Lockdown Day 8...A week since I drove anywhere!

So we have made it over a week without going too crazy (although that may be up for debate!) I have been missing driving more than I thought I would as I spend quite a bit of time driving to work and various workshops and shows. On the plus side the gardening is being done, Matt and I are getting to see loads of each other which is lovely and the dogs are very happy with all the fun homework they have 😁

We will have to brave the shops in the next day or two as I need milk and we are running out of a few essentials. If someone had told me in January that the thought of shopping would make me feel anxious by March I would have thought they were joking! I'm not keen to be around people and I am not the biggest fan of shopping anyway so Matt often does it. I don't want him going either to be honest but needs must!

Anyway, enough negative rambling! Here are some pics from today and one of the new tricks we are working on...close the door. Spark is a pushy lump so got it straight away, Brooke tried to nose touch my phone and then started to work it out, Bru was nose touching the target well but not hard enough and Brodie was being very polite!

Todays baking, vegan chocolate cake (with not vegan topping!)

A rare selfie of me (yes I'm squinting as its nice and sunny and yes my hair is far too long 😂)

And finally sorted out the winter rosettes and added them to last seasons collection, they may as well stay up there now as it doesn't look like we'll be having many shows this year sadly.

Lockdown Day 7

Matt was back to work today so we started with an early walk and it was sooo cold! Spark loves a Daddy cuddle before her walk! 💜

The dogs had a big groom each today and I attacked their nails as well. The hairiest dog award goes to Mrs Bean, she was so in need of a groom. This was her face when I disturbed her beauty sleep!!

Spark still wants to sleep in the cat bed most of the time, I actually worry that she gives herself cramps curled up like that 😂

Lunchtime garden visit post grooming!

Mr Toad did some barrellers homework today and was very clever, he doesn't act like he is 13!!

We squeezed in a game of gold this evening and beat our previous scores by a mile!

Lockdown Day 6

Today started with a waffle and egg again, such a recent revelation finding out the you can cook frozen waffles in the toaster! It's been windy and cold today so we haven't done any training in the garden but one long walk round the local fields and lanes instead. The doglets are pretty tired now! The other thing we have been doing today is playing more Wii golf and bowling 😆 We are both improving and bowling still remains the only thing I can beat Matt at! I got four strikes in a row 💪

I have to give a big shout out to all my lovely clients (who are also good friends) for posting videos and helping each other on my agility facebook page, its such a great little community and I hope that it is helping to keep everyone motivated to try some training...agility or otherwise. Our challenge video that we did yesterday was about working different handling on three jumps featuring Bru 💛

Lockdown Day 5

Luckily today didn't feel too much like a lockdown day as its the weekend! I have been struggling with being at home not working while Matt is working away upstairs. I feel guilty that I'm not earning money but hearing from the chancellor that we will get some money back has made me feel a bit better. Now to decide whether to volunteer for the NHS or not as I'm still tempted. The news yesterday was that Boris Johnson and Matt Handcock (health sec) both have tested positive for Coronavirus. To be honest I was amazed they were all standing so close at press conferences in the last couple of weeks! 

Anyway, today has consisted of toasted waffles with poached eggs for brekkie (although we are running out of eggs now and they seem in short supply in our village and we can't travel anywhere unless absolutely essential) and a pavement walk with the doglets. Matt then found our Wii so we had a Wii Sports challenge!! I managed to beat him at bowling but he kicked my butt at everything else!! 😂

The doglets had a shortish walk (about 30 mins) on lead as I want to get them used to lead walks and garden time if we get further restrictons. Spark did threadle wraps in the garden yesterday so today was the gingers turn to do some jump work. Bru did a jump challenge which I haven't edited yet and Brooke helped me film a flick away video for my agility club. They are all tired now! Even Toad is a sofa boy tonight 💙

Spark made me laugh earlier, she tries so hard to make us play with her...these are a few of her ploys to convince us!! 

Step 1- Puppy dog eyes

Step 2 - Cute rolling around

Step 3 - Crazy face! 

Step 4 - I've stolen your slipper and what are you going to do about it...

Lockdown Day 4

I was very chilled today, I didn't get out of my PJ's until midday! I had a chat with both our Mums which was lovely and then did some free work with the dogs, they have never done this before and it was really interesting watching them. Its giving them a novel environment to explore with different surfaces, objects and treats. Bru went at everything like a flea in a fit, Spark was fast but quite methodical, Brooke took everything really steady and Brodie lacked confidence to even leave me and explore. To be fair to him he only is on one type of food due to his pancreatitis so it probably wasn't as appealing! The video is quite long and possibly boring but if you have nothing better to do then here are bits from each dog 😂



I did more weeding this afternoon and actually got some washing dry outside! Late afternoon we went for our one lockdown walk and it was really busy...we obviously picked a bad time as there were families and dogs all over the place. Luckily we did get some peace and quiet to let the dogs have a good run and the weather was beautiful again. Here are a few pics!

The boys are always getting left behind!!

Lockdown Day 3

We went for a nice early walk this morning in the hope of giving the doglets a good run while avoiding other people. It is a strange world at the moment, people are generally being well behaved in the village about social distancing (2m away unless you are from the same household) We have decided we are quite socially distant anyway as we rarely stop and talk to people and are quite happy in our own space!

Matt has banned me from doing any baking for a few days 😂 so I have been busy in the garden trying to clear our only flower bed. The veg bed needs sorting as well but it is being done gradually as we are planting stuff. We have a tree (possibly Ash but I'm no tree expert!) overhanging our garden and there were a lot of little seedlings sprouting in our flower bed! From the pics it doesn't look like I've done much but it too a while! 

I had my sheltie helpers of course ❤ the moment I stopped for a cuppa Bru made himself comfy on my lap! He has been trying to talk through the fence to the geese next door. We found out they are called Rosemary and Heather!

I promise I am wearing black trousers in this pic...the sunlight has made them look a weird colour!

Big news today is that the chancellor is going to announce what is happening for us self employed people. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will get a fair deal as me and many of my friends are currently earning nothing and it sucks!

Lockdown Day 2

Congratulations if you are bored enough to be reading this! The sun is still shining here and I even did some gardening in my t-shirt! We started today with a long pavement walk as the fields behind us were mobbed with people. Our plan is to get up super early tomorrow morning and see if we can get out before all the numpties with rude dogs! While I was gardening I couldn't believe the numbers of people on the narrow footpath at the back of our garden, it was busier than it has ever been!!

The dogs have taken to their new routine (or lack of routine!) very well. I realised yesterday that with all the time in the garden they hadn't actually slept as much as usual and were shattered. So sad as it sounds after we all had lunch in the garden I left them upstairs with Matt to snooze! I also don't want them to be too dependent on one of us.

Apart from planting Kale and plant seeds I did some weeding and baked some oat cookies with coconut oil instead of butter. They smell good but haven't tried one yet! Today I did some cavaletti with the doglets and was very pleased to find my garden fence was the perfect support and spacer for my poles 😁

 I also did some straight line grids with the three younger dogs and some hoops with Toad, here is a little video. Brooke needs to revisit this as I think her spacing needs to be much tighter than Brus on the progressive bounce grid!

Lockdown Day 1

So I thought seeing as I was at home for the next three weeks at least I would keep a diary so one day I can look back and remember what a crazy and scary time this was. Also Hi Mum and Amy as you are the only people that generally read my ramblings!! It certainly makes me even more grateful for what I have when I see people struggling with this awful virus. At the present, the Coronavirus is so widely spread that PM Boris Johnson has effectively put us into Lockdown with people being told to work from home and not travel unless essential. Therefore as of today I am unemployed like many of my friends. I'm hoping that the government realise that us self employed and those on zero hours contracts will need help as well.

So to start with I was a bit naughty this morning and whizzed off to my field to pick up a couple of jumps so I could do some stuff in the garden with the dogs at some stage. The roads seemed really busy considering its supposed to be essential travel only. I sat this morning with a cuppa and wrote a list...I have always had a routine, love to be busy and struggle without a schedule. I haven't had three weeks off work for decades so thought the list would focus me a bit! The sun was out today so it was nice to get into the garden and do some jobs in the sun, I'm so relieved that we now have a garden!!  We have a lot of flowers coming out that I don't remember planting 😂

I did some weeding and Matt came out at lunchtime and we put our little greenhouse up. We figured that if we are able to grow as much veg as last year it will save us shopping as much.

I also wrote down some recipes for some baking that I want to do, this afternoon I made Dairy free brownies which smell amazing (currently in oven!) 

 We got a lovely card from the vets today which was so moving. This possibly needs a tissue warning but I wanted to put it on here ❤

Gone but never forgotten...

Our hearts are sore and the tears keep flowing as we said goodbye to our little Bracken last week 💔💔 She had grown increasingly frail and had started to go off her food last week. I am so pleased that she got to see her beloved Nanna one last time as my Mum came down last weekend. It was a heartbreaking decision to make but as a very wise person once said to me 'better a day too early than a minute too late' Our Facebook post...

Mountland Made in Heaven - Bracken
24/3/2005 - 19/3/2020 🧡🧡🧡

We knew it had been coming for a while but this week it became obvious that the time was here for us to say our last goodbye to our beautiful Bracken. Words cannot do her justice or what she has given us, but we owe her so much. She introduced us to so many people, to agility and gave absolutely everything 100%. She may have been tiny but she will leave an enormous hole in our lives. She had so many health challenges but she always kept fighting. We would like to say a huge heartfelt thank you to Sally for all your help with Bracken and giving us those extra few years together after being diagnosed with kidney failure three years ago.

We have experienced every emotion possible from the obvious sadness and grief but we have an overwhelming level of pride in the life we had together, what she gave us, we gave to her and the memories we made together. 🧡🧡

 

Our little Diddle would have been 15 today, it would have been lovely to have celebrated it with her but that would have been for selfish reasons. The most important thing is that we were both there at the end and the vets were brilliant and very compassionate. I haven't updated my blog for a long time as this winter has been depressing and work has been patchy at best so to be honest I haven't been in the right frame of mind to write anything. Spark was out of action after two operations, Brodie retired from agility competitions, Bru and Brooke hardly got any training and it rained for what seemed like months. BUT...we have a lot to be thankful for and this is me giving myself a kick up the butt to blog again. I'm so grateful for my amazing Matthew, family and friends and of course the doglets! x