A day at the seaside

Sunday turned out to be a trip to the seaside kinda day; a bit breezy but nice and warm.  Turns out lots of other people also had the same idea.  Good job we saw the traffic jam on the M61 before we got on it.  It was nice to travel on the A roads instead.  We were heading for St Anne's because we know the owner of a sweet shop there that make their own salted caramel toffees that are absolutely yummy.

We checked on-line to see if I was going to be allowed on the beach, because apparently some people don't think it's OK for us gorgeous little woofers to run around all over their picnic blankets and sand castles.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that there was really only a small section where I couldn't go.

Once we got on the beach we began to realise just how windy it was. If we had been in a desert, this would have been sandstorm weather I think.  If I sat still for too long I got covered.  I loved the feel of the wind in my fur, although it did make me sneeze when the sand went up my nose.  I was still relatively clean at this point.

Mum shot this in slo mo, but it doesn't work on here.

It was quite a walk out to the sea as it was at low tide, but we were determined to get there.  Dad tried to get me to swim by walking into the water nearly up to his knees, and offering me treats, but I know my own mind.  There is a limit for my little legs and no treats are going to persuade me otherwise.

We carried on walking along the edge of the sea for a while, and came to a bit of a gully.  Mum told dad to wade across so that she could see how deep it was before she attempted it.  Turned out to be not too bad and she was about to have a go when she looked down and saw a little jelly fish just bobbing along minding its own business.  So that was the end of our walk in the shallows.  Time to make our way back to the prom.  I was just having a little game of chase with a seagull when a man in a white land rover, looking very official, drove towards us.  I thought I'd done something wrong and was a bit worried, but he was just warning us that the tide was starting to come in and there are two gullies, which we were right between, that come together further up the beach and that if we stayed much longer we risked getting cut off.  What a nice man.

By this time the balmy afternoon weather had taken a chilly turn and the wind was really driving the loose sand up towards the sea wall.  "Really blows away the cobwebs" mum said.

I had got pretty well coated in sand and mum thought I looked like I could camouflage myself quite well.  Definitely in need of a good shower when I got home.

Before

After

Play Date

There comes a time in everyone's life when they learn to push themselves on a swing.

This is not my time.  Maybe after a few more tries, I'll learn to do it myself, but this was my very first go on a swing, so I needed Katy's help.

I was there with my favourite little one.

We love hanging out together.

He looks after me and makes sure I get home ok.

Looking Good

I'm a pretty handsome pup, if I do say so myself, and staying this good looking takes effort.  Today was hair cut day.  I go to this little bijou place in Whalley called Maud and Eddy's.  It's very exclusive.  To be honest, I've no idea why it's called Maud and Eddy's because the guy that owns it is called Andrew and he works out of an extension that's built onto the back of his town house on a housing estate.  I'm a week overdue for my grooming because we had to reschedule it, which means I was beginning to look pretty shaggy.

I'm sad that I can't see much through all my hair.

Gave dad a proper guilt trip when he dropped me off.  Did the whole sad eyes thing and even threw in a bit of nervous shaking.  Works every time.  I do it when we go to the vets as well.  Not when we go to see the nurse, because they give me lots of cuddles. Just the vets because they stick things in me.

Anyway, two hours later and I'm looking sharp.

Look how big my eyes are when you can actually see them.

Home in time for dinner, but I had to lock out the little one because he kept trying to tip over my bowl,

Gonna bite off those toes if he comes any closer, I don't care how cute he is

Sunday Surprises

Surprise number one.

Mum caught me in the padding pool.

Surprise number two.

The little one shared his snack with me.

He really wanted me to have some.

Surprise number three.

We went for a walk and I found out that the little one likes to go up the steps and down the grass just as much as I did when I was a puppy.

Saturday Six

Let's go for a walk she says.  It's 7:30 on a Saturday morning, and this is most unusual behaviour, but fair enough, I was up for a walk.  It was a lovely sunny morning, so it could be fun.  The only thing I don't like about walks is having my harness put on.  Every time I see it, I run and hide. It's just one of those things, I can't explain it, it just makes me feel funny in my tummy.  Once it's on I'm fine and raring to go.

The little one and his parents came with us this morning.  We set off on the usual route up to the field where I like to run and often meet my friends.  I like this field, it smells good and there's usually things to roll in, which for some reason I get told off for. Personally I find bird poo irresistible, but mum doesn't share this opinion.

After the field we headed to the canal.  We don't often go on this route, but it was such a sunny morning that I think mum just wanted to take full advantage of the good weather.

Mum keeps me on the lead when we're by the canal, despite the fact that I have never jumped into deep water, she thinks that one day I'm just going to throw caution to the wind and take a leap.  Don't get me wrong, I like water, I'm just not a big fan of it when my little short legs can't touch the bottom.

We walked past where all the canal boats were moored.  There were quite a lot but mum couldn't get them all in the photo.

Further along we saw a family of swans.  Mum stopped to look and they swam towards us.  I hadn't been that close to swans before and they seemed to be coming to say hello.  Turns out they were coming to say "back off".  Oh well, you can't be friends with everyone.

Mum and dad and four big babies

  We had gone three miles before mum said it was time to turn round and go back.  Now I'm a dog and not known for my mathematical abilities, but even I know that that means the whole walk was going to be six miles in total.  I've only got little legs so this is not a walk, it's a trek.  Next time I think I need more information before agreeing to such a thing so early in the morning.  

I was pretty thirsty by this time, and figured I was right next to a lot of water that looked good to drink, so I did.  One second I was lapping up nice cold thirst quenching refreshment, and the next second I was swimming in it.  You should have seen the look on my face as I figured out what had happened and where the bank was.  Maybe it was a good job mum kept me on the lead after all.  Mums know best.

Look what being a Good Boy gets you.

The little one was back at the weekend.  I love the little one.  He gave me cuddles and laughed at me when I ran around him.  He shared his rice cake with me too.

He's a good boy.  I try to be a good boy too, so when dad was kneeling down on the floor and patting a plastic padded brightly coloured cushion type thing and saying "come on, lie down", well I did just that, and look what I got for it..

Turns out he was talking to the little one and it was him that was supposed to lie down and get one of these on his tushy.  It felt weird.  My tail was all tucked in and it was a bit tickly.  At least he let me play in his tent.

Can't wait for him to come back again.

Clifton Country Park

I've never been to Clifton Country Park before, so this was exciting.

 I like going to new places and smelling new smells.  There were lots of things for me to explore and some different friends to meet.  One of the new friends I wanted to say hello to was took quick for me.  It ran across the path and into the bushes very fast.  I've never seen one before.  Mum said it was a squirrel. She also told me that there have been squirrels on our walks before but I haven't been looking in the right direction, so I hadn't noticed them.  I wish it would have stopped to say hello.

I liked all the birds swimming in the lake.

I think my favourite part was when I got to swim in the lake.  I was quite brave and actually did some proper swimming. Not for long though.  There were two large logs in the water, and it turns out that if you stand with your back legs on one of them and your front legs on the other one, that they will drift apart and your front legs go away from your back legs, and you can't do anything about it, and you lose your balance and fall in the water.  Mum was a bit miffed that she missed getting it on film because she thought it was funny and muttered something about £250.

Lakes are messy places.

Dad took this picture of the trees because he thought they looked pretty.

After we'd been to the park, we had to drive into Manchester to pick Katy up from Comic con.  We got stuck in traffic, but at least that gave us a chance to play Comic Con or Graduation.  This involves spotting people walking on the street and deciding by their clothes, whether they had been at Comic Con, or their University Graduation.  These events were happening across the road from each other today.

After all that, it was home for dinner.