Friday 31 October 2008

Too much watching Mishka? ..and a Touch Typist?

Maybe Lara has been watching Mishka too much?




And her computer skills are coming on a treat...


Wednesday 29 October 2008

Well, it was a half-day after all

I had to collect Lara from nursery after lunch today, they reported she had the squits and we needed to take her home and we can't bring her back in for 48 hours after the runs stop. We're going to miss Monday anyway as we'll be up North, but it's a pain for Friday. It's rather surprising too, as she acts absolutely fine, as happy as ever she's been (even between 4.40 and 5.40 this morning!).
I took some photos of her (and of Mishka) this morning when the weather was chilly, to say the least. They are in the New Uploads web album (or get to them from the slideshow on the left as usual) but I particularly liked this one, after I'd messed with it in Picassa:


OK, and one of Mishka just to maintain the balance:

It'll be work for us today, then

Sadly the snow didn't fall all night, and whilst it's still lying there now, it won't last too long. It'll be nice when I take Mishka out in a few minutes though.

Tuesday 28 October 2008

Woohoo Snow

I don't know about everywhere else, but it's snowing in Wycombe tonight! In fact it's snowing hard enough that they've abandoned the football league match down the road at Adams Park, maybe a mile or two from here. It'll have to snow all night to cover the grass in the back garden - now I wish I had cut it weeks ago, but the decking is already covered, so if nothing else we'll go into work late tomorrow (if we can get in at all - there are three good hills between here and work) and play with Lara and Mishka in the garden. A proper photo opportunity!

Monday 27 October 2008

Holiday time!

We've been hoping to arrange a few days holiday for some time now, life's been very hectic for ages, and we just wanted to go somewhere nice and relax. I found a cottage today on a last-minute cottage website on the South Devon coast which looks exactly what we have been looking for. We had hoped to go away for Lara's birthday but that week looks really busy for us at work, and we just want to get away sooner rather than later, so we're off for 3 nights here from the 17th November. It's on an organic farm, right on the coast, and we're looking forward to going for some walks during the day with Mishka, then just relaxing in front of the woodburner with a large brandy in the evenings. The fact it's in an open-plan, brand new cottage where Lara can crawl around to her heart's content (apart from near the woodburner!) is just a bonus.

Lara must be growing

Lara must be growing, tonight we've lowered the level of the matress in her cot, to remove any chance of her trying to climb out when she wakes in the night - she was already getting good at pulling herself up the sides of the cot; Armstrong by name, armstrong by nature.
She's sleeping better now too, which is bound to be famous last words, but again last night she slept through till 5.15am, which on a "school day" is only 45 minutes before we get up anyway.

Sunday 26 October 2008

Apples, anyone?

I had to admit defeat in trying to mow the back lawn yesterday afternoon, it's just too long at the moment, and too damp underneath. Also there is a carpet of fallen apples, which I was planning to just mow into the grassbox as I went along. I got precisely nowhere, but not wanting to waste the time in the garden, I decided to bite the bullet and try to pick up the fallen apples. Considering the tree still has many apples still attached, this year must have been a bumper year for the apple crop. I got Olga to guestimate the weight of one of the bags of apples that I took to our new recycling bin, and using Lara's weight as a guide, we reckoned this bag was around 12kg. Well, it was the last of 5 bags that I had collected! 60kg of apples, or around 130lbs... I went to Asda later for a buy-in, and noticed that a kilo of Cox's apples is £1.28.
We agreed we will try harder next year to collect them as they fall and before they rot on the ground. Anyone visiting next summer WILL enjoy the apple sauce, apple pie, apple crumble, hopefully cider, and any other apple-based products they are offered, OK!

GMT already!?

I was a bit thrown this morning, I thought the clocks would go back next weekend. I'd stayed in Lara's room for much of last night to allow Olga to get some decent sleep, and it was my turn to look after Lara this morning. So when Lara woke and was clearly ready for breakfast, I checked the clock in her room and it said 7.30, which meant she'd actually had a good lie-in, as recently she's been wanting breccy between 5.30 and 6.30.
Anyway, I took her up to our room, and checked the radio-controlled clock we have in there and sure enough, it said 6.30. I wasn't convinced until I went back to the nursery and turned the news on and saw the clocks had gone back!
It worked out well in the end though, as we are normally quite slow to get going on Sundays, but even after giving Lara a bath, then her porridge & yoghurt, feeding Mishka, Olga having her shower and taking Mishka for a walk, then coming back and cooking us a nice big fry-up, it was still only "10.30"... This is why I have the time to write these blog posts and update the webalbums with some new photos. Lara and I will be off to the pub for at 1pm to watch the Chelsea v Liverpool game, which is why she's got her Liverpool kit on in the new photos.

Poor Old Mishka

No sooner has Lara recovered from her lurgy (sorry, Baba Luda, I mean illness!) than Mishka decides it's his turn to get some attention. Olga had noticed earlier this week that Mishka was behaving slightly strangely, it seemed like he was trying to lick the air around his head! On Wednesday evening I noticed something nasty in his fur on the side of his head, below his ear. By Thursday evening he was scratching this area a lot, so on Friday we took him to the vets, and either a cut or an insect bite has become infected, and he has a badly affected patch of skin about the size of a £2 coin. The vet shaved this affected area so we can get to it to clean it, and apply some magic gel, and Mishka's also on antibiotics now, but to top it all off, he needs to wear one of those radar dishes as much as possible over the next few days to prevent him from scratching the affected area. He really didn't like it on Friday evening, and we let him sleep without it then, but as of yesterday he's wearing it all the time apart from when we take him on walks. He's off into kennels next Saturday morning until Monday afternoon, so we hope it will have cleared up by then. Imagine the embarrassment he'll feel in front of other dogs if he has to go in looking like this:


It's also taking him some time to get used to getting through doorways and between furniture, and while he's got it on we dont' let Lara play with him in case he accidentally hits her with his "dish".

An Autumn Visitor

Olga had a visitor while I was in Houston, well at least next-door's back garden had a visitor - the first Monkjack deer for sometime. He or she looks very healthy considering it lives in a fairly built-up area. While I was in Houston hunting was a much-discussed topic amongst the menfolk, as deer hunting season starts next month. I tried to find out how they woulsd react to this situation, but I suspect I already know the answer, although they'd have to wait until the deer strayed onto their property before shooting it. Two of the guys I spoke with (both in their 50s) hunt with bow and arrows as well as rifles! Texans, eh!
Anyway, full marks to Olga for shooting this with nothing more harmful than a Canon 10D with a 90mm lens at 1/90th second exposure.



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