About June

whoa what a smell

Yeah, we know. It’s not quite the end of the Month, but it is the Last Friday of the month, and so we must put pen to paper and to complete the “Last Word”.

Where has the time gone. Mum still thinks the Time Bandits are knocking around the house in a plentiful amount. We don’t mind ‘cos time is time and what will be will be and all that stuff!

We were busy at the beginning of the month. Us three Scotties went camping with Mum and Dad and the families of their three best friends (with kids …… yeah, noisy right!).

We arrived a day before and stayed a day longer than the two nights the rest of them had booked for. We can’t describe how noisy it was for us, we’re so used to camping with bigger people. The smaller people are a bit too energetic for us. We were told that we had been very good boys throughout – hey! what did they expect.

We camped at a place called The Pudding Room. They had a big field in which several tents, trailer tents, caravans and motorhomes could pitch. Its a pretty basic site: No electricity, only two toilets, both containing a shower – lengthy queues there then, beside a rather noisy road, but, the owner was very welcoming and friendly and overall the four families thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

We’ve not done too much more, other than our usual “morning walks”. Haven’t been groomed (properly) yet as Mum left the grooming bag in Doris, and she’s have some more extended work done to her. So we’re a bit tangled, but hey! do we care – not one little bit. Mum does though. I’m sure we’re in for a torture session soon.

SWAT was launched – funny hey! – but we keep on seeing and hearing such wonderful sights and sounds that we must share with you. So keep an eye out for our SWAT-ting.

We’ve got our own Twitter account, so if you fancy following us on there, then look out for our name :  @sparhawkscottie   we’ve never had so much fun barking, muttering, yapping and whining using only 140 characters. We’ve taught Mum a lot – but she’s still got more to learn.

Just heard that our next “Horder” gathering is nearing completion, we’ll post something later on that; we think it’s in August, but we weren’t listening too well.

Gus has just got told off for helping the birds finish off some cookies Mum put out for them. He’s a right scavenger. Just the other day a young man offered him a crisp (which he, for Gus, politely grabbed!) and since then any male coming towards us Gus thinks has food for him!

We’ll sign off for now. If you “paw” through our blog, you’ll get an idea of what we’ve done during June.

So for now Rooodles to you all.

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S.W.A.T. is here!

Yup, Mum’s now given us yet another name : SWAT Squad. SWAT stands for Sparhawk Wildlife Adventure Team. She thought it up this morning on our usual morning walk. We do have to give credit to theBBC Springwatch team, as we heard them first use the term “adventure team or crew” we don’t remember precisely, (too busy cleaning our feet!) but SWAT works for us and SWAT it will be.

So, what will we be SWAT-ting about. Well, we see lots and lots of wildlife on our morning walks. And we want to bring those sights and sounds to you guys as well. We also see plenty more dogs chasing sticks and balls, which disturb the wildlife – not good, really. We boys are “Wildlife Adventurers” and we walk quietly and stealthily through the woods “hunting” wildlife to “capture” on film. We’ve got loads and loads of it, or really Mum has ‘cos we’re too busy stealthily sniffing around, and our camera angles are all wrong!

Mum was going to create a “category” called “summer sounds”, but we’ve convinced her that that is restrictive – what happens to our collection of sights in the winter? She finally saw the point and has agreed that SWAT will be able to cover all that we come across, not only on our own patch, but when we go touring in our motorhome.

Her “summer sounds” collection began last week (we’ll cover others in a later blog), so for a starter for ten, here’s what we’ve either seen or heard over the last several days of our morning walks:

  • Family of Jays (Mum tried to get a picture, but all she got was trees – the Jays are in there somewhere, finding them will be like the old competition of “spot the ball” so we won’t bore you with that picture)
  • Two Swans returned
  • Long tailed tits
  • Green Woodpecker
  • Heard a Cuckoo
  • Heard a Peacock : the peacock lives in the village. Apparently it has landed on our roof! Good job it didn’t drop into our garden – they are big birds!
  • Heron
  • Nuthatch
  • Heard a pheasant

So all in all, a very productive SWAT-ting – what busy little Scotties we are!

We would love to know what you see on your regular walk. All you need do is drop us a comment – it’s free, we don’t bite, and you’ll have fun sharing your stories.

Just what the . . . .

Floating, walking or heaven forbid: swimming?

At least I’ve not been cartooned – yet. Mum thought I looked weird enough not to “tweak” with me – aren’t I the lucky boy.

Anyway, am I walking or floating (yeah, like a Scottie can float) – or even swimming!!!! anyway take your best shot, and surprise me!

Gus is in biiiiig trouble!

Gus, our gentle-man

Dear Nice FB & Twitter Friends

Gus has just been caught raiding the ……….. woodpile?! of all places. He could’ve chosen any number of nicer things to eat, but what’s with the wood: we don’t know? He’s already had two serious stomach illnesses which required veterinary attention, and made Mum very very worried.

Any ideas on how he can be stopped? Mum would be really pleased to hear from you.

Roooooodles, woofs & wags,  Bobby & Finlay

Mid Week Mentions

Gus, our gentle-man

The dog is a Gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven, not Man’s

(Mark Twain, 1835-1910)

Just a few interesting facts for 15th June

  • 1330 Edward of Woodstock (“The Black Prince”), son of King Edward III and father of King Richard II died. (Born 1376) My fav royal personage just becauses James Purefoy, one of my fav actors, played The Black Prince in a “Knights Tale” (starring Heath Ledger, another of my fav’s sadly now gone)
  • 1983 Derek Anderson, American Footballer, was born

Being Marilyn Monroe . . .

Bobby being Marilyn!

This is Bobby’s “watery” impersonation of the iconic image of Marilyn Monroe and her skirt being blown about in that film we Scotties can’t remember. See how Bobby’s “skirt” (sorry Kilt) is raised up. Which do you prefer?

Plus: look how much water we had to contend with today!

  • 1900 : Hawaii became a United States Territory
  • 1946 : John Logie Baird, Scottish teleivision pioneer died (born 1888)
  • 1962 : European Space Research Organisation established in Paris, later becoming the European Space Agency

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