Grey pony had his first dressage competition yesterday.  Saturday had consisted of a flurry of tack, trailer and pony preparation.  There was a list as long as my front leg of things that could go wrong ranging from him refusing to go into the horsebox to eating all the decorative edging of the arena.  In the end it was something silly that happened.  Aunty Biscuit was in charge of spectating so was following later.  This turned out for the best because on arrival at the showground Mum discovered that the bag with the bridle and girth in it had been left behind.  A quick phone call was made, Aunty Biscuit turned up at ours to pick the bag up thus interrupting our midmorning snooze and away she went.  For someone who would normally be unable to navigate her way out of a paper bag she did very well to find the place without getting lost, thus enabling pony to warm up and compete.  He is now the proud owner of a very pretty rosette and Mums stress l ...

Mums friend Sean came to see us.  He arrived tired after a long journey to be told in no uncertain terms that he needed a haircut, Mum couldn’t offer to do it as the collie had blunted the clipper blades, so they all trouped off somewhere.  He arrived back looking well trimmed and passed muster.  I would have thought they would have kept the hair to spin into something but Mum said its best not to.  I was a bit nervous of him at first as I’ve only met him once before and couldn’t quite remember him.  He gave me some space, then an ear rub and a tummy rub so now I’m happy with him and hopefully I’ll be able to scrounge a couple of treats off him.  I think next time he comes he’s going to bring Mum a fleece to clean and spin.  I suspect Aunty Biscuit will have the cleaning bit as she has the equipment. 

Well, we are into August so we are keeping an eye on how various items are growing and ripening.  The rowan berries are coming along well for jellies, hawthorn berries also.  The alpine strawberries are very small and are only a couple of plants so are eaten raw.  Redcurrants have been made into jelly and the remainder frozen, tragically the birds devoured a tree full of cherries apart from one small crumble, otherwise it would have been a bumper crop, Mum was so disappointed, she should have been quicker at working out a way of picking them.  I think the gooseberries are nearly ready but she’s not sure what she’s doing with it yet.  Maybe she could put them with the rhubarb?  Round at Aunty Biscuits the rasperries are ready.  Sadly none of this will be eaten by us dogs.

Aunty Biscuit has been in the process of knitting an intermittent jumper.  I initially thought that this was a particular technique like for example intarsia, especially as it seems to involve the use of three knitting needles.  I have finally got round to looking it up on woofapedia – its not.  It is a system where you do a bit, then put it to one side for a while, then do a bit more.  The three needles comes into it because it is a striped jumper so you do the back and front at the same time.  You then collect more part balls of yarn before continuing, all very baffling for a little dog.  It has reappeared so is clearly at the" come out and do a bit more" stage and very colourful it is too.

Its bad enough that they have been doing things with penguins.  It now transpires that they are doing something for Halloween, I’m not allowed to tell you what as it’s a trick or treat surprise.  I suspect that it will be slightly creepy and a surprise to them!  Given Aunty Biscuits view of spiders I’m not too sure whether they will feature either.

Mum likes to do a dolls Christmas jumper most years.  As described earlier this years discussion was between penguins and polar bears even though in my humble opinion its months away yet.  Penguins won.  The initial sketches, drawing and chart has now been done and prototype knitted.  The beak did come in for much debate, whether to go for knitted in, swiss darned or knitted separately.  They have settled on a separate beak it’s a bit fiddley.  The prototype is soooo cute.  I will attempt to sneak a picture of it onto my post, but don’t tell Mum.

Aunty Jo came to visit us the other day.  She turns up now and again and we are always pleased to see her on several fronts.  She likes dogs and is always prepared to pet us and provide tummy rubs.  Sometimes she takes us out for a bonus walk although sadly not this time.  When she turned up she brought fish and chips for tea.  There were a few left over scraps of fish (minus batter) that found their way into our bowls – yum.  She had been up to collect her horse to take him to his new home in somewhere called Lincolnshire.  From what Mum says he is now settled in well which is good news and we wish him well.

Aunty Biscuit collected the vegetable drill for mum as mentioned in my catalogue blog.  She also bought her an experimental courgette as a present so she can stuff it.  To clarify this is with edible things as opposed to the stuffing that goes into their crafting items.  Even better she brought us a bone each.  On the way to collect these various items Aunty Biscuit reports that a deer ran across the road in front of her.  I was a little disappointed that she didn’t run after it and catch it but she says it was too far away and its very naughty to catch them.  I suppose that deer run a lot faster than middle aged ladies.

After his tea grey pony generally eats a single purple top off a thistle plant.  He has a particular favourite plant that he prefers....

Occasionally Mum and Aunty Biscuit will arrive back with a fast food burger meal.  Despite feigned nonchalance we keep a close eye on them although we are not allowed any titbits from them as they are very bad for us.  They brought one back yesterday evening.  This evening Mum put a bin bag with the mortal remains outside temporarily as there was more to put in it.  Aunty Biscuit shut us in the garden for a few minutes.  Realising we were suspiciously quiet she looked out.  Collie had her head in the fast food bag, Harrier was legging it across the lawn with an empty dog food pouch and I was busy cleaning a foil dog food tray.  We weren’t quick enough to come up with plausible excuses so got tutted at.  We feel the time spent in the fresh air walking round the lawn retrieving these and other items must have been good for her.