Summer Food & Sunshine

We've had lots of lovely warm sunny weather as have many of you no doubt. Yesterday was the first rain we'd had in almost three weeks so it was much needed and gave me a break from watering the garden. It was a bit of a shock to don the rain coat to walk the dog yesterday morning, but Barry relished the rain as much as we did!


With all this warm weather we have been enjoying plenty of salads and BBQs. The novelty of a BBQ has and probably never will wear off for me, I just find them so fun and it's something we both get involved in (I do all the prep, marinating meat etc. while Jack does caveman duties and mans the BBQ).

The man in his natural habitat, providing for others

As well as creating homemade dishes, it has also been nice to get out in the sunshine and visit Millets Farm where you can pick your own fruit and veg. We recently went and picked a punnet of raspberries and a punnet of strawberries and they were delicious. They also have a fantastic Butchers there and do an array of ready-marinated fresh meat for the BBQ, I love their smoky BBQ ribs!

Raspberry picking at Millets Farm Centre

We've had friends over for BBQs and it's been lovely being able to sit in the garden all evening, eat outside, have a cocktail or two. Our friend even made a tasty fruit salad for dessert the other week

I like to make my own kebabs; these were chicken kebabs that I marinated in Nandos sauce! Homemade Nandos is tasty!

Homemade Potato Salad with chives from the garden

We've had lots of colourful salads each day at work

Now as I stare out of the window the rain clouds have just passed us and the sun is trying to break through again just in time for Barry's afternoon walkies. He's been fine in the warm weather, he's got a makeshift paddling pool in the garden that he enjoys splashing in when it's been really hot and we've been delaying his daytime walks to after 9pm when the temperature has been much cooler, as he doesn't seem to understand when he's hot and still runs around like a loon!

Our back garden view last week - Those blue skies! I wonder when they'll cut the wheat, it looks almost ready and they've already harvested all of the Barley in the neighbouring fields

Finally, I have two very happy Mediterranean tortoises who have been enjoying our 'Mediterranean' weather in the UK!

Let's hope the warm weather returns in the coming days and we continue to have a nice summer mix of sunshine, cloud and warm weather! With the odd bit of rain to keep the plants happy and the water butts replenished.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, just in case I don't manage to write another blog post for a couple of days!

Em x

Poorly Pup (Again)

Barry has been a very poorly boy again and it's been such a worry. It was only mid-March when he last spent three days at the vets due to sickness and tummy upset and it's now early May and we're back again with a similar thing :-( Sorry if this post is a little graphic to read!

Visiting Barry at the Vets yesterday in an attempt to persuade him to eat

It started on Thursday afternoon with almost constant sickness and for the first time ever Barry refused to eat any food. This is very out of the ordinary for him, especially when he was only being offered plain boiled chicken (because of the sickness) and usually he eats this with glee. He didn't eat anything at all that night and started to look very sorry for himself by the next morning after a night of sickness too. He still wouldn't eat the next morning and when diarrhoea started which was mainly just blood I got very concerned and took him straight to the vets (it was very startling and scary to see). The vet couldn't feel any obstructions and so it was put down to severe gastroenteritis like last time, only this time called Haemorrhagic Gastroenteritis because of the blood. The vet said that fresh blood in stools isn't too worrying compared with 'coffee granules' dark blood which pinpoints problems much higher up in the digestive system but it was advised he stayed in to get him straight onto fluids and medicine to try and get him feeling better. Off he went out the back with the vet and they rang later to say that he was bright, but still some sickness and diarrhoea and therefore they wanted to keep him in overnight to keep him on the drip. I rang a few times the next day and it was the same story, though the sickness had finally stopped. On Sunday morning the vet rang and said he was much brighter but still not eating and therefore they asked us to come in and try and persuade Barry to eat.


Barry was very happy to see us and we managed to persuade him to eat a tiny amount of chicken which at least was something. Saying goodbye to him again was horrible and he howled and cried. They managed to get him to eat a small amount more yesterday afternoon and the vet rang this morning to say that it had successfully stayed down which is good. He isn't interested in eating again this morning but the vet said she's happy for Barry to come home in the hope that he'll start eating at home. So I'm off shortly to go and pick him up and I can't wait to have him home, we've really missed him this weekend.


As to the cause of his tummy troubles, it's very hard to pinpoint it as frustrating as that is. The vet says he obviously has a very sensitive digestive system and she herself has terriers and that they are more susceptible to sensitivities and are also extremely fussy (which I can vouch for with Barry!). Barry is already on a very good food (Arden Grange) and has been on that for 4 months now having changed it from James Wellbeloved a while ago to try and help his sensitivities to an even better hypo-allergenic food. The vets advised we stay on Arden Grange for now to see how he gets on and then we'll have to consider what to try next if not. Deary me, they're such a worry! I'm just glad he's ok and hope he'll be much better soon and not have anymore flare ups for a while, it's horrible seeing him so poorly.


In other news (no sickness or other messy stuff!), my parents arrived yesterday to spend a few days with us. Dad has got stuck straight into the tiling here at our house, with Jack's help. Jack and I madly spent Friday evening clearing the conservatory and ripping up the old laminate wood flooring as well as moving items off of the kitchen worktops ready for Dad to tile the conservatory floor and the kitchen walls. My parents are staying with us until tomorrow so hopefully the tiling will get finished, there may just be some grouting for Jack and I to do. I certainly can't wait to see the finished look in both rooms. I cooked a barbeque yesterday with Jack's help and it was very tasty. I made a tasty salad too and we of course had to have corn on the cob on the BBQ as that's my favourite.

Quickly took a photo last night; Dad & Jack have made a good start on our new kitchen tiles!

It was lovely spending the day in the garden with Mum while the boys were busy tiling. The tortoises have spent all weekend in their run and are very happy in their outdoor home. We just missed having Barry running around too.

We had to share our strawberries with the tortoises yesterday! They're very dusty in this photo as they've been busy digging into the little 'cave' I made them in their run

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and enjoyed the hot sunny weather; I can't wait to get my boy home, spend the afternoon with him snuggled up on my lap while I read your blog posts!


Have a great week all!


Em x

Lovely Bank Holiday Weekend With Family

Morning all, I hope you've enjoyed a lovely bank holiday weekend where I think the weather was pretty good considering it was a bank holiday and they can be a total wash-out.

Beautiful sunshine on Overstrand Beach, Norfolk

We loaded up the car on Friday afternoon and set off to North Norfolk to spend the weekend with my parents, brother and his partner. Usually the car journey from home to Overstrand is around four hours, but it took us well over five hours due to the volume of bank holiday traffic on the roads. I think Jack (who was driving) was rather frustrated with the constant crawling towards the end, but we did eventually reach Cromer where we picked up fish and chips for everyone from Mary Jane's (best fish and chip shop ever!) and took it back to Mum and Dad's where we ate it alongside champagne (we're not posh people, I think Mum and Dad were just very pleased to have their 'babies' home so it called for a celebration!). My brother Simon and his partner Jenna had arrived prior to us so it was lovely to catch up with them too and hear all their good news about the house they're in the process of buying. They are first time buyers so all the stress and excitement is new to them, but so far the buying process seems to be going smoothly.


We spent Friday evening having a good catch up and then we helped my parents with various jobs on Saturday to help them get ready for the garden party they had planned for Sunday. The weather on Saturday and Sunday was amazing and we can't believe how lucky we were! We all had pink faces by the end of Saturday where we'd caught the sun and it was so nice to feel warmth instead of an icy breeze. My parent's garden is so pretty at the moment; full of bluebells, tulips, blossoms, Camellias and Rhododendrons too. Jenna and I took Barry for a walk on the beach in the afternoon and it was beautiful down there and great to see lots of people enjoying the beach and sunshine. We spent Saturday evening having competitions with the Shuffleboard. I'm not sure if any of you will have heard of it, but we're all rather addicted to it now and it's great fun to play! It's a wooden table game where you push wooden discs down it and the aim is to get them through the different holes at the end of the board. I'm not too good at it but then I'm not very good at many games (I'm a sore loser!)

Sunbathing Barry - his fur is growing back slowly but surely

Shuffleboard in the sunshine

Beautiful colours in Mum and Dad's garden

The weather on Sunday was even better than Saturday and it made the party extra special for my parents. They had invited a big group of friends to come for a bbq for the afternoon and I think they all had a great time. I helped Mum with the food and we put on quite a spread. Mum's lovely friends Annie and Jenny made amazing desserts too which went down very well along with Dad's home brewed beer. Their close friend Hugh even played a few songs on his guitar including one he used to sing to me when I was very little called "The baby went down the plug'ole", look it up, very funny (lyrics here, but there are different versions and no-one is sure of who wrote it originally)! I'm glad that Mum and Dad had such a nice time with their friends and that the weather was kind to us all too. Barry was such a good boy around all the people at the party and he was very popular.

It clouded over and got a bit chilly as 6pm approached

Jack and I got up nice and early on Monday morning to take Barry for a final walk along the beach. It was low tide so you can get around the ends of the groynes rather than having to climb over them nearer the back of the beach. A fairly deep pool is always left at the end of the groyne though and Barry completely mis-judged this and ended up disappearing right under the water much to his surprise! Luckily he loves water and is a good swimmer and shook himself off before setting off again down the beach at 100mph! We then said our goodbyes to my parents, Simon and Jenna and endured another 5+ hour journey home (this time I gave Jack a rest and I drove). We eventually made it home all very weary. Sadly Jack had to go into work for a few hours so I just snoozed on the sofa in between putting on a few washes. We have a very tired pooch after all the playing, beach exploring and attention this weekend and Barry looked mighty pleased last night when we said good night and went to bed, I think Barry was asleep before we even reached the top of the stairs!

We've got a busy week ahead of us in terms of jobs to do around the house; I emptied the loft of nearly all of its contents the other weekend in order to sort through everything, throw things, bag things up for charity shops and sell other things on EBay. I've kept it all in the guest bedroom and slowly been sorting through it but now my parents are coming to stay with us this weekend I had better get a move on and finish sorting it. We've laid more loft boards in the loft so you can now walk around more easily up there and as I'm slightly obsessed with being organised, I don't want anything to just be thrown back up there and instead want to know what is in each box. My parents are coming to stay this weekend for a few days as my Dad is kindly tiling our kitchen splash back area and also tiling the conservatory floor. So he'll have plenty to do but have Jack's help too. The weather looks good this week so I'll be able to move my plants out of the conservatory too, more space again!


Finally, just a photo of my two very happy tortoises on waking up this morning to find a whole windowsill box full of home grown lettuce for them to devour! I've tried to leave it growing as long as possible and had better get some more planted ready - I'd quite like to enjoy some too, but it is a lovely treat for Squirt and Lola!

Have a good week everyone!


Em x

Hen Do Spa Weekend, Bit Of Gardening And SNOW?!

I had a lovely weekend on my wonderful best friend's Hen Do; we went to Whittlebury Hall in Northamptonshire (near Silverstone). As Jess had been here before and said it was lovely it was decided a while back that we'd go here and she was right. It's a lovely hotel and spa and I enjoyed the relaxation and giggles with my bestie. The food was wonderful too - a bonus because I adore food (just in case you didn't already know!). I hope Jess had a good time anyway; only 5 weeks until the wedding now!

I had a dessert for once! I had paid for it after all and it was delicious!

I said goodbye to Jess and the other girls on Sunday morning after we had checked out and made the short journey home. A very excitable Barry was waiting for me, crying like mad when he saw me. He enjoyed his boys weekend with Jack but was pleased his Mummy had returned. I took him for a nice walk around Sunday lunchtime and then spent the afternoon in the garden with the dog and the tortoises.

I had a good tidy in the garden; edged the lawn where it is overgrowing into the borders and path, looks much tidier now. I gave my herbs a spruce up and planted a new Mint; I went with a Moroccan mint as it smells lovely, but I did almost come away with a Strawberry Mint - amazing smell! The Montana Clematis is covered in flower buds so will look beautiful in another couple of week's time I should think. I'm also pleased to see everything has already grown somewhat in my wildflower/Alpine bed. It's already serving its purpose of attracting the bees and I saw a butterfly yesterday too. Just a few more plants to go in and it will hopefully be a nice busy and colourful flower bed. I think the bulbs that have come up are Alliums but I can't honestly remember what I planted last year!

Finally, it's Tuesday afternoon as I write this post and we've had snow showers on and off all afternoon. What's happening with the weather?! Does it not know it's May next week and we're meant to be having a garden party at my parents with family and friends this Sunday. I hope it warms up a little anyway, I've got so many plants waiting to go outside that I almost did put outside on Sunday only to have a harsh frost last night. I had to scrape the car this morning before work! I know I've moaned already about hay fever but I would rather the temperatures were in double figures!


I'm very excited for our dinner tonight; I put a beef brisket joint into the slow cooker this morning before work. I made a spice mixture of cayenne pepper, black peppercorns, mustard seeds, cumin and paprika, all grinded down in my pestle and mortar. This was then mixed with brown sugar and rubbed all over the meat before I added it to the slow cooker with some beef stock. When I got home from work a short while ago the house smelled delicious and sweetly spicy. I'm going to have a go at making a homemade barbecue sauce and then I'll mix this with the beef once I've shredded it. We're then having it in tortilla wraps with salad and coleslaw, yum! I'll let you know how it goes anyway and try and take some photos if I haven't already devoured it all.


Have a good week everyone!


Em x

Dog Walking Holiday; Wye Valley, Wales

We're back from a lovely weekend in Wales; this was my first time visiting Wales and I'm completely in love with the scenery, it's beautiful! I understand there's a whole lot more of Wales to explore but we've made a start at least.

We set off early Saturday morning down the M4 towards Wales and looked a little worriedly at each other as we drove through a heavy snow storm! Thankfully as soon as we got into Wales we had nothing but glorious sunshine the whole weekend we were there. It was noticeably chilly, but you could certainly feel the sun's warmth when lugging the camera bag around and striding out on our walks. I'd planned a whole itinerary for the weekend, much to Jack's amusement, but I think he's glad about me being organised.




Walk 1: 'Trellech Beacon'
First stop was just outside of Trellech, to a Forestry Commission car park. Once parked, we donned the walking boots (my new walking boots have been well and truly christened this weekend) and an excitable Barry was very pleased to be out of the car and ready to explore. Our first walk consisted of an easy 3.5 mile walk around woodland and heathland, also taking in the beautiful Cleddon Falls. It was the perfect way to ease us into the Wye Valley, with beautiful views too. Barry loved drinking and splashing in Cleddon Falls and relished jumping from rock to rock too, we swear he's part Mountain Goat!

Our route

Barry the Mountain Goat

I absolutely loved this mossy wall

Splashing around Cleddon Falls

Part of Cleddon Falls

After Walk 1, we got back into the car and drove back into England to a lovely place called Clearwell, where we stopped at The Butchers Arms for some lunch. The staff here were very friendly and it was lovely to talk about places nearby and about Jack Russells too. Barry was more than happy to sit under the table while we ate some lunch, to see if Jack or I would drop a chip! I did come prepared though and he gobbled up a chew pretty quickly. We then got back into the car (much to Barry's disgust - he's been a very good boy with all the car journeys this weekend though) and headed back onto Wales' side of the Wye Valley and onto Penallt, near Monmouth where we were staying on Saturday night.

I booked a B&B room a while back at the lovely 'Inn at Penallt'. It looked like a great location for some walks, was pet friendly and the menu for the evening looked good too (always thinking with my stomach). We parked up the car as it was too early to check in and instead headed off on the next walk I had planned - all walks I found via Google, I'll provide links at the end of the blog.

Walk 2: 'The Penallt-imate' (Jack's name for it!)

This walk was slightly longer than our first walk at 4 miles, but considerably more a 'hiking' route as opposed to walking, with various terrains and hills (my they were hills!). This walk took in woodlands carpeted with Bluebells, open grassland while walking along the River Wye, a couple of pubs along the way (we stopped at one) and a small amount of roadwork (Where we only met one car the whole time). I loved this walk, it was certainly tough in places climbing up through steep woodland, but the views were fantastic and the River Wye looked lovely in the sunshine. I'd certainly like to come back again in the summer when the trees are full of leaves. We stopped at The Boathouse pub for a quick drink part-way around this circular walk before continuing on through beautiful Bluebell woodlands. The climb was tiring on the way up but when you reach the old church at Penallt you're rewarded with stunning views.

Our route

River Wye

The noser/poser

"Come on Mum, keep up!"

Old Church at Penallt

Great views when we had a rest at the church before the final climb back to where we were staying

We finally made it back to the Inn at Penallt feeling a little weary and rather hot in the sunshine and big coats. We checked into our room which was a lovely cosy room separate from the main pub and overlooked the pretty gardens. As soon as Jack had lifted Barry's crate into the room, Barry went straight into it and fell fast asleep, I think we wore him out! We had a little rest for a short while too and a nice shower before leaving Barry with his dinner while we went for ours. I'd had a quick nose at the menu before I booked us in and it sounded great but I wasn't expecting such fantastic food (food in general was good when you're tired and hungry!). I had a lovely leek and potato soup to start, followed by pork belly. Jack of course had dessert too but I was feeling rather tired and full by that stage. The food was delicious and the pub was very popular so a great atmosphere too. You are able to eat in the bar side of the pub with your dog if you want to but as Barry was so tired we decided to leave him to happily snooze in the room.

Fantastic food in the pub for dinner, an added bonus after a day of walking

We slept well on Saturday night and woke up feeling ready for some more walking on Sunday. The breakfast included in our stay was so yummy; we picked from a menu the evening before so it was cooked fresh once you arrived at your table. It set us up for the day and not long afterwards we checked out of the room and drove towards Abergavenny for our final walk.

Tasty Full Welsh Breakfast

Walk 3: Blorenge Mountain

We drove to the 'foxhunter' car park part-way up Blorenge Mountain. Once out of the car the walking route to the top of the mountain is nearby and is mostly over rocky upland, though can be a bit boggy and slippery in places (cue filthy dog and lots of rock jumping too!). It was quite chilly as we set off, although the sun shone which did keep us a little warmer. It was a fun walk to the top; Barry is incapable of walking, he instead chooses to run and bounce everywhere, but he had us in stitches trying to leap over some of the boggiest areas. Sometimes he'd run straight through them covering himself in mud and then other times he'd leap like a Gazelle over them. It didn't take too long to reach the top and front of the mountain where we sat down overlooking Abergavenny below. The views were fantastic as the weather was so bright and clear and we had lots of sheep grazing around us too (as responsible dog owners Barry was back on his lead at this point so as not to scare the sheep and their lambs, even though he didn't show too much of an interest in them anyway). We then headed back the way we came, choosing a slightly rockier route to pretend we too were Mountain Goats! In all this was just under a 3 mile walk.

Our route

So glad we remembered our hats!

Rock climbing can be added to Barry's favourite hobbies

My Two Favourites xx

Barry & I

Wheatear

View from Blorenge Mountain of Abergavenny below

Blurry photo as my shutter speed wasn't correct but it gives you an idea of how Barry chooses to get around!

Flying Jack Russell Again!

We got back to the car, attempted to clean some of the mud off of Bazza before heading back down the mountain and into Abergavenny. We found a Waitrose and bought ourselves a sandwich for lunch to see us through the journey home and ate it in the car park while Barry chomped on a chew I gave him. We then set off home, going back through Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.

We had a fantastic time and it's shown us just how stress-free it is to pop in the car, drive a couple of hours to somewhere different to enjoy a walking holiday together. We're already looking into some other holidays and I definitely want to return to Wales soon (suggestions of where to go next are appreciated). Barry still isn't massively keen on the car, but there was no sickness at all this weekend and other than a small amount of panting and crying as we arrived at our destinations he was as good as gold. He was so exhausted on Sunday that when we got all the way home after a 2 hour car journey we were amazed as we pulled onto our gravel driveway and didn't hear a peep from him in the boot. When we opened the boot he was squinting back at us with a wrinkled face, he'd obviously been fast asleep the whole way home! I gave him a good bath on Sunday afternoon as the boggy mud was hard to get off, and he then promptly curled up in my lap to dry off and snooze. We all went to bed early on Sunday night!

This is where Barry loves to dry off after a bath, wrapped in a towel on my lap!

Sorry that this post has been so photo-heavy! I have to say it was lovely getting the camera back out again though and the photography bug has returned! I've included a few links below to the walks we completed and where we stayed. It's really worth a visit!

Helpful Links:

The Inn at Penallt B&B; http://www.theinnatpenallt.co.uk/ 

The Butchers Arms, Clearwell; http://thebutchersarmsclearwell.co.uk/index.html

Walk 1: Trellech Beacon; http://www.wyedeantourism.co.uk/system-images/files/Walk3.pdf

Walk 2: Penallt Pub Walk; http://www.wyedeantourism.co.uk/system-images/files/Penallt%20Pubs%20Walk1.pdf

Walk 3: Blorenge Mountain; http://www.abergavenny.org.uk/blorenge.htm

The Boat Inn, Penallt; http://www.theboatpenallt.co.uk/

Em x