Ahhhhh - the Beast has teeth

So they had the last laugh - the meterologists. Yesterday may have been pussycat stuff but today was the full-blown beast. The day dawned to extra snow and went on from there..... we were surprised by a friend coming down the drive to join us for breakfast at 0930..... and enormously relieved when he rang us after arriving back home - admitting he'd probably be the last person driving on our roads today.
Occasional bright spells have been completely overshadowed by blizzarding white-outs; impossible to walk or see through, they descend within moments, completely enveloping and closing off the rest of the world.
The dogs all had fun hunting for dummies and mice under the snow.... although none of them were too pleased to find themselves clad in masses of 'balls' when it was time to go home..... Spaniels' feathering works like a magnet on snow and the hard lumps turn to ice making them impossible to shake or rub off; there is no solution but to wait till they melt or pull them off with the teeth one by one..... Have to wonder if it's worth running through the snow.....
The poultry have spent most of the day indoors and tonight I discovered a robin shacking up in Rocco's stable for the night.... I think the birds will all be pleased when the beast moves on. Wonder when that will be; the forecasters say the weekend..... hope so... the novelty of snow - like fish - goes off after three days.
Tonight is without doubt the coldest we have had in a long long time; no moon just the wind continuing to blizzard and blow.... what will the morning bring... ???

 
 

We've had snow

Heralded as "The Beast from the East" the snow finally arrived today. !0-20 cm they said we'd get so we stocked up yesterday on animal/poultry feed and cancelled SkipperSkool this morning - fearing we might get stuck in blizzards on isolated country lanes. That amount did not fall.
It's been a beautiful day; sharp cold blustery snow and hail showers interspersed with bursts of bright sunshine and aquamarine skies. Rocco says it's nicer out than in, even though finding grass under the snow is a bit of a lottery - perhaps that's the fun of it. Free to wander in and out of his stable at will, he chooses mostly to stay out - even after dark.


Jaunty snow-woogling

Bugler enjoying the snow

The dogs approach it quite differently - Jaunty makes a spectacle of himself woogling in it; Bugler just loves the fun of running through it and Skipper really doesn't remark that it's anything particularly noteworthy at all - as far as he's concerned, the important thing is just to get on with doing whatever he's supposed to do.
By nightfall quite a lot more snow had fallen. In the bright moonlight, the countryside looks hauntingly beautiful. The wind got up; it is very cold but still does not feel like any sort of eastern beasty. The forecasters say we are in for heavier falls tomorrow, Friday and Saturday. If that's true, we could well be snowed in by Sunday and perhaps by then the soubriquet will seem fitting.....

Skipper oblivious to snow

Maybe......... we'll just watch this space.



Reflections on Seasons past

Before Gunner arrived in my world on 19th June 2007 the life of a working gundog was a total mystery. We'd had spaniels for a number of years: I can remember proudly telling the vet when I took Captain, our first, for his annual injection that he was a "Working Spaniel" - although he had never worked a day in his life!! If it had occurred to me that I might one day "work" a gundog, I could not have imagined what that entailed. When we lived 'down South' I was aware that the lady who occasionally gave me horse-riding lessons "picked up" locally with her three chocolate labs. If I gave a thought to what she did it was only insofar as I was in awe of her and rather impressed that a lady did 'that sort of thing' (all things 'shooting' being to my mind, at that time, strictly masculine!!).
The transformation of Gunner from much admired (by me) young pup to much admired (by many) young gundog is documented in detail earlier on this blog.
The contemporaneous and lasting transformation in my own habits and hobbies, though far more radical and unexpected, happened surreptitiously, slowly and totally unscripted - and over a much longer period of time.
In those distant days I was not aware that I was changing.......  In all the training sessions Gunner & I had with him-the-trainer It didn't occur to me that I was actually training the dog. "Yes" I was managing to teach him things but I was constantly in awe of the fact that he was learning to become a gundog! When he did things that I had taught him I was totally amazed...  even more so when he did things that I hadn't taught him! It never occurred to me to tell him to do something and when he did what I asked I was truly proud of him! I felt privileged that he wanted to be with me.
When we turned up for our first ever experience of 'beating on a shoot' on 8 October 2008 I was greener than grass-  and ignorant of the workings of a 'Shoot'. Yet, there I was with my very own, very handsome and obedient, coming-to-work gundog. I had no idea what we were going to have to do but I knew he was trained to do it! Nobody said it at the time; perhaps it never occurred to anyone; maybe they were just bemused by a not-so-young lady wanting to dress up in weird weather-and-bramble-proof garb and spend her days with a bunch of mostly rough and ready chaps - but they sussed that I knew nothing about the world I was throwing myself into!! Now I know their friendly banter was really teasing!!
The whole language of the shoot day was alien. I turned up with a young spaniel, offering to 'bush-beat' - without a clue. I didn't know what "drives" were, how long and how many there were in a day. When told for the first time to "work that strip of cover" I had no idea what was expected of us. Luckily Gunner didn't let on!

Whilst I knew that The Glorious Twelfth was the beginning of the Grouse (and therefore the Shooting) Season I didn't know that partridge could be shot from September and pheasants from October. I didn't realise that the Season ended on 31st January and had never heard of Cocking Days!
Still I turned up that first day with my young, handsome, well trained Gundog - totally oblivious - yet totally confident that whatever we were asked to do, Gunner would be up to the task!! We learned together 'on the job': Because of the dog he was we had opportunities that might not otherwise have come our way and before long we were hooked. It was all he ever wanted to do and the more I learned, the more I enjoyed it.
Ten Seasons later I realise just how much he changed my life!  Thanks Gunner.........

Update on Wanda

Owing to recent cases of avian flu being declared, DEFRA have requested that all poultry, whether domestic or commercial, be kept shut up and fed inside. This is obviously curtailing Wanda's lifestyle somewhat.
She does still manage to get out somehow to lay her egg in Rocco's stable. She strayed too far one day last week - Jaunty found her however and brought her to me.
We look forward to the time when all the poultry can again roam free.....