Category Archives: Puppy tales

It’s been raining…

…quite a bit.  This time last year I would have been happy to turn my back on the weather and find things to distract me indoors, but that was before I was a dog owner. So while I was happy to park myself on the sofa with a DVD  (‘Batman Begins’ – I’ve never seen it – very good) and my latest woolly project (cue tantalizing glimpse…can you tell what it is yet?)…

…I was very aware that I had a small energetic bundle of fun to tire out before bedtime. In the middle of the afternoon the room was filled with that lovely golden light that comes when half the sky is a clear washed blue and the other half is inky with passing rain..

…so it was time to press the pause button and put on the wellies.  Poor Higgins, it’s  bit rough only being three inches off the ground when the puddles are four inches deep!  As it is the house training takes three steps forward and two back every rainy day.  I wonder if you can get umbrellas for dachshunds?

We compromised by splashing down the road and walking back through the grass at the edge of the field to wash the mud off Higgins’ tum.

Although it didn’t go entirely to plan…

Once we got home all that was required was a warm dry towel…

…and a nice cup of liquorice tea…

Email, RSS Follow

Enough of all that!

I’ve just remembered I intended to blog  about creativity, not puppies! I haven’t had a lot of time for that recently, but it’s now the first of October, and at the end of the month I am teaching at Broadland Art Centre.  We are very lucky to have such a unique venue so close to home. BAC is housed in an old  school in a pretty little village on the river and the classroom is the perfect place for a small gathering of students. I feel very privileged to be numbered among those teaching there, as the calibre of past and present tutors is so high. Among them the textile artists Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn,  the main features of last year’s Knit and Stitch Show at Alexandra Palace, the internationally renowned marine artist, William Calladine, and, AND… ( I speak his name in reverential tones), the one, the only Kaffe Fassett!  Oh yes, I did go on his courses.

Passionate Patchwork - Kaffe Fassett

Passionate Patchwork – Kaffe Fassett

Attending a few courses at the Broadland Art Centre was one of the contributing factors to my eventual decision to become a mature Student at Norwich University College of Art in 2000 so it’s nice to have the association with it now.

This year I, and my partner in crime, Kit, am running a course called ‘All Booked Up!’ (yes it was my idea to call it that, and yes, it has caused no end of confusion to people reading the brochure, and yes, I’m really, really sorry!) and we are making books. Not formal bookbinding books, because that’s an amazing and exacting craft requiring great skill,  accuracy and training.  We’re making pretty books, jolly books, books for people who have a vast collection of lovely little bits of fabrics and papers, buttons and beads,  and piles of gorgeous bits of textile art left over from experimenting…that they don’t know what to do with and can’t possibly throw away.  Well, we’re going to make them into little books.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be flexing my making muscles to get them in trim for two days of demonstrating and teaching, and posting the results so you can see if I’m slacking.

I will regain my focus on artistry and creativity, I will aspire to a state of Zen like concentration,  I will reach the end of each day uplifted by what I have achieved, I will… excuse me, I just have to go and mop up that puddle…

Email, RSS Follow

The Great Outdoors

Nearly a month has elapsed since the black and tan bundle of trouble we know as Higgins burst into our lives and changed them completely.  He has galloped frenetically through, pursued by cries of ‘Aaaaah, cute’ by all who have seen him and by me with a mop and bucket… But the time had come to introduce our pampered pooch to the big wide world…

So we went to the seaside.

It’s not easy when you are very small…

..but I think we’re getting the hang of it!

Email, RSS Follow

The Spare Bed

Well, I thought I’d seen it all when it came to Higgins choosing his own bed, but when it came to buying a second one to cover those damp moments when the the blue one is in the wash, I wasn’t expecting this…

You just can’t trust these chaps to go shopping on their own!

Email, RSS Follow

A dog of very little taste…

Now I know that you will look at this and say that anyone who wears pink crocs has no taste anyway, but really….

…I dragged Tim and Thomas and Celia round most of Rouen looking for a dog bed that was aesthetically pleasing.  Turning down brown paw prints and zebra stripes,  pink nylon and cartoon doggies and finally getting these rather smart checks for a smart little dog.  Three sleepless nights later, Tim, Higgins and I are in ‘Pets At Home’ looking for a water bowl into which Higgins couldn’t put all his bedding at three in the morning.  Tim called Higgins and me over to the bedding display.  “I know you don’t like them but…” and held out a sqidgy, soft, baby blue, fur fabric, Paris Hilton inspired (probably), overpriced dog bed .  I showed it to Higgins who crawled out my arms and into the bed, heaved a big sigh and went straight to sleep.  I had to walk round the store carrying him on the bed like a page with a glass slipper until we got to the check out where the assistant asked where to look for the bar code.

And he’s been there, mostly, ever since. Probably getting his strength up for tonight’s yodelling recital.  He was far to tired to go for a walk down the garden…

Although he was sorry about that.

So, another day has passed, and still no opportunity to fill my blog with colour and erudite observations.  If I have another sleepless night I will only manage gibberish…But, just to keep my spirits up, here are some of the flowers Higgins hasn’t eaten, yet.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m soooo tired!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Email, RSS Follow