BAD DOG

And so it becomes the cone of destruction. When I took OB to tennis and then a friend's mid morning, I left the dogs in their crates. I returned an hour later to find Jack had removed and rendered the cone completely unusable just after closing time at the vet's. When I opened the crate door, he grabbed it and tore off into the garden, ignoring my reprimands, and started tossing it about. Had the vet's been open tomorrow, he would have been due to have the stitches out, so rather than spend huge amounts of money calling them out of hours for a bit of non-dog-proof bendy plastic, I'm afraid that's it. I'll take the evidence in on Monday and hope he doesn't remove his own stitches in the meantime. Look at his innocent little face:

We woke up to snow this morning which was a bit of a shock:

The ponies were knocking snow off with their hooves to get to the tender new gorse shoots:

Jack was still coned at this point...

Rodent hunting: 

This is a great shot to show how we are above the snow line here. There wasn't a trace of it on the other side of the cattle grid:

Barking at Snippet:

After the cone chewing incident, we went for a quick walk between showers. The snow had completely gone and Jack found a hoof from a cow that had died out on the moor:

The wind was unbelievably strong, blowing puddles into waves:

A long view of Trigger in the madam's field:

Earlier in the week we had mist and grey between showers:

I loved this gnarly, lichen peppered dead gorse clinging to a rock:

Today I got a good sequence of shots of a Dunnock today. I often find, with their brilliant camouflage, the camera, on auto, doesn't like them. These are better.....I think:

It was chaotic at the seed feeder..........

..................with moments of calm:

This next one of the Nuthatch isn't brilliant, but shows the beautiful pattern on its rump/back of the tail feathers:

The car exchange went okay and didn't take too long. I now have a Vauxhall Corsa from the hire company. Never been a fan of the Vauxhall and now I feel vindicated in my prejudice as it's awful. Under-powered with a vulgarly flashy interior and knobs that look they're made of melted down pink national health specs. I miss the Polo. 

I hope you're all having a good weekend and, until next time, here's the Jack before.........

................and after. What a bad dog.

NOT TAKING IT EASY

Yes,  we have snow and not even that is deterring Jack and what is now the cone of athleticism. I gave up trying to keep him from running on day two and, after today's check up, it seems it's doing him no harm. The vet just shrugged when I told him. Snippet seems to think they can still fight and has to be told off for doing so. Who, me?

OB hiding behind the wall as Jack streaks past, stretching that wound:

Sticks can still be fought over:

There's no holding him back:

Snippet pretended to set a good example....

Hmmmm........

We had this lovely sky over the weekend:

And lots of grey.

And significant snowfall yesterday:

I noticed this Cladonia lichen with orange rather than red 'flowers'. I've never seen it like this and since it's on one of my regular routes, I must keep checking it to see if it stays orange or reverts to red.

One of those lone escapees from Fernworthy Forest:

A little snow settled in the distance: 

Trigger still seems to be finding grass in the little paddock here but is at last eating some hay at night. It's been a cheap winter for me in that respect; only one bale so far.

Ponies sheltering from the wind that blew the snow from all but the most sheltered bits of the moor:

I have recently taken possession of my first smart phone. I've been resisting it but, after the two weeks we spent without a land line with me relying on a mobile that doesn't work in the house and standing out in the rain on the compost heap to make calls, I found my old phone was wanting in many areas. The most serious of these is the fact that, if you have to press keys during a call as you get given infuriating options, the virtual keyboard doesn't work and you are left unable to contact any of the companies responsible for the lack of phone line. The point of telling you this, is that I decided to do the RSPB garden bird survey on it on Sunday and it worked so well and was so easy. I'm a convert, having said to the woman on the phone a week ago that I would probably never use the internet. I feel like an idiotic teenager as I stand in the kitchen checking my email. I even wrote the first paragraph of this post with it but the lack of apostrophe and other punctuation was irritating me too much to go on. I usually do the survey and then forget to look at any results so I must try and remember this year. I had the camera out too.....

On Saturday, we got the Polo back after nearly four weeks in the garage. That afternoon, we were filling it up with diesel when a hearse pulled up next to it, opened the immense driver's side door, which caught the wind and smashed into the Polo's front wing, leaving a large dent. This car is jinxed I swear. I have spent over three hours over the last few days on the phone to the insurance company and many other people who thought it would be a good idea for two people to come and pick the Polo up and drive it back to Exeter, 25 miles away. Then a strange man from a hire company would come and pick me up, drive me to Newton Abbot, 20 miles away to sign the paperwork for the hire car which I would then drive home. A complete waste of time and fuel to be repeated when the car is mended. Luckily I spoke to a sensible woman at the hire place who said they have a depot 200 yards from the garage in Exeter. I can drive the Polo to the garage and walk up the road to the hire place. Simple.....I hope. We'll see on Thursday. I can't believe we're losing the Polo AGAIN. Incidentally, the hearse was empty of coffins at the time of the incident!

Rant over - sorry. Welcome to two more followers as we edge further towards 100. I think I should do some sort of giveaway when and, more importantly, if it happens. I'll have a think. So until next time, here are the boys looking at Kestor. Only six more days with the cone.....