I had almost forgotten that it is Easter this weekend! With that in mind I decided to make some Easter nests today although I have no mini eggs so had to make do with mini marshmallows for eggs. In this current crisis it wasn't worth the risk going to the shops for mini eggs. I'll look back on this in ten years and hopefully remember how strange the world was in this crisis. We are safe at home, doing lots of things that we enjoy in the sunshine but one look at the news reminds us that the world is dealing with something very serious. Boris Johnson was taken into intensive care in hospital yesterday and the news is reporting that 786 people died today from Covid-19, its so sad and is likely to get worse.
Today I decided to do some grids with the doglets, I try and do them once a month at least usually as they are one of my favourite things 😊 I set up a bendy grid to practice some rear crosses with Bru, collection from speed for Spark and just as a conditioning exercise for Brooke. I also did a zig-zag grid seeing as I have space lengthways up the garden. Its a great grid for leg changes as Spark demos, I will post the compilation from each dog!
Slightly odd Easter nests but they taste ok!
Runner beans and courgettes all growing really nicely! Hopefully we will have a good lot of veg again this year 😁
A contacts training sort of day today! I haven't got many jobs done but it has been nice doing a bit of training with the dogs and catching up with people. Going to be speaking to my Mum soon which is nice 😊 Early blog update today as I have just edited all the videos from this morning!
So my goals were to practice some straight on running dog walk planks to a toy for Bru and introduce some turns with the manners minder as he hasn't done many on a plank. To do a couple of harder exits for Brooke and to reward her stop and for Spark to mix it up a bit so remind her about turns and also chuck in a stop to test her! They did really well! Bru definitely finds left turns easier as does Spark (maybe its me!) but it is good lockdown homework for them.
Here are a few pics of our morning - the shelties all wanted a go!
Brodie is retired from agility but did a mini workout instead 💙
Can anyone guess what tomorrows activity is going to be?!
We had an at home gardening sort of day today, we both said how it was the sort of day that Brax would have loved as it was about 20 degrees and sunny 💕 We miss her terribly, still looking for five dogs at night time pees and thinking about making her next meal. There is so much sadness in the world at the moment and sometimes if you don't do something slightly bonkers you would cry. I'm so lucky to have Matt and the dogs to keep me happy/sane/entertained/about to wet myself laughing...! There is another challenge going around on Facebook of people trying to jump different height agility jumps. The dogs are having a rest day today and just had a teeny pavement walk so I trained Matt instead...excuse me giggling all the way through this!! 😂😂
We finally got round to mowing the lawns today, they look so much better! Matt found these two little bushes which fit nicely under the window. If you look closely you can see my rainbow and my teddy in case any local kids are doing a bear hunt!
And we had our first BBQ of the year! We don't remember having a BBQ this early before!
Spark loves waiting to pounce on the TV when its paused...Matt decided to put a little 'fez' on her head 😂 She managed to keep it there for at least a minute!
Today was mainly about sorting out some bits in the garden, sorting out our seedlings and weeding our veg bed
This afternoon we went out for an hour walk and it was so lovely and sunny! (Bru didn't fit in the pic!) We didn't want to go to any busy places so we stuck to some quiet lanes and paths through the woods
When we got back from our walk Matt had a go at my Agility 'course' in the garden, he needs to practice flat weave entries but the rest was very good! 💛
And just for a giggle, a video of Bru's reaction to Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street...he has always done this and it makes us laugh so much!!
I'm feeling much better today and back to normal levels of motivation thank goodness! I started by cleaning the lounge and bedroom before having a bath and reading some of my book that I'm half way through. Matt and I did some running contact mat work with Bru and Sparkle over lunch and then I did some stopped contact work to improve Brooke Beans forward focus, she was excited but managed to work through it!
Rare that our lounge looks this tidy!!
I baked some ginger cookies after lunch, they have a lot of black treacle in them and are very chewy...just how I like cookies! It seems to have made masses of them so they'll keep us going for a while 😂
Tidying up Sparkles collar collection...yes one dog does need this many collars!! The shelties don't have that many as you can't see them! And to be fair the dragon one was done in the wrong colour to start with so one was free!!
This afternoon I weeded some of the veg bed that still has things from last year, the sun came out!
And we went for an hours walk just now, it was really busy everywhere but possibly due to the sun being out!
Managed to film our street clapping for key workers, especially the NHS yesterday evening, its very emotional that so many make the effort. I have huge amounts of respect for the people working to keep everything going and the workers on the front line dealing with this awful virus
We have reached lockdown double figures now, what is so distressing is the UK death toll just in the last 24 hours has reached 569 people. Almost three thousand people in the UK have now lost their lives and many thousands more in countries worldwide. Italy and Spain are really struggling and that stupid orange buffoon that runs America has finally realised its serious and that America won't be 'open by Easter' 😠 Sorry for the sad status but its so real and very scary...this is not going away in a hurry.
Its the first day that I have felt a bit down and unmotivated, I didn't sleep well last night and struggled to get going this morning with nothing 'important' to be doing. This is not an attention seeking 'woe is me' post but I just want to keep an honest record of the less positive days as well. I know I have loads to be very grateful for, my family and friends are all safe and ok, I have loads of time to spend with Matt and the doglets and I don't have to put myself in harms way every day like our amazing key workers who are literally keeping our country going at the moment. We are going to join in with the clap for carers at 8pm again tonight, I'll try and film it.
So after feeling rubbish this morning I finally got my butt in gear and finished weeding the patio as the sun came out! And I know how Spark feels in this pic 😂
At lunchtime I set up a Hoopers 'course' in the garden and gave the shelties a whizz round. The two sables were driving on really well and Toad needed a bit more help but he really started to get brave!
We had a nice walk this afternoon and did a group recall!
We also did a recall challenge which was hilarious...Toad cheated!! You line them up with the oldest at the front and youngest at the back and then call them one at a time starting with the youngest!
My lovely Mum in law is stuck at home at the moment so when Matt went shopping spur of the moment last night he picked up some bits for her as well. I also packed up some of my chocolate cake as well to add to her shopping and then went on a mission to get some eggs and flour from a local 'fine foods' farm shop. I actually found some which was a relief and then drove on through town which was deserted. Had a lovely chat and then drove back again along such quiet roads...this is normally packed!
I noticed on my great escape this morning that a lot of the houses had rainbows in the windows so I thought we should join in! I love a bit of relaxing colouring...the dogs were all out of it 😀
It was too cold to do any gardening today so at lunchtime I went in the garden and did some go round challenges to improve the dogs distance work. I was amazed by Bru who nailed it first time!! 💛 Brooke was super clever going one way and then lost her brain a bit doing it in reverse 💚 Spark got it really quickly as well but she has done a lot more distance work cos I'm lazy!! 💜
This afternoon I took my two out for a long walk and found some footpaths I had never been on. We were out for over an hour and saw five 'households' walking but no dogs at all! Toad had the best time catching up on all the smells 💙 They also enjoyed checking out the ducks on the local pond!
