Sunday in the park

This is my second blog post of the day,  they're like buses... none for ages then two together :-)

I have to say that Annie does go to our local park every day, but there is only a small fenced off area where dogs are allowed to be off lead. To have a nice large area for her to run in we get in the car and go about four miles away.

Annie loves to chase a ball. Martyn uses the thrower and while Annie is chasing one ball he gets the second one ready to throw. She returns the ball and drops it at his feet. She exhausts herself playing this game so Martyn always carries some water for her.

It's amusing to see how she manages to hold the ball in her mouth while her tongue hangs from the other side.

From the park you can see the old castle. It has been closed to visitors for about thirty years. In all that time there has been much talk that it would be developed into a visitor attraction or hotel but is actually just left to go to rack and ruin. Many, many years ago I went to a wonderful medieval banquet there and they used to hold jousting tournaments in the grounds. Maybe this time they will keep to their word and turn into a luxury hotel.

Talking about the past, Martyn is wearing the T shirt I bought him for his birthday last month.
I'm a Beatles fan and Martyn likes fish and the clothing range, so I thought it was perfect!

New bridge

We haven't been going too far afield just lately as Martyn is still suffering with his sciatica and  going for his weekly physio sessions.

 Yesterday we parked up by the harbour to see how they are getting on with the new pedestrian and cycle bridge. They have put one of the bridge decks in place and the other will be put in place this week, it's currently sat in the car park opposite. The bridge will be opening early next month. It's name has been chosen by local school children and the winner will open the bridge and the finalists will be the first to cross the bridge. I'd like to go along to see the grand opening.

We managed to walk along the promenade as far as the town centre. Annie was looking to go on the beach but she's not allowed. We'll take her to the park today so she can stretch her legs off lead.

That's better

The glass in the conservatory window was replaced on Wednesday. I put everything back in place yesterday. The weather this week has been lovely so it's nice to have the conservatory back in use.

Let the sunshine in

After writing about our crazy weather of last week, we had a lovely sunny day yesterday, proper summer weather.

 The conservatory is still out of bounds but the glass in the door will finally be replaced next week. I say out of bounds but I couldn't resist letting a bit of the sunshine in.
We have cleared the furniture out of the way in readiness for the new glass, so I brought in a garden chair  and tucked Annie's conservatory bed in the corner.

The shattered glass has been covered with some plastic sheeting so is safe I hope, the glass fitter was surprised it has stayed intact. I can't wait to get in the conservatory proper. Weather and new glass permitting :-)

Crazy weather

It was our wedding anniversary on Saturday. I suppose every anniversary is significant but next year will be our ruby wedding anniversary and we're hoping to do something special to celebrate that one.

This year has had to be a quiet one at home as Martyn has been suffering from sciatica for the last two to three months and the reason looks to be a slipped disc. He is having weekly physiotherapy sessions and the exercises are helping to ease his pain. He's being very good and doing the exercises at home too.

It's been a lovely warm and sunny weekend. What a contrast from Thursday when I had to go into town. A lady at the bus stop asked me if I would watch out for the bus while she was busy trying to hold on to her umbrella and stop it from blowing inside out. I was trying to hold up the hood of my jacket and the large hail stones were hurting my hands!

It's Bank holiday Monday today and I've just looked out of the window and guess what... no surprises, it's raining!

A family prom day

Carol and Dave have returned home after spending the weekend with us.  Yesterday we took the dogs along to the nearby Prom Day but arrived earlyish before it got too busy. It's basically a giant fairground although as well as rides there are also many stalls and a big tent selling craft items.

There has been a lot of building work going on over the last couple of years and the new watersports centre was open to visitors. I don't like my photo being taken but I'll show you this one where I am being very brave standing on the glass ceiling above an office, trust me when I say I don't like heights. Dave reassured me that it wouldn't be too far to fall unlike the walk of faith in Blackpool Tower a few years ago, there was no way I was going on that!

The new watersport centre is in stark contrast to the decaying Victoria pier further along the promenade. We signed a petition to help save the pier. There has been a long running dispute about the ownership of the pier after it was bought by a private buyer and later closed due to bankruptcy. A group of volunteers are busy raising funds and applying for grants to save the pier from demolition.
Martyn has fond childhood memories of fishing with his father from the end of the pier and hates to see it in its present state of decay.

Anyway I'll leave you with a nice family photo of Carol and Dave and the three dogs, just look who is centre stage!  Carol is feeling quite tired from her illness but looking well.

             Back at home she took a cute close up photo of Annie which I just have to share:-)

A birthday, a couple of appointments and new doggy friends

It's Martyn's birthday today. I won't say how old he is except there isn't enough room on the cake for another fifty candles so he'll have to settle for eight :-) He had a fabulous birthday card from Carol which reminds us of a certain dog! I'm thinking I might use this picture as a header for my blog :-)

Unfortunately he has a dentists' appointment today and I have had to wait in for an engineer to come and measure up the shattered conservatory door. Apparently the glass can shatter spontaneously from a build up of heat but are recorded as unknown cause for insurance purposes. He was surprised that it had remained intact for over a week but as you can see the hole has got much bigger. So now we are just waiting for the glass to be ordered and it will be replaced in a week or twos' time.

Martyn has booked this week off work as yesterday he also had a hospital appointment. It was an early start for us so we took Annie along and we waited in the car for him. Knowing there is a nice big park near to the hospital Annie had a lovely big run afterwards. She made friends with a nice little dog called Anya. Her owner was very friendly and was hurling the ball for them both to chase. It was amusing him calling Anya and us calling Annie and they had a whale of a time running together.

A bit further along on our walk in the park we stopped to chat to a lady with a couple of miniature dogs, apparently they are twins, you can just see the little cute brown dog in the top corner of my photo. I was busy admiring the black one and the look on Annie's face is a picture :-)

                                        I also managed to snap a photo of a cute little robin

So all appointments are now out of the way and we can enjoy the rest of the week. We may be having Carol to visit. A friend of hers made a couple of personalised blankets for Eric and Tinker as a surprise present. Carol was so pleased she asked her friend to make one for Annie and Carol has emailed a photo and wants to deliver the blanket to Annie herself.

                           and just for good measure here's another photo of Annie after her run  :-)