I’ve been a day behind on the blog all week, and this one should have been posted yesterday. But yesterday’s ended up being the Hello, March! post, and Monday’s, which should have been yesterday’s, was the February wrap-up post, which should have been posted on Friday…
Clear as mud? Onward.
I didn’t get a lot done on Friday either as we were getting the spaniel ready to go back to his other human. The poet had a couple of Teams meetings, and as soon as he was finished, we were off. We didn’t want to hang around as we also had to go and get the van as the poet wanted to go away for his birthday weekend.
It was Alfie’s first trip in the campervan and he was Very Scared while we were travelling. It didn’t take him long to realise he had A Lot Of Room on the bench seat in the back and he could see out of lots of windows, all at the same time. As soon as we stopped, he loved being able to see out of all of those windows. But while we were travelling, he did want to sit on my lap for the duration.
Next time we hope will be better. We need to get him more accustomed to travelling as now we don’t have Monkey Dust gigs to hang around for at the weekends, we’re going to be off on our travels.
When we got back, we did a lot of baking. The poet made 4 mini cheese and mushroom quiches then he sous-cheffed for me while I made a pear and almond crumble (he peeled and sliced the pears), a vanilla iced carrot cake (he grated the carrots and zested and juiced the orange), and a dozen gingerbread men (he rolled out the dough and stamped out the men, then stamped out some baby gingerbread men as well). We had a roast beef dinner and he made Yorkshire puddings too. And he saved some of the gravy he made from the meat juices for a beef stew later in the week.
On Monday, first job of the day after my dirty cuppa quiet hour and my household chores, I took the puppy for one of his first neighbourhood walks. He’d done really well at the weekend and we want to get him used to seeing lots of people and other dogs while we’re out without feeling the need to shout at them all. Also, while we’re having eye tests at the weekend, he’s going to Son #2 for a couple of hours and he wants to take him for a little walk.
Next jobs of the day were the February wrap-up and Hello, March posts. I should have done them last week but I ran out of time. And then I started today’s post.
The poet headed off down south for another 2-day trip and I reworked my schedule for the next few weeks. I’m dropping the fiction writing for a few months, while we sort out the new house and the old house, etc, and while I get some paid work in the bag so I don’t have to worry when I don’t have time to do any.
I contacted a doggy day care place close to where we hope the new house might be and booked the dog in for a couple of sleepovers. We have the Monkey Dust farewell gig in June and a wedding in August, both of which are going to take us out of the house for a good few hours. The puppy hasn’t been left on his own yet, but we wouldn’t leave him for these 6- to (potentially) 12-hour days. As our default family dog sitter will also be at both events, we have to make alternative arrangements. So I did some research and found a home-from-home place I think will be quite nice for him.
We had a chat and I paid for the 2 days. We’d rather pay for the days and not use them than not have any provision in place at all. At some point over the next couple of weeks we’ll take him over there for a meet and greet.
After a busy weekend, I was quite tired, so I closed everything down and called it a day, taking the puppy into the living room so he didn’t think everyone in his life had abandoned him!
On Tuesday, I started the day with a chapter of my book over my dirty cup of tea. Once the hour had ticked around, I started the household chores. I’m trying to increase my activity on all fronts and yesterday this included putting washing through, hanging washing up, and emptying the dishwasher.
With the longer, lighter days and the slightly warmer, drier weather, I want to start hanging the washing out on the line again, which will mean a later chore in the day of bringing it all in. But I need to get into this habit as it’s likely we won’t have a lot of indoor drying space when we move house and most of our clothes can’t safely go through the tumble dryer. Part of the decluttering process is to get rid of excess clothes.
I have some really lovely sparkly t-shirts that are 2 sizes too small for me that I have to emotionally detach myself from before slinging them. I keep saying I’ll fit into them again one day, but one day never seems to get here at the moment. I’ll see if the extra activity has any effect on the excess weight first before making the final decision.
When the next hour ticked around, I got Rufus’s old collar and added Alfie’s ‘crumb’ identity tag. Rufus only had our phone numbers on both sides of the disc and our surname on one side. Alfie doesn’t even have that. He has a QR code. But as everyone isn’t likely to have a phone that can access a QR code, I’ve left Rufus’s disc on there too. Alfie’s collar is getting too tight now and he doesn’t like to wear it. He’s already wearing Rufus’s old red harness. Now he can grow into Rufus’s old collar as well.
I took the dog out for his new daily walk. He’s not doing very well on walks. He screams a bit for no reason and he barks at everything. I really, really want to stop him making these silly noises when we’re out. So every time he did, I stopped and told him ‘No!’ until he too stopped. I made him ‘Wait!” at every road crossing too. He’s getting better at that at least. Perhaps the barking/whining will come when it’s good and ready.
He really is quite an intelligent dog. He knows what we’re saying to him, and he knows when he’s doing something a bit naughty. You can see it in his eyes and you can see how he decides whether to do as he’s told or carry on being naughty. Usually, he carries on being naughty. But we KNOW he KNOWS he’s doing it. Cheeky chappy.
Yesterday, for example, he got hold of one of the poet’s gardening clogs and took it out into the garden. I was still in my nightie, no dressing gown, and I really didn’t want to go out and get it. I called him in and he thought twice about bringing the clog back with him but decided to leave it where it was. Then he sat at my feet, expectant look on his face, waiting for a ‘Sweetie!’ (training treat).
I told him to go and bring his ‘luvvie’ back. (We call all his toys ‘luvvie’ or ‘shushy’, shushy being a baby rabbit.) He thought about it, looked through the patio door, looked at me, then sprung into action, running straight to the clog. He even picked it up…But then he ran off with it in the opposite direction, looking very pleased with himself.
So, you see, he knows. And he’s doing it on purpose.
When we got back from our walk, he sat very patiently while I removed the collar and the harness, then sat expectantly, waiting for that ‘Sweetie!’. I changed out of my outside clothes, made myself another dirty cuppa, changed the dog’s water, and came into the office. He came with me, jumped up on my reading chair, and went straight to sleep.
First job of the day was to post yesterday’s blog post. It was all already written. I just had to tweak it a bit, add the picture, and post it everywhere. I made the graphic on Monday. Second job of the day was continuing today’s blog post, while I remembered. Third job of the day was a workshop, continuing Depth in Action. Fourth job of the day was a client edit.
Then I checked to make sure my website wasn’t being hit by thousands of robots again, and the numbers are creeping up, again. I did a search (aka fell down a rabbit hole…) and found a plugin, but when I installed it, it deactivated JetPack. So I had to uninstall it again as I use JetPack for my automatic social sharing.
A proofreading job came in from the editing client, a book I’ve edited but been awaiting the proofreader’s report. Just after I’d scheduled another one in too, for which I haven’t yet received the proofreader’s report. But if they’re using the same proofreader for each of my edits, I can tell that 3 are just going to come in at once, one after the other. So I might leave the first one in for now, but if the proofreader report hasn’t landed for that one yet, I’ll revert to the one that came in yesterday.
Concentration interrupted, I called it a day and closed everything down.
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