and I thought I would do the same shot of the park as walk 1 but without the snow.

That figure with the dog past the railings is a lady who I would love to refer to as the 'person' who thinks she owns the park but shhhhh I didn't say that.  The look on her face when anybody else is there with a dog is enough to make you instantly dislike her. Her dog is a similar age to mine but not being a daft 1 year old labrador hers has grown up a bit and she won't allow it to play other than to run for a ball. Running around with other dogs is certainly out of the question. I once dared to let Daisy off the lead near her dog and she gave me the filthiest look because Daisy wanted to introduce herself and give her dog a sniff hello.  I can understand it to a certain degree and I personally would hate a dog jumping up at me but Daisy doesn't do that. Charlie on the other hand I would NEVER let off his lead when anybody else is around.  He has let me down so many times that it just doesn't happen anymore.  Another park in future when she is around me thinks!!

and last but not least my two mutts in same park this morning.

Celebrating The End Of The B Fortnight

We have a new bridge that was the subject of a Channel 4 programme in 2008 fronted by Kevin McCloud.  Being right at the other end of town it isn't something I have ever really been to before.  The rest of the family has but not me for some reason.  I thought it would be nice this morning to have a walk down there with the dogs and finally walk across it. 

I also discovered a new challenge yesterday called 52 Walks In 2010.  It just means to take your camera on 52 walks over the year and photograph where you have been.  I've decided that my first walk can be the first week of this month when it was snowing.  The pictures from that are in the posts at the beginning of the month.

Today is Walk 2 with my camera.  The sun was in a strange place which made some pictures turn out with shadows but never mind.

The dogs were really unsure of the rushing water under their feet.

This boat wreck apparently caused huge problems during construction of the bridge.

This is one of the benches that adorn the middle of the bridge.

Now we move on to the B Factor at Leeds United.  There are a few players qualifying for the B fortnight and it just so happens that they are the more 'photogenic' ones.

First up is Luciano Becchio who is frequently referred to in this house as beautiful.  The kids were over the moon to have their picture taken with him earlier in the season.

Next up is Bradley Johnson. 

The one and only Jermaine Beckford

Local lad Ben Parker. Yikes this pic makes me realise how much my son's hair has grown.

It's down to his shoulders now. Pic was taken in May.

and last but by no means least is Leigh Bromby.

To end the B's I have some music that is not the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  Black Eyed Peas and Boom Boom Pow.

B Words

After the disaster for A with the Apple Cake I had a go at this recipe for Blueberry and Lemon Friands.  One of my friends on Facebook, who is also doing the alphabet through the year, made them so I decided to have a try.  I put them in muffin cases and they were actually quite nice.  I'm not a fan of blueberries and I can't stand blueberry muffins but these were totally different.

I have just about read another book in the Agatha Raisin series by M C Beaton.  By Friday when we start on C I should have it finished.

The next B is a bit silly but when the dogs were sleeping on the settee (where they shouldn't be!!) I realised they are Black and Blonde.  Yes silly I know.

Oh and I just thought of another B - Braces.  My son had a nightmare orthodontist appointment this week where anything that could go wrong did go wrong.  I have absolutely no chance of a photograph of him though - that's teenage boys for you!!!

Still not got around to the scrapbook layout for my A page.  I need a few extra hours during the day I think at the moment.  I really need to get on top of my deadlines and try and get some me time.

Snow Day

We had a snowfall overnight.  Not a huge amount but most things grind to a halt in the UK when we have snow. 

Schools are shut because the councils don't seem to be able to clear the roads properly so the teachers can't get through the snow.  Even better - they can't provide enough coal for the boilers in some schools or grit for the walkways around school so it isn't safe either.  Not sure what reasons ours closed for but HEY.... A DAY OFF

and look at this - the bin men actually emptied the bins.