A Little Bit of What You Fancy.

We woke to a cooler, greyer, showery day.

The sort of day

you want to stay indoors

and take it easy.

Doing a little bit of what you fancy.

Turn this...

Into this...

Hope yours was a good day,

whatever its colour.

Doggy Post

As requested by Mike and Mildred,

here is Paddy peering through the flowers.

Anyway,

how could I not resist posting these today

when I couldn't include them in yesterday's post?

I think I would like to take more photos of Paddy amongst the white flowers.

White on white is rather nice.

I'm not sure he would stay still long enough though.

So following on from those photos,

I thought I would make todays post a doggy one.

Especially as Mike is missing his pups!

This morning after our walk,

I went to a small piece of land that we rent

amongst the vineyards.

We got it specially for the hounds!

Being greyhounds, they love to run,

but we can't trust them off the lead.

Well,

we have sometimes

let Rufus and Paddy off for a run along the river.

And if we have treats in our pocket,

Paddy is very well behaved

and comes back first time when called.

But there is no way

that we can let Arthur and Jewel off for a run.

Although we have on an odd occasion tried it.

Arthur tends to get himself lost in the undergrowth chasing interesting smells

and doesn't hear us when we call.

But Jewel.

She is willfull.

She stands and looks at us,

then looks at the open spaces,

and runs off,

into the distance!

The last time this happened was earlier this year.

She ran around to begin with,

then spotted some interesting looking trees and bushes,

and ran into them.

I can tell you it was a thicket,

well near to impenetrable.

She was lost for the next two hours!

Mike and I searched,

and searched.

calling her,

but to no avail.

I even scared

a wild boar

from it's hiding place

in the undergrowth

shouting for her!

Eventually,

Mike came across our friend

with her dog,

(Brenda),

with Jewel!

Brenda and Jewel are good friends.

Apparently,

Jewel had wandered to the next village.

Completely away from our village,

and not somewhere we take her.

Where,

someone had spotted her

looking through his window at him and his family eating.

So he invited her in.

And gave her a drink!

Can you imagine it?

So he phoned our friends

and asked if they knew anyone with greyhounds!

And of course they did.

So we were reunited,

eventually!

And we said,

we would never,

ever,

let Jewel off again.

So we asked around to see if there was any land going spare

that we could use for the hounds to have a run round.

Some other friends heard about this piece of land,

in fact it's next to some they own.

So we fenced it in,

and made it Jewel proof.

It was during some of the hottest weather we've had this year,

that we put in fence posts,

and attached the wire fence.

Something neither of us had done before.

It was so hot,

my shoulders got burnt,

and I rarely burn.

It was quite exhausting work.

And do the hounds appreciate it?

Well yes, I think they do.

Do they run around a lot?

Well,

no,

not really....

Rufus doing acrobatics,

Or is it gentle stretching exercises?

Jewel will often make her way to the far end,

away from all the lads.

Except that this morning,

Paddy joined her.

Arthur sometimes likes to stay close

and whine in my ear if I don't stroke him.

Looks like Jewel has moved away from Paddy.

She looks happy enough,

relaxing in the sunshine.

Who would think she was such a little minx?

Morning Walk



All these photos were taken during this mornings walk.

I thought Mike might appreciate them seeing as he's missing our walks with the hounds.

Even though most of the photos are of flowers.

I took a circular route

near the top of the hill.

The grapes are getting bigger,

and there's lots of them this year.

The hounds caught an interesting scent.

It's certainly thick enough to hide an animal or two in there.

This bird caught my attention.

It's call was a 'click clack' sort of sound.

I tried to get closer but it would fly a bit further away.

I don't know what it was.

I looped the hound's leads over a post to follow it,

but it got away without me getting a decent shot of it.

Turning round,

I thought the hounds looked sweet waiting for me

amongst the flowers.

Here's Rufus.

I tried to upload more photos,

I had some of Paddy.

But Blogger had had enough.

Me too,

I'm off to bed.

The computer is acting up again.

Snapping Away

This first photo

is from my walk with the hounds this morning.

 Low cloud shrouded the hillsides

making the tops of the hills indistinct.

After walking the hounds

I went back for a check up with the dentist

just to make sure everything was okay.

He seems quite a jolly fellow.

He told me that there's a relation of Lord Mountbatton's in the next village!

After that,

I had a stroll around the village.

It was quiet,

you could even call it sleepy....

The image below seems to have some meaning in the village

as there is a large 3D image of it elsewhere in the village.

But as I didn't walk past it,

I forgot to take a photo.

The area we live in is mainly catholic.

These giant wreaths below

I think must be left over from Mayday.

Then I was back down at the river.

I spent a while sitting by the river watching the birds and the boats.

By which time the sun was covered by cloud and it had cooled considerably.

So I took my leave.

But thought I would leave you with this last photo which took my fancy.

A Grey Day with a Silver Lining

Mike flew off to the UK

last Tuesday.

Just before he went

one of the crowns came off my tooth.

I went into a mild panic,

followed by denial.

I hate anything like that happening with my teeth.

But today I finally did something about it

and went off to find a dentist.

I took the camera with me

as before Mike left,

I told him to

check my blog daily,

that way,

he could see what I was up to

what the weather was like here.

I also thought it would

prompt me to update my blog regularly.

Unfortunately,

I haven't been doing such a good job

with that side of things.

Well I did have a very busy week last week.

I went to a village the other side of the river

a few miles down stream,

where I found the light airy dental surgery.

It has an elevated position

and the views from the windows are lovely.

A good way to take your mind off what's happening

in the dentist chair.

However the procedure was straight forward,

and I now have the crown

back in position.

I have to go back tomorrow

to have it checked.

Hopefully, that's it sorted!

On the way back

I stopped a couple of times

to take some photos.

The following photos are of a different village on the way back to ours.

I think today has been the greyest day yet since Mike left.

In fact there was some very heavy rain earlier,

so I hope we don't get anymore of that when I walk the hounds later.

This last photo shows how closely the road follows the river.

It does that pretty much all along the river.

It crosses over the river now and then.

It's very scenic.

I had some more photos to share with you,

but Blogger doesn't seem to want to accept them.

So I'll leave well alone

in case I end up losing them all!

I'll take the camera with me again tomorrow

and hope that there is a bit of sunshine

to brighten up the pictures.

 

Quick, While the Sun's Out

That's what I said to myself

when I looked out of the window earlier.

So I left the hounds sleeping off their dinner,

and dashed downstairs for my bicycle.

I wasn't going far,

but it was an opportunity to get a little cycling in.

I was going down to the river

where the Wein Kirmes has been taking place.

The photo above should be an indication of what a kirmes is.

Kirmes is a funfair.

It's been taking place over this weekend,

and it's been Very Noisy.

They've even been firing off cannons

on Friday and Saturday,

much to the hounds consternation.

I think the cannons must indicate the start of proceedings.

After cycling along to where it was all taking a place,

I took the first photo,

turned round,

and took this next photo...

It looks like two different days doesn't it?

Then I walked into the big marquee.

It was surprisingly busy for a Monday afternoon.

It's where most of the noise has been coming from over the weekend

in the form of music.

Outside the marquee,

and there's the obligatory-

Sausages!

There's always plenty of sausages at these events.

I liked this row of toys

that these girls were walking purposefully past.

Maybe to get to the Dodgem cars.

There were a few market stalls too.

And all next to the peaceful looking river.

And yes,

I did get caught in the rain briefly.

But the sun soon came out again.

Then I was off back home,

to the hounds,

and a cup of tea,

and a cherry bun!

This post has been sitting waiting to be finished,

(which I've just done).

It's now half past midnight,

and the music is still going on at the Kirmes!

Happy Birthday

A very Happy Birthday

to my daughter today!

The above photo is probably all you'll get to see of her,

she's camera shy.

It was taken last month

on a river boat trip here on the Mosel.

I'll follow up with more photos in the week.

I meant to say in my last post

thank you for all your anniversary wishes.

We had a lovely day.