Persistence

A beautiful new nest

The same nest seen from underneath

Sundry long strands of grass and weeds, bits of plastic and other assorted rubbish suddenly started appearing on the floor of Rocco's stable last weekend. It wasn't till I was mucking out on Monday though that I realised why. A blackbird kept flying in through the window and depositing beakfuls of assorted twigs and stuff on the roof beam nearest the wall: Which, since there's a gap of about 4 or 5 inches between the beam and the wall, just kept falling through. Undeterred the blackbird just kept at it. Every few minutes it reappeared with yet another load. Most of which fell straight through the gap on to the floor.
"Wonder how long she'll keep this up ..." I mused to myself.
On Wednesday Linda and I had a conversation about how long a bird might contunue with such a useless activity, shrugging our shoulders at the hopelessness of it all. I even considered getting the ladder out and climbing up to somehow bridge the gap so the nest materials wouldn't keep falling through to the floor.
Then I forgot about it for a couple of days. On Saturday whilst I was doing evening stables I happened to look up and couldn't help smiling with surprise. On the beam, securely wedged against the wall, was the most beautiful nest.  Surrounded by all our animals we are never short of reminders of the ways in which nature and instinct govern so much of our lives; this, however, is surely a graphic example of the power of persistence against all adversity.
"Never say Never"..........................

Things are changing

What? You waitin' for me to do somethin'?

"Things are changin' round here. The first is that I (Bestestgundog) am passin' on some of the communications duties to my Understudies. Well, they gotta be learnin sometime so may as well start now.
So today it's Understudy #1 aka Jaunty aka Gaberlunzie Master at Arms ( with a load of monikers like that, he darned well ought to be able to speak for himself don't you think".)

"Ahem *scratchin' ear*.
"Ahem - I ain't never done this before... anyone out there?  *turns to Gunner for help*

"It's all right mate - you just keep on talkin' - on this machine you never get to know if anyone out there listenin.. just be yourself... Off you go...."

Listen - I am talkin' to you

"AHEM.. *scratches ear* HELLO EVERYBODY, HERE I AM ..."
"No need to shout young chap"
"Sorry: *scratches ear again* Afternoon all: I gotta tell you (bossdog says) 'bout what's changin round here. * Looks over shoulder*(how'm I doin boss?" -"Just get on with it, you're doing fine")
"Well, what's changed *turns round and chews tail for a moment*  what's changed is We are havin A New Diet!!"
"What d'you think of that?"
"We've only seen one bit of it so far - for lunch today we had big lumps of chewey meat ("It was ox heart young man") and ground up greens ---- it was soooo ..... tasty and very quickly gone and I licked my bowl everso clean till there wasn't anything left *licks lips again* and then I finished the whippersnapper's bowl off cos he didn't like the green stuff... tho' She-who-must-be-heard' says he gott finish it tomorrow..... hang on, just gotta go ..*runs off to check if bowls really all empty*....Just thought there might be a morsel left....
I am SO lookin' forward to my next lunch *bounces up and down - and again for good measure*- p'raps I better just follow Her w-m-b-h very very closely so's I don't miss nothin' "
"More next time"....

*Looks over shoulder - How was that bossdog?*
"Yeh , you done good - for a young one........ lots to learn yet though.....
We gonna be reportin' on this new diet for a little while so it's gonna be your project from now on......

*Wipes brow and goes back to sleep*. "No, Jaunty, you don't get a biscuit for 'all that stress'"..................

You think it's been quiet?

Newsflash: Bestest Gundog earns biggest bone

 "You may not think it to look at this picture but I am exhausted! And not from hangin' on to this big bone - which is my pressie from Her-who-must-be-obeyed"
"Why?"  you ask.
"It's because I have been in charge these past couple of weeks.... actually, strictly speaking the Lindananny has been in charge but I  have been in charge of guarding her.
"Which was a 24/7 job - don't think the pair of us slept a wink - me for worryin 'bout her and her for worrying 'bout all the other chaps on the place. Thank dog the Understudies were off at boot camp .... more of which anon.

"You sniff what I sniff?"

"Meanwhile back here at the ranch ( as they say somewhere) my biggest headache was these little chaps. They're Andromeda's litter - 8 cheeky scamps who, till She & the Big Boss went off on holibobs were quietly asleep in their ark with Mum. Soon as they sniffed the air outside and realised the Boss was away and the pressure was off that was it - they were off. And then I was on duty.....

"So... how it goes on this side of th fence is...."

"There are 8 of them, with as many different ideas of what they want to do. I tell you, it takes a while to read them the rules and pull them into line They've been a real pain in the ear since then, of course. Runnin all over the fields and chatting with all the other members of the herd..... they've even taken over the empty ark next door just to get away from mum for an hour or two.
"As if that wasn't enough, there's this chestnut chappie who's cheekier than all the others put together

Ritz the innocent

. She calls him a pony but he's big and mean to us spaniels - always barin' his teeth and chasin' us out of his room if we want to pinch poo...  Anyway, his mate, Rocco (Who never does nothin' wrong) had a sore paw or two so they were confined to barracks for a while. Well, that got up Ritz's nose so when they finally got out to their field for a spin and a nibble what's the norty pony do? Yep; he decides to go AWOL along the bridleway and give the Nannylinda a nasty turn. He so norty (unlike some of us.....)....... Actually, I think he was just after gettin' a bit of attention 'cos it was The Good Horse whose sore paws gave the Nannylinda lots of sleepless hours and even a few wakin' ones and Ritz was just a wee bit jealous.....
"Anyway, life's all back to normal now.. got snarled at for rollin' in foxpoo this mornin...*sighs* .....but I got my big bone (and, yes thank you, lovely clean teeth!) and the Understudies, both of them, are back from boot camp *sighs again*...... Nannylinda's gone back to her own kennel so no more quiet nights alone together for a while (mind you, no more of those odd ball games she gets so excited about... wierd these humans are)...... So that's it then... Just got time for a little snooze before we go shut up the poultry birds & check out the screechy rats......
"And I bet you all think it's been quiet here.......................  "