Dogs, scything and chilling

After the super unusual and actually quite stressful day yesterday I have had a much more enjoyable and relaxing day today and I sit here, post dinner, just starting to write this and I expect this blog to be far easier to write. I was so tired last night that when I got to bed I pretty much fell asleep straight away and only woke briefly in the middle of the night to see some messages on my phone but then was straight back to sleep again.

Lovely clear start to the day, welcomed by us all

At around 5.30 I woke up desperate for the toilet and was unable to hold it in so I jumped out of bed and out of  Julian to get to the toilet. As I jumped out I saw two things. First off all both the boys were up and standing by the gate, as if it was time for them to come out and secondly the sun was just coming up and looking amazing over the mountains across the valley. I put my desperation aside and grabbed the camera for a few pictures.

The mist came up; half an hour later

Obviously there were some ructions when I walked away from the boys, and then more when I returned and went into Julian without letting them out. It was way too early for me to be up however. Rambo howled (and pulled a pretty impressive shape doing so, I must say, but he shut up soon and then I went back to sleep after laying there thinking and watching the sun outside. I know I slept because the next time I looked outside there was mist and the clear morning was no more. It had only been half an hour while I had dozed but that was enough. I was back into bed again after this and another hour or so of sleep was achieved before I finally decided that getting up was needed.

Still waiting for me

I could see, looking through the little window at the end of Julian, that both the boys were still out sat by the gate and waiting for me to emerge. Sadly I didn't have my zoom so the exposure on this isn't great and my photoshop skills aren't up to the challenge of fixing it so yeah. I had a plan this morning to try and take Ralf for a walk before feeding him - we are trying different things to get him comfortable and settled and this was the next idea after feeding them together yesterday.

Ralf refusing to be walked

I went upstairs and grabbed an orange juice carton as I didn't want to wait to make and drink a cup of tea before going outside to start the morning. I went out to the enclosure and let them out and grabbed their bowls but I only fed Rambo, taking Ralf out with me and locking the door. I had put Ralf on his lead when I first got them out, so I could control him and stop him trying to eat Rambo's food, but that just caused Rambo to go a bit nuts as he saw the lead coming out and he loves his walkies, and he wasn't really happy at being put in the enclosure either. He barked until I went out of sight, with Ralf walking behind me on his lead, to go and lock up before heading out. I think went down the bank and across the lower field with Ralf following me but he was very reluctant now and every couple of steps he laid down with his head turned away from me. I stopped, stroked him and he stood up but then repeated this over and over until I decided that there was something going on here and I shouldn't force him. I took his lead off and he bounced around, then legged it up to the enclosure where Rambo had finished and was quite keen to get out.

First small bit of scything

I walked back to the house, got Ralf's breakfast, and put it down in the middle of the patio and called him and he came running and started eating. I walked over and got Rambo out and by the time he got up there, Ralf had finished so there was no problem. With my morning walk a bust I headed upstairs and put the kettle on and made some bacon and eggs on toast for my on breakfast. I then had about half an hour before the rugby was due to start so I decided to go out and do some scything in that time. First of all I quickly went around a patch of long grass in the corner of the patio; this will have to be re-paved at some point.

Scything under the trees

I then went to do what I had planned the night before; the smell from the flowers around this area is quite intense though I think a lot is coming from the tea trees, and I was considering leaving a wild patch under these trees for this smell, and only clearing a metre or so by the side of the path to stop the grass falling over into the flower bed. When I got down there, however, I found that the grass on this side was very straggly and the flowers were small and probably not contributing much to the smell. I decided to clear it all anyway and this I did. It did not take me long and while I was doing it I was treated to the sight of the gypsy farmer running his horse down the lane followed by the foal; unfortunately I didn't have anything to hand to capture this sight - it was pretty impressive.

Being watched while I work

All the while I was being watched by the boys who do seem to love seeing a man working. They did walk on the flower bed a bit which I told them off about, gently, but I'm not sure what I can do really - they whole land is so overgrown that at the moment it will be hard for them to recognise where they should be and where they shouldn't walk. Anyway, they were being friendly with each other, and Ralf was coming for cuddles when called, so that was all good.

Itchy bites

Having done the small amount of scything I was targeting (it was tough today, under the trees makes getting a good swing going quite tough and you are often having to work at weird angle with tight spaces) I returned for a brew and to watch the final England test against the All Blacks. I wish I had stayed outside for the first half as we were terrible, though I was unexpectedly joined online so got a nice chat in. The other day I commented on the number of mosquitoes which were flying around while I was doing the weeding; while I was sat there I snapped this picture of one side of my leg which has 12 bits on it.

The second half was better and then it was time for lunch which ended up being fish finger butties (oh, the healthiness, I know) and then I thought I would go and do more scything while playing with the boys a bit. I got outside and a few spots of rain started to fall so first I put the camera down in the dry and then just went for it as quickly as I could until I was out of the cover of the trees and was starting to get rained on more than I wanted to risk. I went inside and about five minutes later I was pretty relieved as it started howling down with rain.

A new living area has been opened up for me

It was just about time for the cricket to start by this time so I decided that I would take the laptop out onto a chair in front of the sofa and sit on the sofa with my book, and a rug, and read and watch it and chill out while I waited for the weather to clear. I really enjoyed this, and read quite a lot of my book, but then my eyelids started drooping so I put it down, lay down, and fell asleep for about an hour. I woke up with a stiff neck and the need for a brew, but feeling refreshed.

The rain blows away

The weather had also cleared slightly and while I was making my brew I was able to appreciate the sight of blue sky blowing in behind the clouds. This didn't last much and pretty soon after it was overcast and grey again but the rain did not return after this point. It was only as it started raining that I remembered that my distraction this morning with trying to walk Ralf had caused me to forget to do my watering round. I am a creature of habit and that broke my routine.

I stayed sat on the sofa for a while after waking up and at one point glanced out the back windows to see a shocking sight; Ralf was out the back, off my land, and running happily along the fence line. It is a good thing I glanced up at this point as he quickly moved out of view. I threw my slipons on and legged it out the back door but Rambo saw me and ran along the inside of the fence barking and hollering and by the time I got up to where I'd last seen Ralf he was gone; no where to be seen. I went down the bank a bit towards the track but still no sign.

I was quite concerned as he is a young dog who would run to the sheep and maybe get attacked by the sheep dog so I went back in, putting my rock sandals on that allow me to move better, and then locking Rambo in the enclosure so he couldn't bark and scare Ralf off from the other side of the fence. I went out the main gate, round the side and up to the top where I had seen him last and, as I emerged, he came running along towards me. I stopped, dropped onto my haunches, and called him and he came over straight away, wagging his tail. I stroked him, talked quietly, and then picked him up and carried him to the side gate.

When I got back in I let him go then walked over to let Rambo out but then I remembered I had legged it out of the vehicle gate and left it open in case he ran back inside. I grabbed Ralf again and carried him so he couldn't run out while I was closing it, then put him down and again he rain fast off to see Rambo. After I let Rambo out, however, they started snarling and barking and for the first time I thought Rambo might actually be about to attack Ralf so I grabbed him and told him off quite severely, making sure he was looking me in the eye, then put him in his enclosure while I played with Ralf for a bit. I let him out after five minutes and he had calmed down and was happy to play nicely again. I think Rambo needs to not react to Ralf, to rise about it, and when he does this Ralf stops and calms down himself.

With this excitement I realised that I could no long let Ralf run the land unsupervised so I encouraged him inside the house then shut the door so he couldn't go outside and went upstairs myself to sit on the sofa and resume watching the cricket and reading. Ralf was somewhere else running around and after a while he crept up the stairs as if he thought he was in trouble and snuck along the corridor sniffing everywhere. I got the video of him acting like this and after that, he went on the balcony then, when I encouraged him off there, he curled up on a pile of rubble at the far end of the corridor and was very content to stay there.

Pears on my favourite tree

While I was out rounding him up from the balcony I remembered about the pears that I had spotted on my favourite tree yesterday so I got my zoom lens to get a picture. I don't know how ripe they are but it would be nice to collect them and make something, maybe a crumble or something, so as to get the most out of the produce the land is producing naturally. I also need to harvest my cherries before they fall and are waste.

Ralf waiting for me to sit down

It started to become a bit chilly around this time, and I was about to start preparing my dinner, so I called Ralf inside and then shut the door to Room 13 to keep the heat in. He went and sat under my desk and was happy there for a fair while as I chopped and prepared my vegetarian pasta (enforced as I had no meat defrosted to add). He became very interested in the compost waste box which I kept opening to put onions outers and bean ends in, but I didn't let him go inside.

Sleeping on me now I had sat down

While the food was cooking I sat back down and he curled up by my feet and fell asleep. At first he was ok but when he had moved round to the other side he started shivering and quivering really badly, though I am sure he was still asleep. I could feel him vibrating as he was lying actually against my leg.

And now comfortable on my lap

It got so bad that I thought he was either cold, or having a nightmare, so I started to stroke him and he woke up and then very happily climbed onto my lap and there he stayed for a while as I failed miserably to type this blog (famous last words in the first paragraph as it was just after this that he stopped me typing) and once again I'm late with the completion of the blog. He was very happy however and slept happily, resting his head on my arm and cuddling up close. He is starting to feel safe I think.

Another stunning sunset

I had to disturb him at one point when I noticed that the sunset was starting to occur so I put him on the floor and he straight away went to the bin and started licking inside a tin of tuna that was there; it isn't good that he bin dips and also licking a can could cut his tongue so I told him to stop and he did bu then he went back so I move the bin and then went out to snap the sunset. Two in two days; long may this continue.

Looking the other direction

While I was out there I looked across the valley, taking a deep breath and telling myself again out loud just how much I love this place and I do. The view that way was so lovely I had to take a picture and, while I don't always share every photograph with you (a fact I'm sure you are relieved by) here it is, with the sun on the hills and the cloud hugging the tops. Stunning.

Making himself comfortable

When I got back Ralf decided that I was too inconsistent to sit on any more and curled himself up to sleep on my laptop bag which was just on the floor next to my chair. He stayed there for the rest of the evening as I was able to actually start typing again and making progress on this. He fell fully asleep after I took this picture and it was only as the sun went down further and it got darker outside that I disturbed him again to put both he and Rambo into their enclosure for the night. Ralf followed me outside without a hesitation and then, with a brief bark at Rambo, ran directly up the patio and off into the enclosure. Simplicity itself. Rambo I walked with behind giving him attention and then he went in as well. He was howling by the time I got to the house though so I had to go out onto the balcony again to talk to him and then he has stopped.

Tomorrow I will be feeding the boys together and then taking for an early walk, probably Rambo first and then an attempt with Ralf again. It'll be easier when I have two leads and there are two of us walking them.