Remembering Winnie - and her garden

The Lady Of The House here,  making a brief return to the blog to give you a gardening update.

Those of you who shared Winnie's adventures with us will remember that a zoom around the back garden was an essential part of her daily routine, resulting in this....

That blue pole thing the Man Of The House is standing beside is our rotary clothes drier, by the way.

Early attempts to dissuade her proved ineffective and we soon realised that the look of  pure joy on her face as she raced and cavorted meant that the lack of lawn seemed a small price to pay.

It's nearly ten months now since we lost her.

Monkey - who joined us in April - only makes one brief 7am trip into the garden each day to take care of business and can't wait to get back in the house. He loves his three walks a day but has no desire to spend any time in the garden at all. He also doesn't do zoomies. So the garden looks a bit different these days. The rotary clothes drier is wearing its autumn cover too.

Here's a funny thing......

There was just one particular spot, in the dirt track she created, where Winnie loved to dig. 

When she died we decide to plant a ballerina apple tree in it. But you can see that it's been joined by a few other items that we haven't planted.

The sunflower has probably grown from a seed put out for the birds on the nearby bird table. I've never seen one with so many heads on one single stem. I've counted 14 today.

Winnie left her mark on the garden - and on our hearts.  The grass has grown again but I think it's always going to be Winnie's garden. And she'll always be in our hearts too.

Last of the summer whine

 

I know it was time to go to the toilet . . .  but I could have waited until the rain stopped.

 

 

I may well sulk for the rest of the day . . .

 

 

and you've not dried my ears properly yet.

A weight off my mind

Just a quick update on Monkey and the vet.
The visit was prompted by Monkey's habit of sometimes skipping a meal and what we thought may have been a weight loss.
The weight loss thought was brought about by a visit to one of the many country shows held around here at this time of year. At this particular one a vets' practice had turned up with some electronic scales and so we thought we'd pop Monkey on just for a quick check as we'd been concerned regarding the skipping of meals.
The scales registered 25kg (roughly) almost 4kg down from when he arrived with us and we had a check up at our own vets.
Given this figure we decided to take him to our own vet even though he wasn't really showing any signs of weight loss.
Sometimes when you're around someone all the time you don't notice gradual increases or decreases in weight that a person who hasn't seen you for a long time might notice immediately. Well that's my excuse anyway.
Happily though at the weigh-in at our vet Monkey had actually gained rather than lost weight - more exercise needed Monkey.
I had been trying to get Monkey to take his meals in the kitchen before walks. Given the worry the first weight reading produced I have quit this and now put his food down by - if not on, in a dish of course - his day bed after our walks and leave it for a while to give him time to decide if he wants to eat or not. So far this seems to be working and we are throwing less food away and have no worries about him losing weight by not eating.
The vet also gave him a good going over and everything else seems to be fine as well.

 



The LOTH is now threatening me with the scales so I think that 'walkies' will be a brisker affair for the pair of us.

 

Personally, I find taking pictures at this angle is quite flattering