So many photos I want to show you!Β Here are a few from our last days in Wales:
We went back to Worm’s Head on Tuesday, after a stunning 4 mile hike around the Three Cliffs area. We hiked down this hill to the beach and watched a beautiful sunset.
We watched the sheep on the hillsides and enjoyed all the gorgeous views. You can’t see the sheep in the first photo, but they were like Mountain goats… grazing on slopes that seemed impossibly steep. (Lots of limping I noticed; I am guessing that foot rot must be a big problem here given how damp it is.)
As the light faded, a crow landed on this drift wood and I yanked my camera out of my pocket and got the shot an instant before she flew off.
I’d put the camera away because we had a steep climb and it was getting dark, but then…. the moon came up as we hiked back up the hill:
By the way, I splurged and bought a new small camera both for myself and for Jim. I dropped my ‘point and shoot’ in a tide pool this summer, turns out not to be good for it. So for the photographers among you; I’m using a Sony Cyber shot. I like it a lot. (I bought Jim a Nikon which also takes great pictures and turns out to have a stronger zoom. But they are both great cameras. Mine is a little smaller, so that’s why I kept the Sony and gave Jim the Nikon.)
We spent two days traveling from western Wales to Auschau, complete with predictable travel adventures: We had a hard time returning our rental car; we thought that “home” on our rental car’s GPS (Sat Nav to the Brits) was where we picked up the car but it turned out to be 40 miles away and our cell phone died even though we’d charged it up (we did finally make it, but Bristol is not a place one wants to be lost in traffic!); we made the train-bus connection at Reading with gosh, at least 45 seconds to spare (eeeps); security at Heathrow airport in London did not like either me or Jim. They took virtually everything out of my bag and everything out of every bag in my bag (if that makes any sense: picture a small bag with 25 tiny items in it, medicines, etc, all out and scattered all over the place. I’m still not sure I got everything packed back up.)
BUT, we did have a relaxing night at a hotel close to the airport and got to Aschau with no trouble once we got to Amsterdam. We just got back from testing all the AV for the Animal Learn symposium that starts in just a few hours. Lots of interesting talks, I’ll keep you posted on them.
We arrived on a dark, rainy night, but woke up to clouds dancing up and down around the peaks of the Bavarian foothills. Very lovely!
Last comment before I’m off to the symposium: Two weeks seems to the maximum amount of time I can be away from my dogs. As you all know, I do a lot of traveling for a living, and so I’ve gotten used to leaving, but it’s never easy, I have to admit. I miss Willie and Tootsie way too much right now — want to see them, touch them, smell them. I’m just missing them terribly. Although I know that the symposium will be fascinating, I have to admit to counting the hours til I get to see them again. (Full disclosure: I also miss ice in my drinks, sheets on a bed and crispy American bacon. Okay, I’ve confessed.)
How long can you be away from your dogs before you begin to yearn for them? I have missed them every day, but there’s missing, and there’s yearning, right?
Margaret McLaughlin says
The moon pic is extraordinary–looks like the end of the world.
How long can I be away from my dogs? An 8-hour shift is pushing my outside limit most nights.
Enjoy the rest of your trip.
Heathrow=bad vibes. On my way to live in Northern Ireland in 1979 I got “Your name is WHAT & you’re going WHERE? Step over here, please.” Took me 4 hours to get loose, & 5+ years of difficulties with immigration followed. Yick.
Claudia says
I had my Ginger for 8 years till she died at 12.5 a month ago. In those 8 years I never once went on any vacation because I could never handle being away from her. I limited travel for work to the absolute minimum, unless I was able to take her along. The longest time we have ever been parted was 2 nights, and they were torture for me. She was a rescue dog, a super-high-energy crazy girl who used to be very dog-reactive (fixed that mostly thx to Trisha’s Feisty Feido book and some techniques of my own:)) and I didn’t trust her with anybody else, because no one else seemed to have the instincts and reflexes needed to keep her out of trouble . So we took our vacations together or with friends, hiking, kayaking, ski-joring, biking and camping in our backcountry, and they were the best vacations I’ve ever had.
Now she’s gone and I have no idea how I have survived a whole month without her, never mind the empty months and years to come. Hanging out on this blog soothes the pain a bit. Over Xmas I will go to Hawaii, alone, for the first vacation in a decade, because staying here without her would just drive me insane.
Then in the new year – a new puppy and hopefully, new love!
Frances says
I managed a whole week away, but was suffering by the end of it! I’ve decided 5 days is probably now my limit, but don’t really like being away more than 12 hours…
Beth with the Corgis says
About a week is the most I can travel before I get homesick.
What beautiful pictures! I’m glad you are having fun. It’s funny what we miss when we are away. When I’m in England, I constantly wonder why the heck a culture that invented so many fascinating gadgets has such trouble making toilets that flush properly. And the separate taps for hot and cold in public restrooms drive me crazy.
But I am always deeply envious of the public trasportation and the intact town centres.
Alaska says
Trisha, it gets worse. I stopped taking vacations without my dogs a long while ago, but now I’m starting to have trouble leaving them just for the length of the workday. They are part of my soul.
Beautiful pictures. Thanks for the travelogues.
Barb says
I’ve heard that Heathrow customs can be a scary place. Isn’t it funny how when they put you through that you always feel nervous and guilty, aside from being irritated. I used to get upset when I had to take my shoes off but an agent in Calgary told me, after they did the full body thing on me, that they had to do so many a shift and they often tried to pick people who looked nice! I tried not to look nice the next time we traveled and they still pulled me aside – my husband told me maybe if I stopped talking to the people ahead it would help π
Lovely pictures…..it sounds like you’re having a wonderful trip. Can hardly wait to see the pictures of Willie and Tootsie when you arrive home.
Joyce Lakomy says
My partner and I don’t travel. She will go visit family for a weekend every year and I will go for about a week every 2 years or so. We run a doggie daycare & boarding and we also have jobs that require shift work , so one of us is always with our fur babies.
Aliesha says
Those pictures are stunning! Thanks for sharing! Glad you are having a good time, it’s too bad Willie and Tootsie can’t come with you. I would have a hard time after being gone for about 2 weeks too. Safe travels and have a safe return!
Trisha says
What is with the separate taps in England anyway? I wondered the same thing: how hard is it to create plumbing that allows you to balance hot and cold?
On another note: Just back from a lovely dinner out with hosts and speakers; fascinating group, from Austria, Germany and Spain. Many fascinating perspectives, will write lots of blogs on the talks here, but gotta go get some sleep before my big talk tomorrow!
Nic1 says
Trisha – that is pants. Let me share my USA primary tourist experience/professional. I was invited for one week to Dallas in 2002, by a major diagnostics company. On arrival. I was searched and asked to unpack all my possessions. Keep in mind, I was still there two hours later… I had been gifted a Louis Vuiton monogrammed piece of luggage as a gift by a member of the ruling family. Keep in mind that as an expat, all that designer nonsense was seen as as huge reinforcement. On unpacking my LV bathroom bag, the Texan official says, ‘wow!’ Gucci huh? ‘Huge fail!’ π
hakirby says
No other way of saying it – we have ice in our drinks and what do we have on our beds instead of sheets?
But I’m with you on the bacon.
I hate being away from ,my son and dog even for a night. i can’t help work, but i don’t travel without them
CJ says
@Claudia – sorry for your loss, virtual hugs. She sounds much like my current dog, all my good holidays now are with my dog too.
My dog now is named after my favorite last major holiday, because I knew I wasn`t going to do globe trotting the way I had been after university. I can manage about 3 days before I get super antsy to get home to her.
My first time to the UK was on a working holiday visa for a year. Being grilled after the red-eye flight sucked, but in retrospect this was still when there were no garbage bins allowed on main roads in central London (in 1998…I still miss the pubs & a proper cuppa). Same work situation going into Australia 18 months later….they stamped my visa & told me to hurry up and have fun at the beach. My favorite was flying out of Detroit — one of the gentlemen hunted down a blanket & a pillow since I was so early for my flight!
Ellen Pepin says
Oh Trisha, you really look like a terrorist. Heathrow is famous for it’s searches.
The travel pictures are great. I especially like the one from the top of the hill looking at the sea. That must have been a beautiful, and strenuous, hike back up.
When I am gone away from my dogs, I miss them from the first day. A couple of years ago, I was in the hospital for 2 1/2 months. At first I didn’t realize much, but as I got better, I really missed my two dogs. My husband used his ipad to send me live pictures of them via Facetime. That was so great. Enjoy the rest of your trip.
Trisha says
Interesting to hear that Heathrow is famous for their security. I do understand the need to be safe, but am not always convinced some of the practices are actually helpful. About the ice and sheets: Yes, one could ask for ice, but you have to ask and then get a tiny amount. But otherwise I found (same in Germany) that you’re served cold water or cold soda without ice. I’m the first to say that’s much better for the environment and energy consumption, ice is terribly wasteful, so I have no pride is saying I miss it!
And the sheets? Each place we have slept (7 so far) has a fitted sheet on the bed but then what Americans call a comforter on top. No sheet or blanket, just one soft fluffy blanket like thing to cover up with. If the temperature in the room is just right it’s great, but it only gives you one option, unlike a sheet, blanket and bedspread like you’d have in the states. It is again a better use of energy (just one thing to wash), and I have to admit I am getting used to it, but it can make for a hot or cold night if the room temp isn’t just right. Make sense?
By the way, the talks yesterday afternoon in Aschau were thought-provoking, I’m taking lots of notes and guarantee there will be several blog topics coming out of this symposium.
Martina says
Awesome pictures!
One point that what always brought by my partner when we were discussing if or not to get a dog (or the second or the third) “where do we leave them when we go away” to which I replied ” we hardly ever go away so we don’t need to start when we have dogs”.
The longest we have been away was four days or five days. But since the third dog came into the house they haven’t been alone for more than half a day and the the longest I’m away from them is when I’m at work but I’m allowed to take them to the office, which I do with one of them regularly.
Friends are urging us to take some time off – so they can move in for dog sitting π
As much as I would have loved to attend your talk in Aschau, it would have meant 6 hour drives, depending on weather conditions and leaving the dogs for three days π Am looking forward to your promised posts!
I would have bet, that you could get crisp bacon in Aschau if you just asked for it. After all, Bavaria is known for its hearty food π
Claudia says
funny about the ice and sheets. I’ve lived in America for 20+ years (grew up in Germany) and still ask for my soda without ice. Why on earth would anyone want to water down their drinks with melting cubes made from tap water (gross!) and also, if you have ice in there you only get half the volume of drink. Who’d put up with that?
Oh, and sheets: I find the American system with all those loose sheets and iddy bitty pillows very messy and uncomfortable. You always get tangled in those in the middle of the night. And a bit gross, too: the comforter is never completely covered by the sheets (unlike a European comforter with a comforter cover), so people drool all over it, and American hotels wash the sheets but never the comforters between customers. I mean, yuck π
So..I take my own sleeping bag into hotels and I sewed my own comforter covers at home, cause I just can’t find any proper ones in this country.
Funny…it’s probably whatever we got conditioned to as puppies – that’s how we want it all of our lives.
Margaret McLaughlin says
@ Christine–I’m with you. First saw a Euro-style comforter in a case at age 16, & laboriously saved up my baby-sitting money for a year until I had enough for my friend’s Norwegian cousins to send me one. It’s great for restless sleepers like me–don’t have to remake the bed in the middle of the night. BTW, you can buy proper cases here.
Tricia, a woman of your intellect, & you haven’t figured how to sleep under it yet??? I’m disillusioned. Just poke your extremities out if you get hot, & you’ll cool off.
Beth with the Corgis says
We went through Heathrow last year during the Olympic games and my husband and I were joking that they must have spent a year training everyone how to be extra-nice. π It was the single most pleasant large-airport experience I have ever had. Now what I didn’t understand is why Gatwick has security walking around with automatic rifles and none of the other international airports in England do? My personal least favorite airport, though, is Philadelphia. Oh the stories I could tell…..
Re: sheets and blankets: I too find it very difficult to get comfortable without the layers. Sometimes you need just a sheet, or a sheet and blanket. Still the only truly bad experience we had was one time we stayed in a mid-price hotel in Earl’s Court (London). We got there late. There was a large sign that said “Heating is broken, ask for extra blankets at the desk.” We asked for an extra blanket. They said “They are all gone” and turned around and walked away. It was October and we froze. We piled coats on top of ourselves and put on sweatshirts. Funny thing was, they didn’t even give us a discount or apology. Every country has its own idea of customer service. I find ours here at home a bit fawning and actually enjoy the more practical approach in England much more, but this was a bit…. excessive. lol
emdee says
What’s not to like about a lukewarm screwdriver? (The answer: so much.)
Duvets! They’re great! You get different weights for summer and winter, and they’re so easy to care for — so much less laundry, such an easier bed-making experience every morning. I did my PhD at Cardiff University (“Not in animal behavior, alas!” — my dog) and became a major duvet convert while living there. Now I’m back in Wisconsin and each time I have to change my sheets or properly make my bed it’s like a scene from Les Miserables. Come to the duvet side; the water is warm.
Looking forward to reading your pending blog entries!
Trisha says
Argh, I hate to admit it, but I just might be coming over to the duvet/comforter side. Who knew? It is indeed much more hygienic and simple. The hotel in Aschau seems to be just the right temperature at night and so I’ve slept well here under my cozy ‘one-size-fits-all’ duvet. But it’ll take me some time to be happy to stick my feet out from underneath to cool off. Why on earth would that be? Good grief. Apparently I need to feel that my feet are tucked away cozily to feel safe and comfortable. I’m sure I’d get over that in time.
But ice? I can absolutely see, logically, that one would think of it as something interfering with one’s drink, but to me it’s just a great addition. I love the looks of ice – so shiny, the sound of it – happy tinkling, that it makes the drinks super cold – extra yummy and that once you’ve finished the liquid you can sip it as it melts.
I’ll be back to the states in 2 days, where I can have ice to my heart’s content, will look at my bed with sheet/blanket/bedspread with a new eye, and mostly, go crazy over seeing Willie and Tootsie again!
Beth with the Corgis says
I wonder if temperature extremes make a difference in bedding preference? In summer, I set the air to about 75 at night but in winter I turn the heat back to 62. Frequently in summer the temp will drop below the thermostat setting on a cool night if I have windows open in the back (non-airconditioned) part of the house, and I will start with a sheet and light blanket (or even just a sheet) and end up pulling up the comforter by morning. In winter, I pile on all the blankets from the start. Layers are warmer because they trap the heat. I find it difficult to imagine that just a duvet would be warm enough when I need flannel sheets, a cotton blanket, and a warm comforter to be warm. I could turn the heat up, but that would waste money and energy.
If you wake up too hot and have to stick out a leg, it disrupts your sleep (and the sleep of your partner, if they are a light sleeper). And if you have a cat plastered against you, sticking out a leg is impossible. π
I dunno, to me it’s like saying “Why wear a sweater and shirt and warm coat when you can just wear a coat and stick your arm out of it if you get hot?” lol
Maryk says
Two days is about my limit before I start missing my corgi Gracie. My husband & I travel about 14 long weekends a year for his business & Gracie only gets to come along once or twice a year. I hate it. We went to Colorado for a week in Sept for our 30th anniversary; we really missed her. I had a stiff neck for a week after that trip – she sleeps on my head when we get home (can’t sneak out without her).
Beth, you are right about Philly TSA’s – even the TSAs in other cities are aware of Philly’s reputation. They are the worst. And I live there!
Pike says
Lovely impressions and I look forward to the posts coming out of your travels!
As to the best night’s rest: For me, a clean, neat, European style goose down comforter is the very only way to sleep comfortably π
Leaving the pups is very difficult and the new fabulous book by Pulitzer Prize winning poet Mary Oliver has a wonderful stanza about just that:
… “I had to go away for a few days so I called
the kennel and made an appointment. I guess
Bear overheard the conversation.
“Love and company” said Bear, “are the adornments
that change everything. I know they’ll be
nice to me. But I’ll be sad, sad, sad.”
And pitifully he wrung his paws.
I cancelled the trip.”
CONVERSATIONS from “Dog Songs” by Mary Oliver
Claudia says
to Corgy – Bess:
yes, I think temperature is a lot of it. 75 degrees? Oof, I’d die of heat stroke. When it is that hot around here, I lie on the floor with a spray bottle of water, misting myself down every 2 minutes. Of course, I’m an Alaskan, hehe. My house is about 55 at night, so I love my big fat flannel-sheeted down comforter. Even so, my feet are never cold, so they always hang outside the blanket, summer or winter. I love the feeling of a warm butt combined with cool feet.
Mireille says
We need a break once a year, a week without the dogs. Great, relaxed, not being pulled in half with every bunny that crosses the road. Do you know I brace myself every time I see a cat? It’s an automatic respons, even when I’m driving my car and there isn’t going to be a jerk on the leash π
Having said that, it was not so difficult wit our previous dogs but with these two… Especially Spot, he has this look in his eye that is making it harder and harder for me to go to work (got a small reprimand last week; please try to get in a bit earlier… ) so I’m not so sure whether we are going to take that one week break this year π last year there suddenly were plenty of reasons ‘just to take them with us’ π
Laura says
Tricia, you’ve been gone from home so long that even I miss your doggies, LOL!
Anyway, because Seamus is my service dog, he travels with me and so I haven’t been away from him that long. However, I have left my dogs at home when traveling at times because I was concerned for their safety and wow I missed them terribly after about five days. I found too, that I also miss them in a more fundamental way when I’m even away from them for just an outing during the day. Yes, at times it might be easier for me to leave my dog at home and just take the cane with me, but I miss my dog. I miss him taking me around obsticals like trash cans, big cracks in the side walk and those metal entrance things in stores. My can always taps those things and though I know it’s supposed to do that, I always sigh and say “I miss my dog.” I know I can travel independently without him, and I’m greatful for that, but it just isn’t the same and I’m always glad to see him when I get home.
As for the sheets vrs. one blanket debate, I’m layers all the way. I think Beth is right, temperature extremes matter. It’s been cold here in Mn the last two nights and I don’t turn on the heat in the bedroom of my apartment. It’s way too hot otherwise and I can’t sleep comfortably at all, even on top of the covers, but, as you’d expect, with no heat on, it gets cold in there and so I “Layer up,” as my Fiance would say. I love layers. If I’m cold, I can snuggle down under all the blankets and feel warm and safe, and if I just want a sheet or a lite blanket, I can have that as well. it also helps to have a dog who is very happy to come up from his bed for a morning cuddle. He’s warm and curled beside me and I love that he’s a little heat-box this time of year. π
HFR says
Gorgeous scenery and beautiful photography…You have a great eye, Trish.
I hate leaving my dogs and really do not much. I will take a week vacation once a year but they stay with a trusted caretaker and while I miss them, I don’t worry about them. What is hard for me is being away from them when I’m not traveling. I have the guilts about leaving them home alone and feel their pain when I leave. I yearn for them terribly when I’m at work (I’m gone from the house for almost 12 hours a day) and absolutely refuse to leave them at night when they’ve been alone all day. I will leave them for a few hours on the weekends because I will have spent time with them otherwise, but even then I hate to not have them with me. But I don’t want to sound like I’m with them out of obligation. I WANT to be with them more than anywhere else. I’m happiest when I am with them even if they are just chewing on bones while I watch TV or read a book. I’m just completely content when in their company.
Count me among the duvet lovers. Nothing feels better than climbing under a fluffed up duvet with beautiful freshly laundered duvet cover (that you can change every week, btw, completely changing the look of the room). My sister-in-law is from Denmark and there they sleep in some sort of comforter sleeping bags, that are closed at the bottom and sides. That I couldn’t do.
Kerry says
Laura, your post couldn’t be more timely for me. Bouquet, my service dog, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia recently, and despite treatment I had to euthanize her only six days later. When I’ve tried to put into words what it is like without her, I often used words that my friends use when their guide dog has died – similar to your words. It’s reassuring that I can “travel independently without her”, but it’s not the same. I’m using this time until I find Bouquet’s successor to observe “evidence based medicine” to quantify my life with her, and without her. I go back and read posts on this site that interest me (as in “things to do after your dog has died” – which gave me great comfort), so I’ll post some of my observations later on the Psychiatric Service Dog blog. Trisha, I remember when I had to leave my dog behind, when it was almost time to go back – I could hardly stand the wait. Wishing you and Jim safe travel!
Alexandra says
I can hardly leave my dogs for a night without missing them. I take my yellow lab virtually everywhere and do everything I can to avoid travel without him. We might have a bit of a co-dependency thing going on.
I like to sleep with a comforter and cover rather than sheets and blankets, too. I’m American but my dad is from Europe originally so I guess that’s why it always seemed normal to me because we always slept that way in my house. I didn’t realize blanket and sheets were an American thing!
Claudia – re: ice in drinks – American tap water is very clean in most places (although I was under the impression it is that way in Europe too and that it was only an issue historically?) and you get free drink refills – what’s not to love! π
LunaGrace says
I love, love, LOVE to travel to foreign countries! Gives one such a different perspective on everything. Where else but England can we Americans realize we don’t really speak “English”? On the plane between England and Scotland, the flight attendant asked me if I “would like oss” in my 7Up? While my mind scrambled wildly trying to figure out what on earth their customs might be … if I said “Yes”, would she pop a piece of pickled herring in my drink? ….. she asked me again if I would like “oss”. I must have looked both confused and frightened because she held up the ICE tongs as she asked me again. (Stupid Americans! Can’t even figure out if they want their drinks cold!)
And overcoming language barriers is sometimes no barrier at all, sometimes monumental. While attempting to purchase a bottle of “vasser (water)” from a street vendor in Munich, she asked me “mit gas?” And, again, that mental scrambling ……… Whaaat? With GAS?!?!?! They put GAS in their water here?! Oh, oh, no …….. CARBONATION! “No, no gas, bitte”.
But, as much as I love to travel, I can only break down and bring myself to do it once every 2 or 3 years because I miss my dog and cats so much while I’m away that it nearly brings me to my knees. I spent a wonderful 4 days tootling around southern England, coming back to and going out from the loveliest little boutique hotel in London. It was okay as long as I was busy touristing and otherwise engaged ….. drive out to Stonehenge and tour Bath, then come back to the hotel and sob my way through the night for want of warm little furry bodies on the bed. Spend the day riding the double decker red bus around London and at the Tower of London, come back to the hotel and cry myself sick at night. On the last night there, another woman who was on the same tour knocked on my door to ask if I’d like to join her for a drink and was shocked to find me red-eyed and puffy-faced; immediately asked if I were ill. I just couldn’t bring myself to tell her the truth —- that I missed my pets that much —- so I blubbered out that I was “homesick”, and she immediately understood.
Well, my pets ARE “Home” to me. I love to go, but I love to come back home again. Especially if the pets can’t go with me. And the critters must feel the same way because I can’t walk through the house without having them all wrapped around my ankles the first few days I am home again.
LunaGrace says
To Mirelle – It IS such an automatic response with Siberians, to brace against that lunge at the end of the leash, that it’s a difficult habit to break if you ever walk another breed of dog. After 30+ years of Siberian Huskies, I recently took my Karelian Bear Dog out of the kennel pen and put the leash on him. And nearly threw myself over backwards to the ground when I automatically BRACED for that hit at the end of the leash. Which he didn’t. But he sure would’ve wondered what I was doing, lying on the ground, when we were all ready to go for a walk!
Laura says
At Kerry,
I am so sorry to hear about Bouquet. Just yesterday, I had a good cry, because I missed Marlin, my first guide. I was on the phone with my sister and asked, through tears, why he had to die? Why did he have to get cancer and go away? He’s been gone nearly 5 years now, and sometimes, I trip over grief like a hole in the grass. My Seamus is a great comfort to me in those moments, but I just wanted to say, I know what you’re going through. We’re here if you need to talk, and Seamus sends tail wags and kisses.
Claudia says
@Alexandra – oh, I know it’s clean in the sense that I wouldn’t expect it to have any Cholera or Leishmaniasis in it – but that’s because it is so chlorinated it tastes like bleach. Seriously – y’all like frozen bleach in your coke? Ugh. haha. π
Trisha says
Home Sweet Home!!! I do really love to travel, but oh oh oh, it is soooo wonderful to be home, pet the dogs, smell Willie’s head, purr to the cats, cuddle with Tootsie…. I could go on and on. But you all understand, so I just say: Great Trip, Great to be Home.
Frances says
Enjoy your homecoming!
I love duvets – and one reason is that it makes it so easy for an animal or two to join me if it gets really cold. On one occasion when I was 13 I woke up to my Siamese cat popping the last of a litter of five kittens into bed with me before going off hunting for the rest of the night…
HFR says
Trish…Have you seen this yet?
Bryony Francis says
@claudia, I love your post of 16th November. Agree completely on the ice. No one would want waiters/waitresses to automatically put sugar in tea (or coffee) and the same goes for ice. It should be offered but not assumed. I have sensitive teeth!
@Trisha, on duvets/comforters, we Brits stole them from Northern Europe, I think. I grew up with sheets, blankets and bedspreads until the age of 11 but my goodness, the wrinkles! And one easily becomes all tangled up in them. Duvets all the way. Different “togs” or weights accommodate different seasons – 10 tog for summer and 13 for winter as my 200 year old cottage in the Welsh borders is far too draughty for anything less.
Congratulations on your homecoming. Did you get the feeling the dogs couldn’t believe their eyes for a second?
Nicola says
I was in hospital for 11 weeks altogether this year – 3 weeks, then 8 weeks. The first three weeks were the hardest – I hadn’t been away from my dogs AT ALL in 5 years, added to which two of my dogs are over 14 years old. I was very sad that by the end of the 8 weeks I had started to get used to being away from them. But the joy of coming home!!!!!
My border collie & kelpie x saw their first sheep last weekend – initially they wanted to chase (never a good idea on a sheep farm), but the sheep didn’t run, and actually walked towards the dogs – who promptly returned to me. Later on I was practicing recalls and two sheep actually approached – I’m guessing they were bottle lambs or had been hand fed, they had that expectant look. I was so grateful that the sheep didn’t run & the dogs learnt to ignore sheep in favour of my treats – it means I can be much more relaxed on farm stays!