Bubbles and the Whippet adventures

There are some dates that are carved in my mind although I didn't use them in ages. That's the case for my Grand Mother on my mum's side. She passed away 25 years ago this year, but every August 31st since then I have never forgotten her birthday. So wherever you are : Happy Birthday !

This year I am doing LSNED again ( here in you want to have a look  ) and after hesitating for ages ( as always ), I finally managed to do my album on time ( just ! ).

Actually, it's not an album, I thought if I can't decide on an album why not doing something very different. I had this old cardboard box containing dog food

and I made this out of it.

I have cards inside, one for each day and now I can't wait for the class to start on Saturday.

The couple of hours of crafting really did me good and calmed me down. It was the the 1st time I crafted again since 4 or 5 months, if not more. Why can't we have 36 hours per day so we could do all what we would like plus what we have to ?

Yesterday afternoon, I put Rhea on lead to take her out. She looked at me weird but when I said we go to the park, she moved her tail. She had so much sniffing catch up to do that she even didn't realize she was on lead all the way. She was really pleased and when we went back home, she had a deep happy nap.

This morning was very cold again but very beautiful :

I was talking about frustration yesterday, something really funny happened to Bubbles and she certainly was frustrated. For whatever reason we weren't meeting doggies and she was looking around for them as she was in a "chase me " mood. She is pretty good at that and has a lot of tactics of changing directions suddenly so they don't catch her. She seems to be good fun to play with as she is popular in the park.

Eventually, almost at the end of our walk we met this lady with a puppy whippet and Bubbles though " Yeah ! " and I though " oh oh . . . ". He was so fast that when she was trying to chase him she didn't have a single chance to even keep him in sight as he was 200 meters ahead within seconds and when he was chasing her, well he didn't have anybody to chase as he was just overtaking her. My poor Bubbles was really pissed off, the whippet was also frustrated because Bubbles gave up pretty quickly. At least the other owner and I had a good laugh.

I also took Rhea on a small round and she is still delighted by all the smells. I think beginning of next week, she will start asking to be off lead, what's no problem, because it's part of the plan , lol !

It was Asda day today. Not only do I deeply dislike shopping in any form, but it looks like I have decided to make my life even more difficult as since 2 weeks, each time I go food shopping I forget my list. Arrgghh !

Highlight of the day, I could dry all my wash in the garden within 3 hours !



Project 365+1 - Day 244 : Through a window

The view from the room I am in. Note the mosquito net, I wonder why we have one, because they always manage their way in and find me . . .

Take care everybody, xxx
  

Good girl

Yesterday noon I took the car for a drive in order to make sure the battery was charged for the Vet. It was pouring down with tough visibility on the highway and I was really wondering why on earth I was putting myself through that.

On the way back I stopped at Halfords to have my battery checked. It showed a big " need replacement " and I thought fair enough, let's change it. They advised me to buy a calcium battery as it gets discharged slower (even fitting the prompt, lol ! ) and it's better for people who like me don't use their car often or only for small journeys. So I am now the proud owner of a new battery that wasn't part of this month budget at all, by the way.

Trying to see things positively, I thought it would help me to sleep and not worry and it effectively did, so I bought peace of mind (expensive peace of mind though, lol ! ). Now I have one thing less to wake up for !

It was a beautiful day today, although with a pretty cold start and Bubbles and I had a nice walk.

There is this tree in the park that I nicknamed the Gherkin. What do you think ?

 Then it was time to go to the Vet. When I put Rhea on lead, she couldn't believe her eyes how lucky she was, but when she saw we were taking the car and I could read on her face " Was too good to be true ! ".  Poor thing !

The Vet thought she was much more mobile and it's true, these 10 days of staying at home or in the garden really relaxed her, so he said now we can go out on lead for a couple of days and then try off lead for short periods of time after that.

What isn't positive is her skin allergy. It doesn't heal. It looked pretty bad to me, but sometimes the Vet would say " no, it looks good ". Well today he agreed with me. He said that if Rhea would be a " normal " dog, he would give her steroids, but she is already on non-steroids for her paws and he said they both don't mix very well. So we went for some antibiotics for 10 days, wait and see.



Project 365+1 - Day 243 : Thriving

I wasn't sure about the word so I had to Google it. In the end it did mean what I thought it did.

Well there are 2 topics currently thriving in my life but none of them is really positive.

- The first one is my frustration. I was brought up with the motto " Be a good girl and everything will be good around you ".  Yeah, on the paper it sounds good but there is so much to be said about it. Not that I would choose to be a bad girl, but sometimes the unfairness of situations strikes me.  It hasn't anything to do with jealousy, I am not a jealous person, it more has to do with fairness.

When I see people on benefits booking a villa with swimming pool in Florida for their 3 weeks holidays abroad, and when I see my husband working like hell and we are hardly able to save some money, it does frustrates me. I don't need holidays abroad, I loved our 2 weeks at home, cuddling on the sofa, drinking wine and eating cheese whilst watching the Olympics, we had a lovely time.

The point is this money should be better used to help people who really need it. 

When I look at how the world functions, I think something is very very wrong out there and especially in England. There are so many good people who do their best and work like slaves day in day out to feed their family and there are so many lazy people who are just abusing the system. But the main question is: Why does the system allows to be abused ?

I am not concentrating on my frustration as I know negative feelings inside one's self are bad, but it still comes and goes when I see or hear things.
Well I couldn't take a photo of that anyway !

- The second one is vegetation. It has been raining so much, alternating with a couple of very sunny days that nature has spread its wings above any expectation. I really didn't have any time for the garden this year and it looks like I picked the wrong year. The trees have grown so much that they are above the house now. We don't have the equipment to trim them so I am checking quotations from professionals to do it.

To finish on a positive note, I read something that made me laugh this morning.

John Wayne once said:  " Life's tough . . . It's even tougher if you're stupid. " 

May be I should keep a low profile on all the stuff happening to me, lol !

Take care everybody, xxx
  

So far so good

Well sometimes it's necessary to laugh at life or we might be spending our days crying, wouldn't we ?

As the title shows, nothing happened today ( yet . . .  no I didn't say that ) although yesterday I noticed that the cable for the charging device must be defective because the box didn't charge in 18 hours !

The all bright might change though as I need to go to the bank. The guy from Ravencroft told me that to compensate for starting a car, you need to drive a minimum of 8 miles. If not you take more than you give back, in other words, you are emptying your battery step by step.

Well if that's true, then that's my problem because all the places I go to Asda, the bank, the Vet . . . are too far away for me to walk but less than 8 miles away.

Honestly, I don't know what to do because if I have a take my car for a drive of 15 miles every second day I order to charge my battery, it will quickly cost me a small fortune in petrol. Mmmmmm I wonder if I could find a Craft shop 15 miles away . . .

Last night it was cold and I needed extra blankets. This morning it is also cold and humid and windy on the top. I managed to go to the park with Bubbles without getting wet

but since we are back, it is pouring down.

Rhea starts complaining more and more that she can't go to the park. If I can get her to the Vet tomorrow ( let's think positive  ! ) I guess he will allow her to have short walks again.



Project 365+1 - Day 242 : Slow

We have been absolutely invaded by snails and now that I wanted to take a picture of one, there isn't any to be seen, so plan B :

Although it rained like anything for so long, our little stream water level is extremely low and as you can see with the faint riddles, its flow is extremely slow.

Take care everybody. xxx
  

Murphy's law

There should be an official law forbidding that some people can get cursed and I certainly would be one of the first ones to benefit from it as like you know, when Dennis goes on a trip, annoying things almost always happen.

It started long ago. When I moved to England, more than a decade ago, there was a lot of things I didn't know about the country itself ( not that I know a lot now, but just a bit more ).  We rented that nice place that had a big garden and I started planting flowers and veggies, then I decided we needed a  scarecrow. I found a very sweet one at the 99p shop and I decided to call him Murphy because it sounded like a cool name.

Small things started to go wrong, then bigger things . . . and one day, as a joke, Dennis told me about Murphy's law : " Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.  " and it was, exploding bulbs, broken washing machine, frames falling out of the wall . . .

We only stayed a year in that place and when we moved out, I decided there was no way we take Murphy with us. I didn't want him to end up in a bin either, so he stayed there in the garden but it doesn't seem it made any difference.

Yesterday we went out to B&Q to look for a wheelbarrow for Rhea (we found something else in between but I explain later) and because it is a big chunky, we decided to take my car. We found the wheelbarrow, bought it, put it in the car, then went to check a couple of other things in other parts of town and drove back home. All fine.

This morning Dennis was leaving and short after that I had an appointment at the Vet with Rhea. He left at 10:15. At 10:45 I went to my car to install the stairs for Rhea to climb as we needed to make a move.

The central locking didn't work and I thought OH OH so I tried to start the car : Flat battery. I don't mean hick-up tired battery, I mean DEAD. Fantastic yesterday, dead today. It's the 4th time it happens to me and always when Dennis isn't here.

So after a couple of minutes of real fuming that Indians couldn't equal with their rain-dance fire smoke, I though OK, I am going to use this "starting box" he offered me for when I would face this situation. Installed it on the car battery, start the car. Nothing. I thought I installed it wrongly, do it again. Nothing. Tried to find a neighbour, nobody home, only found my female neighbour who was as hopeless as I was. I knew the starting box was charged because there is light and I pushed it and the light came


. . . Just had a 10 minutes interruption as it started pouring down on the wash I had hung in the garden and I had to remove it in a hurry. . . " Forced laugh "


so the light came on, but then my neighbour was reading the sticker on the box and it said " Don't let the level go below the red " Where was the level indicator ? Of course in the red. So the stuff was able to bring a light on, but basically it was flat too. It shouldn't have been but OK, my fault on this one, I should have checked regularly it was charged.

Plan B was to call the AA, but they normally need at least half an hour to come, so I had to postpone the Vet's appointment to Thursday.

If you have a starting box, you get and check it right now . . .  Can't tell later I didn't warn you, lol !

The guy left, my car started and is now charging the battery.

Oh and I forgot to say that in between the UPS guy came, and then I noticed the weather was gorgeous, so I put the wash outside again and I just rushed down because it started raining.

This wash is now hanging in the living room and it will stay there until it's dry even if it takes a week !

Dennis only left 4 hours ago but I got this feeling it's gone be a hell of a week . . .
Thanks God we are already Tuesday.




Project 365+1 - Day 241 : Textured

That was an easy one. For whatever reason, all the ceilings in this house have a texture. We didn't specially like it but we didn't want to spend money either to make them all flat, so textured they were, textured they are !

This is the living room one :

Take care everybody, xxx
  

Cloudy cloudy !

This morning we woke up to a very grey but dry sky. We took our time and had breakfast in front of the TV, watching the news. When the weather report came up, the massive amount of rain predicted certainly helped to have us speeding things up a bit.

I went to the park with Bubbles and Dennis stayed home to cuddle Rhea.

You remember what the Vet said about the emergency wheelbarrow solution for Rhea ? We are off now to try and find a practical one. What we don't do for the girls . . .


Project 365+1 - Day 240: Free choice

Since I was little, I always had a passion for oaks. I was impressed by the fact they can be so big and strong, but I also loved the acorns because of their little cupules. I was cutting the twig below them and they became perfect little bowls my dolls could use to drink with their friends.

I wouldn't say I spent my life looking at acorns, but the photo i took this morning really puzzled me.

What is this "thing" on the top of it ?  I hardly believe it's part of the tree development and I would have missed that for the past 50 years.

Is it a disease or parasite ? If so it must be a British one as I never saw that in France or Germany. But again may be I was just blind.

If anybody knows, I would be very interested to learn about it.

Take care everybody, xx
  

Happy

Today is one of the seldom days I woke up to without having a headache and on the top of that, when Bubbles and I went to the park, it was just gorgeous. It's amazing how being warmed by the sun can bring me paradise feelings.

Bubbles was happy too and was back to her looking for squirrels.

We had a good round, though the clouds start packing up. Touch wood, it's not going to change too much so I can stay headache free !

Rhea is also doing better as she starts complaining that she doesn't get to go out to the park. Well she still has to be patient ( something she isn't known for either ) and wait until Tuesday so she will have to deal with nice laying downs in the garden.



Project 365+1 - Day 239 : Edible

Back to the feeling of words. Edible is not a nice word at all. Edible is the contrary of some stuff that would make you sick or dead if you ate it ! Well my interpretation at least and one shouldn't say to somebody else that his cooking is edible, so I chose my photo based on that.

I can state that these Chinese spongy elastic mushrooms are considered delicious by Dennis but certainly not edible by me.

They are in their dry state now, you should see them when soaked in water.
Eeeeeekkkk ! ! ! !

Take care everybody, xxx
  

Rain is staying

Dennis came back late last night and we went to bed past 1am, only to be woken up at 4 by Rhea raising the alarm because Bubbles was sick. Bless her, she is such a good big sister to Bubbles. Getting up, opening the garden . . . 
She was sick again at 7 so we just gave up on sleeping and started our day.

It's nothing dramatic, she probably just ate too much grass or twigs as of her habit but she could have chosen another night, lol.

Raining today. We only had a short walk in the park, Bubbles didn't feel too much like it and I really didn't mind as we were getting a bit wet anyway.



Project 365+1 - Day 238 : Purple

You saw my purple clogs yesterday ( at least one of them ) so I couldn't go back there.
It wasn't too difficult to find something purple anyway as it is my favorite color together with orange.

This is a little papier mache box I decorated a long while ago, at the time I still had a life and a bit of time in my hands, lol !

Take care everybody, xxx
  

Rain is back

Rhea went back into the habit of sucking her Scoobidoo several times a day now what really pleases me . She is also much calmer and cuddling.

Yesterday afternoon she was laying on her side and she started flapping her tail on the floor. Bubbles couldn't believe her eyes and I couldn't either, because it is the signal asking for playing together. Unfortunately I had to calm them down because Bubbles jumped on her feet and started chewing Rhea, what they normally do when they play, but this time as if she was a piece of rumpsteak. She was so happy that she was completely out of control.

Anyway, it was really nice to see that Rhea opening to her again. Bubbles has been quite sad about it recently.
 
The rain is back today. They only make mistakes when they announce sunshine, lol !  I am just back from Asda. I had forgotten it is a Bank Holiday week-end and it was full, full, full. Lucky me.

Dennis is coming back tonight. Honestly I didn't see the week pass by, firstly because all what happened but also because Rhea not being allowed to go out or to be in the garden alone, I had to completely revise my day planning and I ended up not having a second for me.



Project 365+1 - Day 237: Footwear

Some people will spent an absolute fortune on stiletto shoes or would never go out of their house without their footwear matching their handbag. There is nothing wrong with that, it's just not my thing. To me, footwear is only a way of not walking barefoot
( I know my down to earth attitude really sucks sometimes ! )

BUT, because there is a but, there are 2 types of footwear I am very keen on.

The 1st one is my slippers. I used of photo of them on Day 2 for the word " new ", so I will tak about the 2nd one.

I do love my clogs :

Obviously I normally wear them in matching color pairs ( although it just gave me an idea as it looks pretty interesting  . . . ).

The way I use them is pretty easy :
The orange pair is the " dirty one " to go to the park with the girls.
The Lilac pair, I use when I go anywhere else.

Take care everybody, xxx
  

Falling into place

If you know somebody struggling with computers, I used a program yesterday for the 1st time that I wish I would have known earlier.

My parents are getting old and it's getting a bit difficult with the computer as either they don't remember how to use it or the simplest Windows message brings them into panic mode.

I installed TeamViewer on my computer (it's free ) and a cousin installed it on their computer for me.
Basically, I just could access their computer from mine. I knew it existed but I didn't know it was such a life saver. I could reinstall some programs, install their email account . . . Best thing is that you have control of their mouse so when you do something, they see it being done and you can show them again and again, they can take notes. A dream !!!

When my mother in law passed away in August 2005, we went to spread her ashes on one of the most beautiful cliffs in Wales. It was a fierce day with lots of wind and rain.

I believe in something, I am just not too sure if I call it God and I surely believe in reincarnation and in the fact that people who passed look upon us.  When we were walking down the cliff, it was obviously hard emotionally and I wished with all my heart that she would give me a sign of some sort if she could hear me . At that moment, the wind and rain stopped and one of the most beautiful rainbow appeared. It instantly brought tears in my eyes. I don't know if it was just fate but since then, each time I see a rainbow, I believe it's my mother in law saying hello.

Yesterday August 22nd marked the 7th year of her disappearance. Around 7 pm,  I quickly popped out and when I came back and walked towards my door, there was this beautiful rainbow (that I couldn't photograph properly) above our house.

Compared to the past days, I have calmed down and things are falling into place. For the 1st time last night Rhea was back on sucking her scoobi doo so the world is right now.


This morning I went to the park with Bubbles and it was a beautiful day again

The dew was playing in a spider web where a poor insect had been caught.

Talking about poor insect, there is at least one mosquito in this house and if I catch him ( well, her, actually), she is going to learn all about being flattened like a pancake . . .

I found this sky was funny. Normally you see some white on the blue when a plane passes by. Here it is blue on white. I wonder what caused that.

Back to Rhea, biscuit and big cuddle, now I will spend some time in the garden with her.



Project 365+1 - Day 236 : Irregular

I could have taken a photo of my mood if I could have. although it is pretty much stabilizing now.
Instead I chose the hedge at the back of the garden.
Shame on us, it surely needs a trim !

Take care everybody, xxx

Getting there

Thank you all for bearing with me, it means a lot.

I was on edge all yesterday until it was time to go to the Vet. Obviously Rhea hadn't gone out in the morning but I went to put her on lead but she really didn't want to move. We managed to go to the car very slowly but then she didn't want to climb the 3 stairs. I couldn't carry her and we surely needed to go to the Vet. It took a lot of persuasion but I eventually got her into the car. I don't think she was badly hurting, she just wanted to rest.

When we arrived at the Vet, I installed the stairs, opened the boot but she wouldn't move. She wanted to be left in peace and she even wouldn't get up. So I thought the Vet would have to take her out. I closed the car again and walked into the surgery.

I barely had time to show my face at the reception, I went to take a sit and then I broke down in tears.

There is something strange with crying in public places because most people look embarrassed like you would have done something wrong. They keep on staring at an invisible point in front of them as if looking at you would make crying contagious.

I surely was trying to control it but there was no way. The woman close to me put her hand on my arm and asked if I was OK. I wasn't obviously but she started talking to me, asking short questions and getting me to talk. She was saying she understood this agony of seeing your dog getting worse and I believe she did because her dog had cancer. Bless her, she managed to calm me down. I never met her before, such a kind soul, she even waited after her turn to see how I was.

When the vet saw me, I could see on his face he thought Rhea was dead and I felt so guilty about it. Anyway we went to get her from the car. He said she did dislocate her hip according to what I described and what he felt but he said it's back in. He confirmed that there are serious risks for a total hip replacement at her age as it's a big operation and he said I really would have to think twice about it. He would have to send us to a specialist anyway. We talked about how helping her with some smaller operations to consolidate it but we decided to let her be for the moment and even not to do any X-Ray as she was distressed enough.

He also said that the hip dislocation is likely to happen again and it might not go back into place automatically by itself. His advice was that I always take a phone with me and have somebody ready to come to our rescue with a wheelbarrow. Although he was serious he managed to get a smile out of me.

We went away with a cortisone spray for her skin and I think it does work well.

She is now house bound for a week with only going into the garden on lead. We have plenty of cats around here and we can't afford she even tries to chase one.

Last night I talked to Dennis on Skype and it was good to be able to share with him.

He made me realize what I already knew and would advise any of my friend but didn't think about applying to myself : If you stay in an emotional state, you can't help somebody else. So I added a bit of rational to my attitude, had a good breathe, went to bed early and we all 3 woke up past 8, what did us really good.

I think what happened to my Dad also made me more fragile to handle this situation with Rhea, but if there is only one positive point when being down it's that as they say : The only way I up !

This morning I left Rhea home and went to the park with Bubbles. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny as I needed it to be.

Although autumn isn't there yet there are already some signs that it will be on its way soon as part of the grass is getting yellower.

I can't leave the garden door open when I am upstairs as Rhea might be up to nonsense, so I have changed my program and instead of studying on the computer all morning, I decided to spend an hour in the garden reading my notes, so Rhea can lay in the sun, what she loves and I can keep an eye on her too. That worked well. I have to start counting positive points now !



Project 365+1 - Day 235 : Star

Without any doubt, a photo of my Rhea who has been the unintentional star of the past days.

Take care everybody, xxx
  

Hard time

This morning I was awake before 6am. Things are not going to plan and I still had
puffy eyes from crying when I went to bed. Not hysterical crying, just tears falling that
I couldn't control.

Rhea is still very upset about her skin allergy and it drives her nuts despite the cream. She still tries to scratch and I can see she is miserable. She moved back from cat to dog though and she stays with me all the time. When she is on the sofa, she welcomes cuddles and keeps looking at me. If at least she could talk.

But if that wasn't enough, something else happened yesterday.

After the disaster of our morning walk, I decided to skip the afternoon sniffing and keep her home. I went out with Bubbles but when I came back, there was this small light of happiness in Rhea's eyes and she wanted to go out. So I took her ball and we walked just across the road to the park. She laid in the shade, I was hiding her ball and she was looking for it, all that gently.

The second time we did that, she picked her ball and started running as she normally does when she is happy. Her right back leg suddenly went at a 45 degrees angle towards inside and my heart stopped when she fell down on her side. I though she might have dislocated her hip. She got up again but her paw was in the same position and she fell again. I didn't know what to do as she is too heavy for me to carry. She didn't seem in acute pain so I let her lay down and relax and gave her a cuddle. I thought may be if we are lucky it would fall into place again. After 10 minutes I told her we should go back home. She got up and it was more or less back to normal and she could walk back.

After half an hour she was OK and even not limping but what animals don't have and humans do, is projection into the future. I suddenly saw more and more glimpses of all what I was going to face with her and it just killed me.

I could have brought her to the Vet Surgery but our Vet wasn't there and I didn't see the point of somebody looking at her, not knowing her condition as well.  I already had an appointment with our Vet for this afternoon, so we'll see what he says.

i am sorry if I only can talk about her, she is almost the only thing I have in mind now.

On a positive studies side, I managed to write my 1st app and run it on the i-phone simulator. It was saying good morning in a nice button. Nothing fantastic, but I guess
I have to start somewhere ! ! !



Project 365+1 - Day 234 : Straight

Straight : I find this word very upsetting. For me, there is nothing straight and straight is just an illusion to the human eye and mind.

Even if they appear to be, there are no straight answers, no straight victories and no straight lines !

Take care everybody, xxx
  

3 H

The rest of Sunday was very depressing due to Rhea's attitude. I knew that a dog could be happy, sad, depressed, excited . . . but I discovered something I didn't know, a dog can also have a very bad mood, kind of teenager's type. She was obviously uncomfortable but she decided to ignore everybody, even Bubbles who was a bit puzzled.

You could be behind her and talking to her, no reaction. Calling her, no answer, just having to search the whole house to know where on earth she was and if she was OK. Avoiding eye contact when talking to her. Coming to us only when she fancied it and when she wanted something from us ( for example her 4 O'clock biscuit ).

If I wouldn't see the risk of hurting the feelings of some of you, I would say my Dog became a cat. . .  lol ! Please God make it temporary !

Really it wasn't nice and I was stressed all afternoon. Dennis decided we should go out so we took the car, just the 2 of us and went to eat an ice-cream along a close-by river. That was really great.

When we came back it was time to go back to the Vet, I went there whilst Dennis was packing for his trip.

The Vet found her a lot brighter, you know when teenagers smile at your neighbours but have a six-feet long face towards you . . . ,  she did exactly that to him and I confess I wanted to strangle her.  Then he put some more cream on her ( no complain at all ) and he said we should come back on Tuesday. So although I know she is uncomfortable,  I was kind of very annoyed that she can be nice when SHE wants.

At bedtime they both slept upstairs again and Rhea seemed OK.

This morning was 3 am start, ouch. We had got used to " normal " life since 6 weeks so it was a bit hard. Dennis is now in Zurich and I am alone with the girls.

The weather isn't very good, extremely 3 H again ( Hot, Humid and Heavy ).

After giving the girls their breakfast, it was time for Rhea's cream. I wasn't looking forward to it but knowing animals can feel that, I put my gloves on together with my confidence armor . In such a situation, I also talk to her with her lower pitch of voice. It sounds silly but you wouldn't believe how much it helps. She let me put the cream once and for the second go she started complaining but I showed her my baddy eyes and she let me do it completely.

I went out with Bubbles and we had a nice round. I then asked Rhea if she wanted to go out, no answer, no looking at me so I put her on lead and she agreed to go out. We walked down 40 meters on the sidewalk to a place where there is grass. She laid down there and refused to move. Not in direction to the park and not direction back home, so I waited and gave here a cuddle. After 15 mns I then convinced her to go back home. She went to the garden and after I gave her a biscuit, she forgot all about me and Bubbles and stared away.

I hope this thing goes away quickly as it drives both of us nuts !



Project 365+1 - Day 233: Triangular

Congratulations to Alison, Viv and Dennis for guessing triangle ! I had put my money on Angle. Not too far.

Here are 2 triangular pictures I took in the park this morning.

A tree

and a leaf

Take care everybody, xxx
  

Tired

We had a terrible Saturday.

When Rhea had her blood test they clipped her (very much shaved her actually) and I don't know if it is due to the hit but it got very badly inflamed, I had a cream at home, so I called the Vet to check and he said it was fine. She allowed me to do it the 1st time but the 2nd one, she showed her teeth when I tried to put cream on her what really shocked me.

Then she continued behaving very irrationally as on Friday. She was shaking her head, walking with her head bending to the left, kind of running then lying down, not answering her name, giving her paw to the wall. She really freaked us out. I thought she was having a stroke, she was totally confused, acting weird but suddenly she was better as if nothing would have happened, so I decided not to go to the Vet last night.

When she started doing it again of course the Vet surgery was closed. I checked on Internet and they talked about Old Dog vestibular syndrome that basically described what she had. They were saying it's not life threatening so I kept an eye on her during the night and this morning we went to the Emergency Vet.

He thinks it might come from the clipping that started a kind of acute skin reaction and it drives her bonkers so she acts weird. She got an injection and it has calmed her down a bit. We still need to keep an eye on her because the " missing " clue for Old Dog vestibular syndrome is flickering eyes what she hasn't done so far and we need to know if she has that on top or not. We have to go back tonight at 6, so he can see how she is doing. She seems a bit calmer now, thanks God.



Project 365+1 - Day 232 : Square

Before going to the Vet, we went to the park with Bubbles. My phone refused to connect to 3G so I couldn't get the word of the day and it annoyed me.

I asked Dennis "What word do you think it will be ?" He thought about it and said
" Square . What do you think ?"
I said " I agree, I think it will be square."

So at 9:14 we took this picture, just for fun.

At 9:45 when we came back home, I connected to Internet to find today's word and confirmed I already had my photo. Aren't we good ?

Any bet for tomorrow's word ?

Take care everybody, xxx
  

I don't believe it

I talked to my dad after he came back from his hospital appointment and basically, after checking the Holter, they are not sure if he is tired because he is old or because of his heart, so they thought it might be silly to put a pacemaker just on an assumption.  My dad said it was better to let nature follow his course, what can be interpreted in many ways and didn't specially please me.
The doctor told me (funny slip of the tongue) him to relax and sleep and see how he is after that. It's true that the coming of my little niece stressed them a bit.

As for the title of this post : I don't believe it . . . 
Well you won't either.

Last evening, I was preparing the girls food. Bubbles gets wet food and Rhea gets dry food that I need to measure carefully and weigh so she doesn't put on weight. I don't know how I managed but I dropped the small container I just weighed and all the kibbles fell on the kitchen floor. Of course I had to go on my four to pick them up. I gave a couple to Bubbles who had her nose on some and I gave some to Rhea. I don't know if when she saw me taking the food away she thought she wouldn't get any, but Rhea started being very upset, hyper-ventilating and stressed. Cuddles and so and then food, but it didn't really go away.

Later on she was still panting and asked to go onto the sofa, what we allowed. When it was time to go to bed, we took them both to our bedroom so everybody can have a normal night. I put their baskets close to me, Rhea calmed down and fell asleep.

This morning they didn't wake me up so when I woke up by myself at almost 8, I though they were really kind. When she heard me move, Rhea's head went onto the bed and she got cuddles. I thought Bubbles was still sleeping close to Dennis. Dennis woke up and said no, Bubbles is on your side. I had a look and said no. We thought she went downstairs. Then I suddenly sat on the bed like a devil out of his box and I had a look on the side. I could see a nose and an eye emerging from under the bed. The eye carried the message : please don't be mad.

Oh . . . and mad I certainly was. You need to invent a new meaning for mad. I couldn't believe she was stupid enough to do it for the 3rd time and also to manage push all the books I had put to avoid that. We jumped out of bed and thanks God this time Dennis was here to lift the bed with me. It made a cracking noise, but didn't break. If the girls had pocket money, Bubbles wouldn't have any until the end of her life in order to potentially pay for a new bed.
She managed to slide out of there, rushed downstairs to pick up her monkey and came back with a low wagging tail. When this kind of stuff happens, I swear she has a stupid smile on her face. I never could get a picture because I am too upset when it happens.

So that was our nice way of getting up this morning.

We went to the park again separately with each girl. I can see coming a visit to the Vet next week as Rhea is licking her front paw and although there absolutely nothing there, I think she does it because it hurts.



Project 365+1 - Day 231 : Circular

A different way of looking at the park

Take care everybody, xxx

PS: Each of you at different times is showing so much care when I feel low, I really appreciate that and I hope I can return the favor if you need it one day.
  

Upset

I took this photo of Bubbles yesterday and that basically sums up how I feel : Flattened and deflated.

There is nothing going massively wrong in my life at the time being, it's just lots of things that aren't going to plan and I start having problems tracking them all at the same time. You know this guy in the circus with all his plates turning on the top of wooden sticks? That's kind of me. As soon as I control one not too bad, another one threatens to crash, and another one, and back to the first one.

When Sophie was small, she used to ask me to play with her a game she invented. It was called : " What would you prefer ? " She was giving me the most two awful choices and I had to chose one.  This morning in the park I was thinking about that and wondering what is worse? Being punched hard by somebody or being punched softly by 10 people ? When I am upset, I always refer to stupid analogies, you could have guessed that by yourself.

Yes I am upset because things are not going to plan and I feel like a butterfly going from flower to flower without logic and order.

I really took badly what happened to my Dad again, because although it's dramatic, it could open the door to it. I thought we were OK for a while there with the meds, but it doesn't seem we are. I talked to him last night and he said they fixed a Holter on him in order to monitor his heart for 24 hours. He is back at the hospital today, right now actually when checking the time, to remove it and check.

The doctor talked about pacemaker again during the appointment. It looks like it's the way it's going to go. . .  It's not a big thing but of course if it happens, I want to be there for him and for my mum and it's going to be so tough to organize my flying down with Dennis traveling so much and the dog sitter that seems to have vanished from planet earth ...

At 8pm I got a call from the Vet, I thought he had forgotten me and I was also upset about that, but bless him he was still working late. Very disappointing results for Rhea : the values are going up, slowly but surely. Last month she reached the maximum of Creatinine at 125, yesterday tests showed 154, too much above the maximum, so she needs to go back on the Kidneys meds as if her kidneys fail, then that would be it.

At the same time he increased a bit the pain killers but my gut feel is that it's not enough. We have to try and find a way for her to enjoy the rest of her life without pain but without killing her within 3 weeks either so that's not easy. We went to the park this morning but she didn't walk much.

She is so beautiful and kind. I can't stand the idea that she might be in pain.

There is no drama yet for my Dad or for Rhea but at the same time, I have a heavy heart and I feel like " can't I just have a small break ? "

I know it's just a temporary " why me ? " situation and it will go away as quickly as it came, as soon as I get a plan in place.

My nickname is the Cat. I always fall back on my paws. It's the period between the fall and the landing that is a bit overwhelming.



Project 365+1 - Day 230 : Curves

The park paths certainly show beautiful curves in their design.

Take care everybody, xxx

Go with the flow !

The other day we were chatting with the kids and the topic was about wanting to grow older quicker.

We've all done that ( I recon ), I surely did and the funny thing is when I look back I understand and don't understand why at the same time. Somehow I wish I would have just taken the time as it came. I wouldn't like to go back to my twenties, I am happy where I am ( although the wrinkles and extra weight, I could do without) but when I look at David who is now 19 and a bit, I wish he would take more care to treasure this fantastic moment that will never come back. Not that he doesn't enjoy it, but he is planning ahead, when he will be able to buy a car and have his own flat and do what the hell he wants. This period of late teens allows us to taste adulthood without the struggle and the responsibilities, but at this age, we don't realize that. It's a pity.

One problem of getting older is that everybody around gets older too. Yesterday I was on the phone with the Vet so when I got a call from my mum I missed it. I hate when she calls. Don't misunderstand me, it's not her, it's the fact that she initiates the call when she normally doesn't.

We have a contract on our phone here that gives us free calls worldwide, so I am the one calling my parents, then it doesn't cost them anything. But when they call, basically almost never, it's seldom good news. I saw on the caller id they didn't call from the week-end house where they should have been but from called from Marseille.  I start being conditioned to think that Marseille is where the hospitals are.

Anyway, I called back and she said my Dad had another incident of bradycardia, he was transported to the hospital, but it was much less severe and they let him out. Today he is supposed to go back and see the cardiologist who kept an eye on him when he was in hospital last July.

So, it's nothing dramatic but it shows I can't just relax. I guess it would be stupid to, with an almost 90 years old dad. We had a long chat last night and he was really happy they didn't keep him but he said that many people are talking to him about a pacemaker and he isn't too keen on the idea.

I tried to joke and tell him that actually he would be like a laptop, if there is a power cut, he still could run on batteries, but he didn't find it too funny. Then he asked how often you had to change the batteries and honestly the way he asked, it was hilarious. I told him it was around 8 years. I also said that it doesn't require a total anesthesia and people just lead a normal life, but I could feel he wasn't too convinced about it. I will know more this afternoon after he will have seen the doctor. They asked him to take the meds for 3 months and only one passed by, so, I don't know.

On a positive side, I received photos from my niece. My brother is incredible. Either we get 5 photos in 9 months or we get a CD with 136 photos ! But I certainly won't complain about it as I was really delighted.

Here are some:

With my Dad :

She has my Mums green/grey eyes

Something very rare: It's a French Cicada. Impossible to miss their songs on a sunny afternoon in South of France, but very hard to spot, you can see why. They are around 2 inches long.

I went to the Vet with Rhea and like last time, I waited for her so within 15 minutes we were on our way back home. The Vet will call this afternoon with the results.



Project 365+1 - Day 229 : Teamwork

Sometimes things go your way, you don't know why and sometimes they just go against you and you don't know why either.

We left at 8:15 to go to the Vet and it was plenty of time to be there at 8:30, but we got stuck in a terrible traffic jam. I then realized there were some roadworks and temporary traffic lights. When we passed by, I could see 40 people in yellow jackets,  OK, may be only 12, but really it was very busy. It would have been my ideal Teamwork picture, but we were late and the traffic lights were green, so I thought I would take the picture on our way back.

Thats' what I got on our way back. There was still big traffic jam, but there was only one guy left. The others had probably gone to have breakfast. That doesn't work for teamwork ! AARGGHHH !!!



So I had to revert to the initial picture I took when we just left home : 2 of our gardeners tidying up the lawn. Well I wish . . . I mean 2 of the park gardeners, lol !

Take care everybody, xxx
  

Heavy head again

I got another headache, it seems to be part of my daily routine now !

I was talking to my mum yesterday and joking about it as I was explaining that I was tired without headaches, so my GP decided to reduce my meds. Now I am still tired but with headaches on the top. Good plan, isn't it ?

Humor is probaly the best medicine (together with anti-migraine tables of course . . . )

The weather wasn't too too bad this morning

but it got much worse during the morning. Keeping an eye on the skies, I decided for a shorter walk with Bubbles and it was a brilliant idea as when the rain caught me, I was this Rhea and obviously not far from the house, so we didn't get too wet.




Project 365+1 - Day 228 : Unity

Know what? I think at the end of the year, we all will deserve a medal for our tenacity
in taking a picture a day on a word, no matter what ! Well done to us all again !

This one needed quite some lateral thinking. I found this on Google :

Unity: the act, state, or quality of forming a whole from separate parts; something whole or complete that is composed of separate parts

and in extrapolating a bit I came up with my favorite subject : The clouds making up the sky !

And if you ask me, that's even more than unity, that's conspiracy !

Take care everybody, xxx

Oh, I wanted to ask: Is any of you doing the Learn Something New Every Day class in September ? I am going to, as I loved it last year but as always I can't decide what size of album to make. Decisions, decisions . . .

Sweet memories

Yesterday evening we had tickets to see Samsara. It's a non-verbal movie, kind of documentary really, filmed over five years and in 25 different countries that explores the wonders of our world. It was fascinating, I must say. I think it comes out end of the month or so. I highly recommend it if you are a self-discovery path.

The weather is changing a lot and at the same time I decreased my beta-blockers dosage for a month. I start having headaches again but you know what they say, don't change 2 things at the same time, so now I can't be sure where they come from !

This morning wasn't too bad for our walk. 

Both girls did well and had fun, although separately.

Now the sky is very dark, my head is pouding and we are waiting for the rain.




Project 365+1 - Day 227 : Bronze

I have several photos for today's word.

In the park this morning I found several leaves, I can't help thinking that they are a sign we are going towards autumn. Yeeeeeek ! ! !

After having avoided the bookshelf and its books, I thought it might be a good idea to check them all ( just in case, lol ! ). Additionally to a lot ( and I do mean a lot ) of dust, I found this below, I had completely forgotten about.

3rd is Bronze so I thought it's appropriate for today's photo.

It was won by Rhea many years ago and this is the story.

You know Rhea is extremely disobedient, what you don't know if that she actually improved a lot. Rhea has always been a bit difficult so when she was 4 months old, we decided to take her to a puppy school, thinking she might have some fun, socialize and learn a bit of obedience. She certainly excelled in the 1st two, the last one was another story.

The school was called the armchair dogs. I'll never forget them and I doubt they will forget us either.

We were not expelled from the Puppy School because I guess they needed the money, lol, but each Tuesday night when we arrived, I could see the faces of the guys, showing " Oh my God, they are back ". Yes, that bad !

Rhea was extremely sweet, her problem is she wanted to show it during the class. She managed to corrupt most of the puppies, as puppies at this age love being corrupted anyway. She would start an exercise with me, like we walk along other puppies on lead and we behave, it would work for 30 seconds, then she would jump on one of the puppies and start playing. Of course all the others were joining in . You could see all the masters struggle to pull on the lead to get their puppy back and the teachers having a wave of despair on their face.

Rhea's favourite game was " go to your master".
You had to go at the end of the room. The guy was holding Rhea without lead. I was supposed to call her, he was supposed to let her go and she was supposed to run to me and it never really went to plan as she was always running in the opposite direction towards the other puppies.

On the last day at puppy school we had a small competition by groups of 3. When it was our turn for the last exercise ( and we, well " she " had messed them all up already ),
I went to the end of the room, I called Rhea, he let go and she ran towards me and I thought " bless her " and everybody relaxed and said " Wow ! " but 10 meters before reaching me, she did a 90 degrees turn and ran to say hello to all the other puppies.

She got everybody by surprise : All masters were ready for their turn, so the puppies weren't on lead, they were just gently holding on to them. All the puppies started running away around the room with Rhea has a leader. Just imagine Rhea little devil in front, 7 other puppies running after here, the masters calling their dogs ( who didn't care for a second), the teachers trying to re-establish some order. It is really funny now and we still joke about it, but at the time, it was kind of humiliating. You can't catch one puppy wanting to have fun, so imagine 8.

Anyway it took quite a while and a lot of treats bags that the teachers completely desperate started opening like anything, but all puppies were back eventually. Then there was the medal ceremony. No wonder we finished last of our group, but we still got a 3rd place medal. I think we only got it because they had to but giving us a medal ( even only 10p worth ) after all the bags of treats they needed to use, I think they never swallowed it.

Oh : and we didn't apply to the next level course they were organizing. Instead we went to another puppy school. May be one day, I tell you !

Take care everybody, xxx
  

Fate and destiny again

Sometimes I " complain " that it wouldn't hurt winning some money at the Lottery . It certainly wouldn't but in situations like yesterday, I realize there are much more important things and we surely have something or someone looking over us.

Let's start at the beginning.  We have a wooden sofa, awful and uncomfortable thing
( sigh . . . ) and the stupid thing decided to break yesterday noon, so Dennis went to buy some metal bars to repair it. He also glued some other parts so after thinking about it, we decided to give it 24 hours and not using it.

We realized yesterday that the Olympics opening ceremony was on our 1st day of holidays and the closing ceremony was on our last one, so we thought we would celebrate a bit. Not able to use the sofa we put the camping chairs in front of it and had some cheese and wine.

The ceremony was nice. Almost at the end, there was a terrible noise behind me and I thought the ceiling was falling on us. I screamed like anything, Rhea ran for her life to the kitchen, Bubbles didn't know what to do and Dennis and I just looked at each other before looking behind us. It all happened in a couple of seconds. Well it wasn't the ceiling.

One of the book shelf broke and everything fell on the sofa, books and shelf as a cascading effect. That's normally where Dennis sits. You can see the chair he was sitting on last night, mine was close to it. Believe it or not, not a single book touched any of us nor the girls.

We were a bit shaken after that and we even allowed the girls to stay in our bedroom but that surely increases my believing in fate and destiny.

Today was very heavy weather again with low skies. I had a long walk with Bubbles

We passed by the kiddies paddle, but nobody was there today

Then I went out again with Rhea and she did really not bad, really enjoying herself. I think this system of taking them separately works well.




Project 365+1 - Day 226 : Silver

I wasn't born with a Silver spoon in my mouth and somehow I think I am thankful for that, as I believe life lessons are often better learnt the hard way.

This one has the silver color, not the material, lol !

Take care everybody, xxx

PS: About the Craft show I was talking about it is called : Big Stamp and Scrapbooking show and it will take place on September 22/23. You can find more info HERE but I've never been there myself, so can't give much more details.
   

Weather changing

They announced that the weather would take a wet turn and it surely did.

I got up early and took Rhea to the park on her own. The clouds were building up but it was still dry.

She didn't walk so much, she met a puppy who wanted to play and she got a bit upset because she wanted to, but couldn't. I can't wait for her blood test Thursday to see if we can increase the pain killers. It makes me so sad to see her like this.

Then I went out with Bubbles. We had a big round and it started raining on our way back . I almost enjoyed the rain because it was so hot, it was kind of oppressing and this light rain brought a bit of freshness.

Since we are back, it is raining and it doesn't look it will stop soon !

Message from Dennis, David, Sophie, Rhea and Bubbles to Jen : It was very nice having you here. One slight problem though : Your kind comments on your visit pleased Anne so much that she is jumping up and down like a kangaroo and she got such a big head now that we might have to enlarge all the door frames in the house ! xxx



Project 365+1 - Day 225: Exhaustion

This is the exhaustion system of my car. Fascinating isn't it , lol ?

Take care everybody, xxx