The puppy dog is looming large around here this week. I have writing to finish by Friday, but he is proving a big fat distraction. I threw an old chenille throw in the washing machine yesterday because he'd made it grubby. Went on the school run. Came back to find it had completely disintegrated in the washing machine. Honestly, you've never seen anything like it. The poor machine was beeping and flashing and had put a sad little message in its screen saying SUD. It probably wanted to say WHAT IN THE NAME OF GOD ARE YOU DOING TO ME but it couldn't form the words. So that was the rest of the morning gone, sorting out the hideousness of it all.
Today there's been garden digging, house chewing, oh, you know, all of the things that there are to be done in a puppy's busy day. I bought a new throw. He chewed it. Right now he's lying next to me on the sofa being adorable though so it is all almost forgotten.
What with all the writing and puppy wrangling there hasn't been too much time for reading lately, but I've been enjoying The Dry by Jane Harper. All that searing central Australian heat. Years without rain. Great atmosphere, pressure cooker tension. I'm also reading about forest gardening. A wilder and more natural way of growing. It's effectively building a little ecosystem where everything works together. I'm wondering if it could be implemented in a small way in the garden. What I need is a bit of land, an allotment or something...
I'm thinking it might be time to knit a nice seasonal scarf. This morning was deliciously damp and misty. I am programmed to start knitting when the weather reaches peak autumn. So far we have yellow and red leaves, dewy mornings, spiders, fruitfulness and nights that are longer than days. It's time, no?
Butter just wouldn't melt in that adorable little mouth! x
ReplyDeleteOh lordy, shredded chenille throw, I have an image of your poor washing machine coughing up fur balls from the soap drawer for the next month. Who could be cross with that adorable face with big soulful eyes?
ReplyDeleteHowever are you going until to fit in time for knitting? Maybe the washing machine just used the wrong vowel.
ReplyDelete:)
DeleteI have reserved the book at the library , it looks really great I'm looking forward to reading it- the author's life and how she got published are very inspiring. I hope your own writing goes well. I could imagine the chenille! I do sympathize. Your puppy is adorable! I do enjoy your posts.
ReplyDeleteA lovely post and a wonderful picture of Bertie. Forest gardening sounds interesting. Happy knitting! xx
ReplyDeleteBertie is very lovely but I do not envy you all the chewing. You might have to knit in a separate room... Good luck! x
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely the time to start knitting! How is it that puppies can look so adorable when they are little destroying machines!
ReplyDeleteBertie and balls of wool.....?
ReplyDeleteHas your spider by the bins kept his web intact? I have one by the gate. He only has four legs now but yesterday he caught a bee in his web and was on it for ages. Xx
Nope, bin day today sadly. Pretty good going for only four legs, I'm impressed. You could be right about the whole wool/puppy combination. Maybe people with puppies just don't knit.
DeleteThey do knit. But they do it very high up, well above puppy's heads. And they remember to put the knitted thing somewhere also very high up above puppy's heads because if they don't, the blanket of granny squares they are making gets completely chewed, scrabbled on and generally dragged about until it is unsaveable Xx
DeletePuppies. Not puppy's (auto correct sigh). X
DeleteBecause 'puppy's' take on an altogether different Carry On kind of image :)
DeleteDefinitely knitting time of the year! People with puppies do knit but spend more time unravelling yarn mess... I forgive my dog everything. In fact I am much more forgiving with the dog than I am with the children.... I am glad that Jack is not destroying so much these days, we are grown up. He does like chewing my cheap reading glasses. Wishing you a few hours of peace and quiet so you can get your writing done. xx
ReplyDeleteoh Bertie! he is a great fuzzy lump of adorable but the chewing and the digging? oh my word, he's testing the scope of his cuteness, isn't he?
ReplyDeletewe've had Canada geese flying over in great numbers and a flock of them stopped over for a bit on the pond yesterday...i'd say it's officially knitting time. although i'll be waiting a bit for the mercury to drop...which it's meant to do, quite drastically, over the next couple of days.
i love the idea of forest gardening...but it's a bit daunting...lots of brainwork required....i could probably pull it off here if i could get my head around it. xoxo
How amazing to have Canada geese on the pond, that must have been a wonderful thing to see. The Bewick's swans are on their way from the Arctic tundra now, apparently some have made it as far as Estonia. They will no doubt be arriving in the UK within the next three or four weeks. CJ xx
DeleteI think I'd enjoy that book. I've had bathroom rugs disintegrate in the washer, oh dear, what a huge mess. One of them fell apart in long strands which wrapped themselves around the agitator and I had to saw them off with a serrated knife because my scissors wouldn't go through them. It was ridiculous. Bertie is such a cutie. He looks adorable in every single picture, you'd never know what a wild man he is!
ReplyDeleteThe first thing the washing machine man said to me was, 'Was it a bath mat?' You are not the first I think. CJ xx
DeleteOh that face! I can see why you forgive him so easily. I hope the chenille spread wasn't a family heirloom. Those are the kind we all had when I was a kid.. a longggg time ago. The forest gardening is kind of what we do here on the farm.. there is no rhyme or reason and it all has to make it on it's own.. with the weed yard. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)
ReplyDeleteOh, you definitely have a chewer. My dogs are so old I can barely remember the puppy years. My daughter has a pup and he actually chewed up her entire duvet while she was in the shower one morning. A neighbor at the lake has a very well behaved puppy except he likes to his 'thing' right in the house, as opposed to outdoors. She is really struggling. Hang in there, CJ!
ReplyDeleteThe books sound good. I actually ordered a book after reading in the paper that the author would be a guest at our library next week. She teaches at a college in Chicago. Sadly, I'm halfway into the book and not sure if I care for it. It is a compilation of personal essays. I thought this would be helpful since that's pretty much what I write for the newspapers. I'll go to the reading after I plow through the rest of the book-it can't hurt going to the event no matter.
Jane x
Hey CJ,
ReplyDeleteHoney wasn't a chewer. She was a howler. At 3am for about 6 months. But we forgive them it all. Now she's become an outrageous begged of food in her old age. Olly's littlecfriend gave her all of his popcorn today. It's those eyes. I see Bertie has the same appeal. I like the sound of the book; will have to wish list it.
Leanne xx
Yes definitely time to start the knitting!
ReplyDeleteBertie has certainly perfected the puppy dog eyes look. I mean, butter wouldn't melt. Oh yes, knitting season is here (though the weather in these parts yesterday was positively balmy).
ReplyDeleteOur puppy (well she's 16 months now) is not so bad with the wool. She used to just brazenly grab it when I was using it. Now at least she has the decency to wait til I'm out of the the room. All wool is now kept up high!
ReplyDeleteJillxx
It does feel as if Autumn has arrived. When we were out on a walk this week while staying in Suffolk we saw a puppy dog just like Bertie I just had to stop and say hello. Bertie looks as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. Sarah x
ReplyDeleteI love the colours in that last picture. Nice for a scarf perhaps? But will Bertie ever let it get long enough?
ReplyDeleteHmmm, similar chewing and digging scenes here, although Ziggy is hell bent on tunneling through the rather nice wool rug in the living room. And if he sees a ball of yarn I've had it. Happy days! X
ReplyDeleteYou had me laughing out loud with the SUD story ;o)
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