Nightmare in London…

And call from Tonga…

I woke up this morning in a complete panic, my heart was beating so fast I could hear it.  I sat up and quickly reached for the dogs, who were happily sleeping on the bed.

I had just woke from what I considered a nightmare, this is what happened.

M and I decided to go to London, but rather than take our car we decided to go by bus.  This proves how illogical dreams are as we take our car everywhere, all over the UK and Ireland, and when I have had to go to London alone, I have always taken the train, as usual, I was only there for an hour or two at most.  So, in this dream, we were on an old bus and sat in a double seat facing forward, and the dogs were lying behind on the floor at seats that face the middle but were looking at us every time I turned around.  After some time we decided this was where we needed to get off, grabbed our stuff and alighted the bus.

The bus pulled away and the stark realisation that the dogs were still on the bus hit me.  I quickly gave M my stuff and started running after the bus, M followed quickly behind as it seemed in the dream he was not disabled and I could run without any asthma effects, (I do love this side of dreams).  However, the bus was too fast and I was not Superman, so could not keep up.  I decided that a cab would be the best bet, and get them to follow it, but for once, there was none, which is not like London, which is awash with them.  I kept running in the hope of getting to the bus but then realised that I was not running on the road and was on a pathway that seemed far from the natural road.  I stopped and told M we had to get back to the road.

I knew that the dogs would realise we were gone and as soon as the doors on the bus opened they would run off looking for us, Harper is road aware so should not venture in harm’s way, but Mazikeen however, is only 7 months old and has no road sense at all, and I knew that they may not stick together and would be lost forever and even killed in the roads trying to find us.

We turned around to get back to the road and I started to run, then, thankfully woke up.

Although it was a dream, and everything was wrong with it, my sleeping mind could not pick fault with it and kept going along with this ludicrous jaunt.  I have had really odd dreams in the past, and have realised that what was going on was wrong and concluded I must be dreaming and promptly woke, however, this time the dream kept me going on this wild goose chase, or should that be wild dog chase?

After finally calming down and settling back into my slumber my phone rang.  I jumped up with a fright, the second time through the night, grabbed my phone to see a call from Tonga, at the same time M received a call from the same number.  The call lasted one second, but enough to make me wide awake.  These calls are scam calls, I knew as I had read online about them, so quickly blocked the number, and changed my settings to only let my phone ring if their number was in my contacts.  By this time it was 5:15, so I resigned that I had no chance of sleep now.  Fingers crossed for a better night tonight.

 

Rain, Rain, Rain…

Waiting for the rain to stop

Sitting at my desk, the lighting is low, not by my doing. The weather, although we were promised temperatures higher than Spain, has not stopped raining, so much so the roads were flooded in many places.

Well, I ought to leave but the rain it never stops, and I’ve no particular place to go.

Earlier I needed to go out and get the dogs a 15kg bag of dried food that I give them with the cooked stuff I make them.  I also wanted to go to my favourite northern supermarket Booths.  Now, from where we live to the supermarket is a 20 miles round trip, There is another Booths, but that is a 30-mile round trip, so all in all, it is quite a distance.  Not that I mine, when getting my unpasteurised milk, I have to drive 26 miles, but I am a bit of what we call in the UK, a petrol head.

My plans for the morning was to go to the dump/tip and get rid of some of the accumulated crap from the garden, and the old gas barbeque.  Take the dogs for a walk, then off to Booths and the pet warehouse.  Build the new barbeque, and give it a test run, because this is the law in the barbeque world, also on Thursday I could smell someone barbequing so that really got my juices flowing.  The other plans were to plant some more clematis and other climbers.  Of course, then to sit in the garden and enjoy this.  But this was not to be.  When letting the dogs out this morning at 7am I thought it was quite mild, I did not have a stitch on I do admit, but then, my garden is totally private and not overlooked, and I did have some hope for the day, however, as I pottered out there I could feel the spits of rain and knew that it was all about to change.

I decided to treat myself to a leather tape measure.  I have to admit, it is beautifully made, and the smell of leather is divine.  I had seen it on the wrist of a fellow knitter on Instagram and decided I just had to have one.  Along with the soggy post it was in the mail this morning, wrapped and sealed from China.  How many times have we all been there looking for a measuring tape, well now I have one to hand, pardon the pun.

So with the rain still battering the windows, I think I will watch a film and do some knitting, and of course, keep dry.

Fingers crossed for a dry day tomorrow.

 

Cooking for Dogs…

Mazikeen and Harper looking out at the Natajack pool

I was talking to the trainer last week regarding the food that I make for the dogs, including the biscuits, and she said that she used to do that but after a few weeks gave it up as she didn’t have time to do it.  This I found odd.  I prep the veg, usually carrots, sweet potatoes, cabbage, green beans and broccoli and shove it all into the electric pressure cooker, and press steam.  That’s it!  Not hard or time-consuming at all, it takes all of 5 minutes to prep and the cooker does the rest in 5 minutes.  The only thing that takes more time is cooking the meats.  I usually make them lambs liver, kidney and hearts, turkey, chicken, pork, but even that does not take much time.  I usually just put some olive oil in a large pan, and lightly fry the liver and kidney for about 10 minutes.  The liver I cook as it comes, which is usually slices, which breaks up in the pan, but the kidneys are whole, so I slice them before cooking.  So about 10 minutes whilst the veg is cooking and cooking.  The whole lot get decanted into dishes and popped into the fridge.  I timed it today and it took less than 30 minutes, and that is done every two or three days.  I also do rice in the pressure cooker all of 3 minutes and that too goes into a container in the fridge.  In a week I would spend about an hour to an hour and a half each week to cook everything for them, which in my mind is not that long at all.

The biscuits obviously take longer but when it is raining like today, there is nowhere to go, and so I may as well make a batch for them and put them in an airtight container.

Last week I decided to do the kidneys in their own doggie gravy and added some garlic granules, this went down very well.

One thing I have to keep in mind is that balance is the main thing.

• High-quality protein (meat, seafood, dairy or eggs)
• Fat (meat or oil)
• Carbohydrates (grains or vegetables)
• Calcium (dairy)
• Essential fatty acids (egg yolks or oatmeal)

I also give the dogs boiled eggs and add pure salmon oil to their meals, and of course, they get dog vitamins.  All in all, I think they have a healthy intake of food, and I enjoy making them lovely foods.