It's a dog's life.

While I remember... In fact it was reading Welshcakes post about Simi that I remembered to post this - pictures of William and Grace after their haircuts. Normally Lhasas have long hair which reaches the ground. This has proved entirely impractical for our dogs, so we tend to keep them quite short. When we first have them done they look quite silly, but also deliciously neat and cute. It turns out that Gracey has very long legs and a very skinny body, whereas William is very stocky and muscley. They might not be to everyone's tastes, but I think they're gorgeous!

(on a related note, I was talking about the God Delusion by Richard Dawkins this week. I got my tongue twisted and called it the Dog Delusion, which would be an entirely different book!)

A pushme-pullyou dog...

Another random phone photo of my dogs doing silly things.


Darcey on the left was quite comfortable on the beanbag, when Grace climbed on top of her and lay down. Before I moved to take the photo, you really couldn't see where one dog started and the other ended!

But now I wish I had put this up as my photo hunt photo - a two headed dog...

Handsome Man

Yesterday I was a dog. Today I'm a dog. Tomorrow I'll probably still be a dog. Sigh! There's so little hope for advancement.
Charles M Schulz (1922-2000) - Snoopy

Here is a picture I found on my phone of William looking regal. It must have been taken some time ago because he hasn't looked this calm since before the puppies were born...

Older but not wiser

Bad dog! Stole a biscuit! -

dog: who are you to judge me? you people you have war and genocide and i stole a biscuit?

Good.... point here have another one

Eddie Izzard on Evil Animals

Young Grace, the puppy, turned 1 this week. Yes, a year ago on Tuesday she was borned in our living room, along with her sister, Emily. We all hoped that this coming of age would mean a cleverer, less daft, and less naughty dog.

This morning mum went downstairs to find that Grace had eaten her rosta from work, and the instructions for her new camera...

Older, but certainly not wiser or less mischevous!

It must be love, love, love...

Here is the promised photo of my loved up dog (William outside cage, Darcy inside!):

And here is a close up of William's loved-up look:

And here are the silly hat brigade after ice-skating at the Tower of London yesterday (the things he does for love!):

Love is in the air...

Not really for me, as I am in the bad books on two counts. I have encouraged (coerced is probably fairer) Phil to help out with The Wind and the Willows, on this week at the Rhoda in Woking. He has ended up helping by climbing into the gantry, sitting there for the first act and then dropping a rope down at the end. This would be ok, except that he doesn't really like small spaces (or heights), and he had to sit through a very boring tech rehearsal last night for hours, to not really achieve much. To top it all off, I've given him my cold...

No, love is in the air in my living room. The dogs returned from their holiday to Somerset yesterday, and Darcey (mummy dog) is very much in season. Mum doesn't want her to have any more puppies, just yet, so she's currently in the dog-cage in quarantine. Grace is thoroughly confused by it all - the last time someone was in the cage it was her- and William is more than slightly overprotective. God save any burgulars who try to walk past Darcey in her cage for the next week or so. If you should dare to go anywhere near her, he growls like nothing you've ever heard a cottonwool ball growl and looks all mournful and Romeo/Juliet like.

And they call it puppy love....

Puppy

Grace again
Originally uploaded by clareybella.

Gracey looking cute and fluffy...If only she'd stay this small!

Puppies, boats and budgets

That's what my weekend was made of...

I spent Saturday at the Southampton Boat Show and Poole Windfest, with Phil and his dad. Hugh (Phil's dad) is something of a windsurfing enthusiast, and thus knows all the relevant jargon to do with boats etc. I discovered at the Windfest that you have to have a certain level of "cool" to get away with being a wind enthusiast...This is a level I certainly do not reach.

The highlight of the Southampton Boat Show was, for me, the tour round a Tall Ship. The Jubilee Sailing Trust take people, both able bodied and disabled on working tours around the world. The whole boat was kitted out so that everyone could use it, including wheelchair lifts up and down all the stairs, and raised arrows on all the handrails pointing to the bows of the ship, for visual impaired people. It was really interesting, and would be an amazing way to spend sometime, if only I didn't get terribly sea sick... The other highlight was my Pirate Goodie Bag, which Phil bought me. This included my very own eyepatch, pirate's hat and a 24" inflatable dolphin: what no pirate should be without!

On Sunday we had to say goodbye to Emily, one of the two puppies born in my living room in July. It was really sad to say goodbye to her, as she's been causing chaos in my house for about 11 weeks now. She's gone off to live with Bev (the breeder), and is sure to be utterly spoilt by Bev's son, Ethan. I'm sure she'll be very happy there, but I do miss having my feet nibbled in the morning...!

Also on Sunday it was time to get to grips with my finances. Now, I am rubbish at this, really truly rubbish, but with the deposit for the house (shhh it's not official yet), and my credit card bill due on the same day, it was definitely time to sort it out. Sorted it is, now, but not before I took a long hard look at everything, cried, shouted and then tightened all available belts and purse strings. Shame blogging doesn't bring in any money!

For the rest of the week I have been living the student life again, catching up with the West Wing, ironing and sleeping late. I ironed for 5 hours solid yesterday, and now have clothes again. I even, virtuously, took 4 bags of clothes down to the charity shop, so now I have room for the newly ironed clothes... That's it, no more clothes shopping for me!!

(Blogger won't let me upload photos. Grumble)