What a difference a week makes.

Sadly,  just as I thought Shaggy was improving, he took a real turn for the worse and we have unfortunately lost him today.  He'd been up and down all week really but over the weekend he deteriorated to the point where he was having seizures and collapsing and losing control of his bladder.  He was struggling to breathe and we had to make that decision that all pet owners fear and dread.  We stayed with him whilst he went to sleep and although we are all heart-broken and will miss him terribly, we know we made the right choice.  I thought I would dedicate this week's post to Shaggy, in pictures, when he was in his prime.

Looking good there Shaggy

At Robin Hood's Bay with Mason and me

A Life on the Ocean Wave!

Paddling

Having a good old shake after all the paddling

Run free at the Rainbow Bridge Shaggy.

Is it finished yet?

My Red 'jeans Cardigan that is.  The short answer is NO.  The longer version involves descriptions of flu-like symptoms, snotty nose, hacking cough, being off work sick and generally not having the energy to do much in the way of knitting.  Actually, the knitting bit is finished, I need to sew in the ends, get a button and then I'll be wearing it.  On the whole I have enjoyed knitting it as much as I did the last one but it has got a bit tiresome towards the end and I'm looking forward to starting something new.

Last Saturday, amidst the aforementioned flu-like symptoms, I took Michael back to Uni in York.  We went and did some grocery shopping first, then drove through to York in the afternoon.  On arrival, I noticed that most other students being dropped off by parents/friends/whoever, seemed to have all their belongings in only one or two bags or suitcases.  Why then did we have a car-load of belongings and shopping that would see a small third world village right for the next 3 months?  I have come to the conclusion that my son is a pack-rat.

It's been fun and games with the dog this week...well, not really but that's one of those odd figures of speech we use isn't it?  Anyhow, the background is that Shaggy has been limping quite badly since before Christmas and I had been to the vets with him who said she thought he might have arthritis and gave him some medication which seems to have eased it a bit.  Whilst Michael was home, Shaggy spent most of his time upstairs and apparently forgot to eat (the Vet thinks he may have Altzheimers too - more on that in another post I think!).  I hadn't really seen much of him, being up in Michael's room as he was, so was quite shocked to see him looking even thinner than before and seeming very frail.  He wouldn't eat his normal dry food, so it was off to Pets at Home to buy special 'Senior' food, wet stuff in pouches that is easier to digest apparently.  You'll be happy to hear that he is now eating again...quite enthusiastically as it happens.  My purse however is not so happy as this other food is quite a bit more expensive than Bakers Complete!  Together with the regular cost of the medicines that he will need to take for the rest of his life, he's turning into a bit of an expense.   What can you do though?  We love him, which is just as well because he has been a real pest this week.

Here he is asleep, with his tongue sticking out as he does nowadays.  He does look funny when he wakes suddenly and looks up with his tongue poking out at us.

"I might look asleep, but just look at the tongue out in concentration, the ear pricked up alert to potential intruders. "]

Post-a-week 2011 Challenge.

I've decided that I'm going to take part in Dailypost's  postaweek2011 challenge and blog every week during 2011.  Sometimes it may be difficult to think of what to say but I'll use the resources on the dailypost site for inspiration if necessary.  Sometimes I may have so much to tell you that I post more than once in a week (I doubt that though as I'm not the world's most prolific blogger!)

I hope anyone who reads my posts will encourage me along the way with some comments.

So, here it is, the first of my regular weekly posts just to get me started.

First up - my new shoes.  These arrived at work in today's post from Hottershoes.  The brown ones are Navajo in Tan combi and the boots are Verdi in Black Croc.  I already have a pair of these in brown croc and I can walk miles in them, they fit like gloves.

Seriously, Hotter do the comfiest shoes in the whole world.  I've never been a shoe fanatic because I can't wear fashion shoes with high heels, they just hurt me too much.  Comfy shoes are not usually anything to get excited about so in the past, I have tended to get a pair and keep them till they're falling apart and then I have to buy more.  Since discovering Hotter, I now love shoes.  They're not high fashion, high heels but then again that's not really me anyhow.  They are however good quality and stylish and most important of all, I feel good in them and that makes them worth every penny in my eyes.

Happy New Year.

Resolution number one - blog more often!

I hope you've all had a lovely Christmas break. We've been very lazy and its been wonderful. Lots of sleeps in, full English breakfasts and sitting watching The Ashes. I'm not really a cricket fan, far too complicated for me! Patrick is though and I have absolutely no objection to sitting on the sofa all day eating chocolates and knitting whilst the cricket, sky-plussed the previous night, plays on in the background :-).  The spooky thing is that during the last Ashes series, I knitted my purple Mr Greenjeans and what do I find myself knitting during this Ashes? Yep, my red Mr Greenjeans!  It's almost finished, thank goodness as I'm losing the will to live now, it seems to have been going on forever but I really want to finish it before I start anything else.  For Christmas from my sons, I got the books New England Knits and Alice Starmore's Fishermens Sweaters, they are gorgeous and I'm dying to knit something from either one of them.

Happy New Year to everyone.  May your knitting adventures continue (or even start maybe?)

Journey to work.

This is one of the main roads into Hull this morning. Then after an uneventful journey...I got stuck in the car park at work and had to dug out!

Weekend in Cropton.

Well, we're back home safe and sound after our lovely weekend away.  It was just what we needed, relaxation!  The cottage was beautiful and the owner Mike, couldn't have been more helpful.  Even down to getting his 4x4 out to tow us off the yard on Monday morning when our car was stuck in the very deep snow.  There was a wood burning stove in the inglenook fireplace and we made great use of that all weekend.  Very cosy and romantic :-).

We took books to read and I had plenty of knitting with me, oh and biscuits and chocolates of course :-)

My dream holiday

Now, coincidentally this happened to be the weekend of the Cropton Beer Festival.  We didn't know this when we booked the cottage - no one believes us of course but it's true.  Naturally, we were very happy to discover it, but we genuinely didn't know about it when we chose that weekend. Our plan, as such, was that we would just chill out and relax, pop to the pub a couple of times and stay in and cook one of the three nights we would be there.

So, after staying in with a bottle of wine and a beef casserole on the Friday night, on Saturday, after a hearty full English breakfast, we set off for a walk in the snow around the village.  It really was a winter wonderland, so beautiful.

The view from the Cottage window

Sheep in a field

The New Inn, Cropton

Naturally, after all the exercise, we felt we had earned a couple of beers so it was off to the beer festival.  We got there just as it had opened for the day so had the run of the bar in the marquee specially set up for the purpose.  Just take a look at all those pumps!  That's only half of the bar in the picture.

"We'll just start at one end and work our way down shall we?"]

I'm not going to bore you by listing all the beers we had over the weekend, suffice to say we tried a fair few between us!  My particular favourite was Cropton's Blackout.  A fabulous rich Porter which is produced from a 1930's recipe.  It's like chocolate in a glass....yum yum.  There was also a Biker's Rally on over the weekend and about 50 motorcylists had braved the elements for the event and many were camped in the field behind the pub.  Yes, that's right, camped!  As in tents and sleeping bags!  I was astounded that people would even consider camping in that weather but the ones we spoke to assured us that they were snug and warm.  I'll take their word for it I think.  We were also surprised to see how many other visitors there were from Hull.  We met people we know and saw quite a few others who we know by sight from The Wellington Inn in Hull.

On Sunday, we had a very lazy day and actually didn't move from in front of the fire all day.  I enjoyed some knitting and finally finished my Woolly Wormhead mystery hat B, just in time for the end of November!  I also made a dent in my Red 'jeans cardigan and am pleased with they way that's coming along now.  I'll blog about and put pictures of my hat up when I can get some nice ones.

On Monday lunchtime when we came to leave, we found the car well and truly stuck in deep snow.

There's a car under there!

I had to sweep the snow off!

Mike the cottage owner got his 4x4 out to try to tow us out but it was a struggle.  We had to dig more snow from under the wheels and try several times.  Eventually we got moving and once we were on the road, it was fine.  Fine, until we got within spitting distance of home.  Part of the road to Beverley was closed and we had to take a diversion, through little villages and country roads.  It got a bit hairy at one point when we couldn't actually tell where the road ended and the ditches began!  I would have taken a photo but I was too scared.  I also thought it might piss Patrick off since he was the one trying to keep us on the road at the time.  I know if I'd been driving and he'd got his camera out, I'd have felt like ramming it down his throat. :-D.  We were very relieved to see the main road in front of us, relatively clear of snow, leading to the main Beverley bypass.  We stopped in Beverley at The Green Dragon, for some lunch and then made our way home for a quiet night in.

A truly lovely weekend break.  Why are they always over too quickly though?

Cropton in the snow.

We are having a weekend away in the village of Cropton in North Yorkshire and I think we're in real danger of being snowed in! I mean, just look at it.     :-) :-)