Where's Winnie?

Good question!

But first of all - Happy Thanksgiving to all my blogger friends across the pond. Hope you have a lovely holiday.

I am right here, where you left me, but my blog writing (and reading) exploits have slowed down to almost a full stop.

It's all the fault of the Lady Of The House, for taking her clothes off - and the Boy Of The House, for being a bit of a superstar.

Back in the summer the LOTH and her friends in the Little Theatre Company decided to do a Calendar Girls-style cheeky calendar in aid of Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. This is because they are doing the play of Calendar Girls in March and wanted to get into the spirit of the play and raise some money to help beat blood cancers. (This is a recap for those who missed the story first time round)

You may know that the original Calendar Girls were members of a Yorkshire Women's Institute group who did traditional "WI poses" - making jam, and baking cakes etc - but without any clothes on. The LOTH and her friends have done 'theatrical poses' instead.

Anyway, it's getting very VERY busy for them now and the LOTH is helping with the Burton Calendar Girls blog and social media and stuff and today she's been setting up a Just Giving page so if anyone further afield would like to support the cause, they can do it easily and securely. The 'girls' (and I use that term loosely) are also making lots of appearances at craft fairs and things to sell their calendars in person.

And what about the BOTH? Well, after he played one of the Lost Boys this summer - when his school did the Stiles & Drewe musical version of Peter Pan - he went along to open auditions to be in a professional panto version of the story in Derby. And he got picked to play John - Wendy's brother. He gets to FLY through the Assembly Rooms on a harness alongside George Sampson (winner of Britain's Got Talent 2008) who is playing Pan, and a great British actor called Larry Lamb who's Mr Darling/Captain Hook.

Rehearsals start this Saturday and the show runs from December 5 to January 6. The LOTH is going to be very busy taking the BOTH to and from rehearsals and performances - and she's been licensed to be a chaperone backstage.

Her work as a writer has got busier and busier too..... but don't worry, I'm still getting two walks a day and lots of hugs and cuddles. It's just that something has to give and it looks like it's my blog for a bit.

I'll try and get the odd word with you on here and on my Facebook Page but thought I'd explain why I'm quieter than usual.

In other news, I was delighted to win this striking pair of matching greyhound drinks coasters in an online auction by Kama's Cave Greyhound Sanctuary recently.

So I thought I'd choose one to send to my good Facebook friend Winnie in Tennessee, who sent me a lovely  greyhound suncatcher last Christmas.

I chose THIS one to send - and I kept the other.

Now we have one each. Tennessee Winnie's mum wrote to say hers arrived JUST in time for Thanksgiving.

I am thankful for your friendship and I'll be back in touch when I can.

P.S: The LOTH says she'd love to hear from any of you who might want to follow or leave comments on the Burton Calendar Girls blog. She says they have some exciting craft projects coming up that some of you you might enjoy.

I'm back

Well, that turned out to be quite a long break from blogging that I wasn't expecting.

The Lady Of The House has been really REALLY busy with lots of projects - and then we had the Queen's jubilee, and the Man Of The House's Birthday, and the Boy Of The House was in a play and the Girl Of The House is shaping up for a new career...... and I still needed to keep up my daily regime of walking, sniffing, eating and sleeping - so blogging ended up taking a back seat.

But now I'm back and happy to report I'm doing fine.

One of the projects the LOTH has been busy with concerns a calendar - and there's a bit of a greyhound connection.

Have you ever seen the film Calendar Girls? A slightly fictionalised account of a real event that happened when some ladies from an English Women's Institute group decided to strip off for a tasteful (but unusually daring) calendar to raise money for a local cancer unit after the death of the husband of one of the ladies from leukaemia?

One of the actresses in it was Annette Crosbie - a real lover of greyhounds in real life who does a lot to campaign for fair treatment for the breed.

Sometimes, as you can see, the media have had a go at her for her viewpoint - but I think this headline (left) was just an excuse to make a 'pun' on the name of one of her most famous TV shows One Foot In The Grave.

In the film there were a few shots of Annette's character with a greyhound and I think it was one of her own dogs. What a nice lady.

Anyway, there's a stage version of Calendar Girls and it's been made available for amateur groups to do for just a short period of time in an effort to get in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most times a play has been performed in one year.

The drama group the LOTH belongs to is going to perform it next March. We don't know yet who will be cast in it - but the LOTH's friend Carol decided it would be great if the ladies of Little Theatre Company did their own Calendar Girls-style calendar to raise money for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research - the charity  funding research into blood cancers.

So the other weekend, the ladies all went down to the local arts centre and shot a series of pictures for the calendar. Here are all the brave ladies with the LOTH at the very front of the line - far left.

The LOTH would love it if any of you would like to follow the progress of the calendar being produced at the blog that Carol is writing - http://burtoncalendargirls.blogspot.co.uk/. The LOTH said they all had a lovely day and there was lots of love and laughter in the air. They will be selling the calendars later in the year through the blog as well as around Burton-on-Trent.


Off to make some belated visits to my favourite pet blogs now. See you all again soon. (I will be keeping MY coat on, I can assure you).