Still here…..

As the last time I blogged was to wish everyone a Happy New Year, I thought it was about time we let everyone know that we are still alive!

Having settled into our new ‘land-locked widebeam’, we had to vacate on Jan 15th for 2 months, as this is a holiday park and so we are not allowed to be resident for more than 10 months.  So the park closes until March 15th.  We spent the 8 1/2 weeks at my Mum’s (believe me, I counted every one of those 61 days), but the less said about that the better!  We moved out a day early because it was snowing heavily, and we wanted to do the ‘drain-down’ before the weather got too bad (drain-down is what they call it in ‘mobile home speak’ – boater’s of course use the correct term – ‘winterizing’)!

Having survived our forced sojourn, we moved back in on March 16th, having come over and connected everything up again and turned on the water, our fingers crossed and our hearts in our mouths, that the pipes were still intact!  Phew, they were!  We had thought that the weather would be getting a little warmer by the time we came back, but no, it only went and bloody snowed again, and snowed and snowed!!!  Still, we are warm and cosy, and, although we had quite a bit over the course of Saturday and Sunday, we got off lightly compared with some.

Ozzy had a lovely time in the woods where I walk him every day

Ozzy’s version of ‘snow angels’

‘Spot the Dog’ competition – answers on a postcard please

Windsong was booked to come out of the water for blacking on April 5th.  We heard today that work to the crane had been delayed and all crane outs had to be put back by 2 weeks, so now it’s not happening until April 18th.  So our summer cruising will be further delayed.  However, if we get some decent weather before then we may well go out for a few days to get Ozzy used to living on the boat – all he’s had so far is day trips.

 

Happy New Year!

The Night before Christmas…..

I found this on Facebook today, and it’s dedicated to all of you out there who have had to say goodbye to much loved pets this year.  You know who you are….

 

 

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
AT RAINBOW BRIDGE

T'was the night before Christmas, at Rainbow Bridge too.
We Bridge kids were thinking as always of you.
We'd seen how the holidays weren't bright this year,
Heard you whisper so often, "I wish you were here!"

We know how you wish you could just stay in bed
And sleep through the holiday lying ahead,
When all celebrate with their loved ones so near...
Unless they have loved ones on this side this year.

But we're no less alive here, on the other side.
If you could just see us, you would've laughed and not cried.
The dogs all in harness, pulling the sleigh.
The cats all in Santa hats pointing the way.

The pet birds all flying back over the rainbow,
Bound homeward in spite of Earth's darkness and snow.
All the pets that you've lost, pets for whom you've cried,
Flying home on this Christmas to be by your side.

If you feel warm fur brush you when no pet's around,
Hear a soft bark or purr, just a ghost of a sound,
We're trying to tell you we're visiting this way,
And our visits, even rainbows, can be on any day.

But for Christmas we have something special to do,
A sleigh full of happy dream visits for you.
On doggy, on kitty, on winged friend and ferret!
The love that you lavished, we mean now to share it!

We're fetching that love home, the way we once played,
With the closeness we shared and the memories we made.
Our Earth lives with you were too short for us, too,
And on this Christmas Eve we have so much to do.

So all through this night as you sleep in your beds,
Sweet visions of fur babies dance in your heads.
This one special night we can bring you Home for a while,
Your true home in Heaven, where again you will smile.

Over the rainbow you'll fly, for a short while this night,
Hours that you'll be happy, hours that will feel right,
Hours to cuddle and hug us, to run and to play,
Before the return to Earth in our magic way.

And when you awaken and face Christmas Day,
We pray you'll remember your trip on our sleigh,
But in case you forget, just remember our love.
Remember us watching you, your angels above.

Sending love wrapped in rainbows, shining and bright,
Love that will guide you through the darkest night,
Love found in each memory unwrapped through the year,
Replacing dark sorrows with Christmas cheer.

Leave the toys to St. Nick, we Bridge kids bring dreams,
Sweet visits to remind you all is not as it seems
When you look all around you with tired Earthly eyes.
If you saw as we do, there'd be joy and surprise.

There are fur angels waiting by those Christmas trees,
Always there for you and hearing your pleas.
We're never more than a thought away from your home,
You're never forgotten, you're never alone.

Nor are we alone here, with our Rainbow Bridge friends.
We know only joy here, the celebrating never ends,
And after our reunions with you Christmas Eve,
We Bridge kids will party like you'd never believe.

But we'll slip away often to be by your side.
Sitting there watching you, eyes open wide,
Praying you'll be able to catch a glimpse of us, too.
But whether or not you see us - Merry Christmas to you!

Cindy Morgan (2007)

Still alive and kicking…..

This is just to let our readers know that we are still alive and kicking!  Some of you will already know that we have once again had to move from our rented house, our landlords deciding that they had to sell the house, after assuring us when we took the tenancy in April that we would be able to stay there long term.  As you can imagine we were not happy!  Having got really fed up with paying other sod’s mortgages, but being unable to pay one of our own without selling the boat, we decided that we would buy a static mobile home to live in when we aren’t boating.  So, we are now the proud owners of a ‘landlocked widebeam’ at Overstone Lakes Park just north east of Northampton.  At least we won’t be given notice when we’ve been here six months!  We have once again had to sell all our furniture as our new home has fully fitted furniture.  All we have kept is the washing machine and tumble dryer which will live in a shed, and my grannie’s old blanket chest!  We are now moved in and have found homes for the majority of our ‘stuff’, some of which is in my Mum’s loft.

We haven’t forgotten about boating, and just to prove it, Rog found this in a wonderful local ‘Emporium’ and had to have it.

The focus isn’t wonderful, so in case you can’t make it out,  it’s called T’owd Navigation, and has an old boatman and his boat on the label.

Never fear, we will be back boating in the spring.

P.S Ozzy is doing well and doesn’t seem to miss his left eye at all.

Our poor little wounded soldier….

Ozzy is home from hospital!  Apart from looking like a car crash he seems to be fine.  He HATES his ‘lampshade’ and is spending most of his time time trying to get out of it.  His wound is very swollen but will go down over the next few days, and when his hair grows back he’ll look much better.  Here he is giving me evils because I won’t take it off!

Poor Ozzy….

Some of our regular readers who are on Facebook will already know that Ozzy has had a problem, but for those of you who don’t, I’ll start at the beginning.

On Thursday last, Ozzy didn’t seem quite his normal self and it was obvious his mouth was hurting as he squealed when he tried to pick up toys and dropped them again quickly.  When he woke after his morning nap his left eye was slightly swollen.  We took him to the vets, and after a thorough examination it was decided that he had a conjunctivitis type infection and a sore mouth due to teething.  We went home with painkillers/anti inflammatory tablets and eye drops.  On Friday morning his eye looked a lot better and he was back in normal ‘cockerdile’  puppy mode.  Saturday saw a downward turn again, but his eye still didn’t look any worse.  Sunday morning arrived and it was immediately evident that another trip to the vet was required as his eye had swollen up considerably overnight, so we cancelled our plan to meet up with the crews or nb Yarwood and nb Matilda Rose, and off we went to the vets.  After tests to check the pressure in his eye, he was referred to the Willows Veterinary Hospital in Solihull, and the afternoon saw us driving up the motorway to keep a 4pm appointment.  He was seen by a wonderful lady specialist called Christine, and before too long she had examined him and given him an ultrasound scan.  The verdict was dismal!  His eye was already damaged beyond repair, and his retina detached.  There was also a huge amount of infection.  He was kept there overnight, and given large doses of antibiotics, but this morning he was worse so they went ahead and operated to remove his eye and drain the infection.  They discovered a nasty barbed grass seed which had penetrated the roof of his mouth behind his last molar and gone up into his eye!  He is now recovering from his op and, all being well, we will be able to collect him and bring him home tomorrow.

Obviously, we are shocked and devastated by all this, but we do know that he will do perfectly well with just one eye, and he will be all the more special to us because of it.  The one bright spot in all this is that it isn’t glaucoma, where he would have lost the eye anyway and the other would have been at risk in the near future.  He has been such a brave little boy, given how much pain he must have been in!

We aren’t sure how much more dog-related trauma we can take, so we hope that he will be healthy in the future.  Our last 2 Golden Retrievers were been really unlucky in regard to their health. We were hoping that in having a change of breed we would be ‘third time lucky’…obviously not.