Days Out, Ferns, Fruit, Tramp's Herbal, Trees

Lying in puddles

66 Comments

Ivy

Ivy

Ivy

IvyThere has been a simple misunderstanding here. I was not lying in a puddle, I was moisturising . Even tough guys have to look after their skin. She is only a puppy so I understand….

Ivy


She is not really a water dog.
Fizz

FizzI see that I’ve changed my Gravatar.

No, it’s cool. I thought maybe that we could have one with both of us in it. I have got one that I use on Google….

Holly

HollyThe weather has been really against us these last few days but I thought that you would enjoy these excerpts from our walks.

FizzWe are not walking along a stream bed in this next video this is a footpath.

I few days ago I started a conversation with a fellow in Australia. I became fascinated with their practice of burning grassland and brush before the available fuel builds up to dangerous levels. It is so different from the UK. Here dead wood habitat is vital to our biodiversity and burning dead wood is the worst waste of a very valuable and scarce resource. Australia is a very different country and the UK is very wet. I shouldn’t complain.

Hawthorn

Hawthorn

Hawthorn

The other silly thing that happened to me was that I offered to help a fellow set up a CCTV system because he was borrowing my trail camera and I wanted it back. Wow that went pear shaped. I had told him that I could do it but then he wanted the system to run through his lap top and that created big problems until yesterday we went out and bought a monitor. Ever said that you could do something and then wished that you hadn’t volunteered yourself?

Bracken

BrackenSo it is seven o’clock on Saturday morning and outside it is tipping down. We are so lucky to live in this green and pleasant land.

Catch up Poochy!

PoochySpring is coming.

66 thoughts on “Lying in puddles”

  1. Oh My God am I glad you are back. Do you know that that little muddy black and white canine actually changed your Gravatar? She is cute but ‘cute’ only does it for a while. What we out here in cyberspace want is substance not polly waffle puppy dog stuff.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  2. Thank you so so much for the super-cute photos of Fizz!!! 🙂 She is my favorite dog!! She makes me smile! 🙂 I was wondering are those videos on youtube as well? For some reason I cant watch them here on your blog, and I want to watch them! 🙂

    Like

    Reply

    1. Thank you Trini 🙂 I am so sorry to hear that you can’t see the videos. Fizz takes a lot of care in making these videos and she does all of her own stunts. It can be quite dangerous and in her latest film she nearly fell in a puddle. They are on You tube. If you click on the little you tube logo at the bottom of the video that should open a new tab for that video, you might be able to view it there. Or maybe this link will take you to my You Tube channel.

      https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCTZHW5w97FvvEXa0Pe1sFw/videos

      That seems to work for me. It is a new channel and there are only a few videos on there but all of the latest Fizz 🙂 I hope that you do get to see the videos.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Thank you so much!! 🙂 That link took me to one video, but I will click that youtube logo and see if I can see the other ones too! 🙂

        Like

  3. Wow! Fizz makes my cat seem a Luddite. She hacks your password and uploads a new Gravatar photo? Not to mention her writing skills. I let my cat do a guest post once and I had to upload the photo for it and all she wrote was a bunch of I-CAN-HAS-CHEEZBURGER-type gibberish.

    Like

    Reply

  7. She chose a good picture of herself for the gravatar. She had to think a bit on going in that water for the ball, but she sure does like her ball. It’s a beautiful area you live in there. Looks like our forests in the spring, before it gets really hot. The tree with the moss and ivy, what a lovely picture.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Thank you Boeta 🙂 Fizz and I have been sitting on the fence for some time now regarding awards. I think that our position is this: We are absolutely thrilled to be nominated for any award and consider it the kindest thought and greatest honour. Thank you very much. We are not going to pass the honour on, our secrets don’t need to be shared and we don’t wish to impose on our followers. With that knowledge you may choose to offer the award elsewhere. We will always be happy to receive a nomination. If like Boeta you just want to tell your readers that you like this blog or if you are just wondering where you can send that last nomination, we are here to serve 🙂 Thank you always for your kind thoughts and thank you Boeta for making me think about this. I need to make a page to clarify our take on awards. We are very grateful to receive a nomination but we won’t pass it on because we are mean and also kind 🙂 I am the kind one 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I know, I know…I did it just for the fun of it and to let people know we like following you. We got a second same award, yesterday, which we declined, as we do one of each and that is it. You should not worry or explain really, we knew it beforehand. Not expecting anything. I sometimes follow blogs others recommend, one way to find new great blogs with all the millions out there, and given we like a blog many times their selections are also liked. Had a comment yesterday on our selection of yours, saying it is in their top 10 as well. Just fun. Have a great week you 2, looking forward to more.

        Like

  9. I enjoyed this wet walk post. When I was a girl we had a labrador that didn’t really like getting wet and wouldn’t cross bridges. My father had to carry him across! I must go for a wood walk and smell the bracken. I love it!

    Like

    Reply

  10. I’m always wondering how you imbed those videos. I have tried but failed, is my problem that I am trying to upload videos from the internet? Any ideas what I’m doing wrong. Wettish here too. Happy Saturday.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Hi, just visiting fizz and friend when I saw your comment. I can’t put a video on mine either but that is because my wordpress theme won’t allow it unless I buy some thing extra. But you can just put a link up and it will play for your viewers if they want it.

      Like

      Reply

    2. Hi 🙂 Thank you Stephen and John. I am way behind responding to comments but I will catch up soon. I just want to reply to this one first because I am writing a new post and about to embed a video, so I will take you through it 🙂

      I am still using the old “Add new post” but this will work with the “New improved” version too. We are touching on the world of HTML but don’t worry John 🙂

      First I upload my video to You tube. This link should take you to one of mine.

      That link hasn’t exactly worked. It is showing you the video and not the page. Click on the You Tube logo at the bottom of the video and that will open the page that I wanted to show you in a new tab.

      Below the video and directly below the picture of me and Fizz there are some option buttons the first is “Add to” and the next is “Share” Click on “share.” That will open three new options, “Share” “Embed” and “Email” click on “Embed.” Now directly beneath the word “Embed” there is a long thin line of code highlighted in blue. Right click and copy it. That is the code that you need for this video.

      Go back to your WP writer

      Above the window that you write in there is a line of tabs starting with “B” for bold, above that on the right there are two tabs “Visual” and “Text” switch to text.

      If you look at the tabs above your writing space now, about two thirds of the way along one of the tabs says “Code” Carefully select where in your text you want to insert the video and click to position your cursor there and then click the “Code” tab. The word “Code” in brackets has now appeared in your writer.

      Immediately after the bracketed word paste the code that you copied from You Tube.

      Look back at the code tab it now says “/Code” This is a way of closing an HTML instruction, you must close everything that you open, so click on that tab again and the word “/Code” will appear in your writer.

      This next bit might sound confusing. If you want to continue writing after you have inserted your video you must continue after the closed brackets of the word “/code.” Sometimes if you switch back to visual and continue it will place your text on the wrong side of the brackets. To get round this I write the word “next” after the closed brackets while still in “Text” mode, then switch back to “Visual” and delete it to continue.

      That is it, sounds complicated but all you really have to know is, switch to text and insert code, remember to close your code.

      Switch back to visual and if you go to “preview” you will be able to play your video.

      Fizz taught me that 🙂

      Like

      Reply

      1. Phew, but I’ve only got O-Level art, what hope is there for me? I can see my first problem, years ago I “joined” You Tube” never used it and have lost my password. As John said I’ve also got an unco-operative wordpress template, and scraed to mess up what I’ve already posred if I change. I’ll scratch my head and think about the way forward. Bottom line is that the format I use is hopeless for grouping of posts.

        Like

    3. It does sound like a lot but it is really just a case of switching to text and inserting it as code.

      Stephen the easy answer to your You Tube password dilemma is just to open a new Gmail account, perhaps solely to get into you tube call it something like “Snowgoodsblog@gmail.com” and create a new password. You can then open a new You Tube account using the same details 🙂

      Like

      Reply

      1. Sounds good, by the way we saw a number of Common Darters today. It seems incredible, maybe the coastal areas haven’t had frost yet. Also a few Red Admirals on the wing.

        Like

  12. As always I enjoyed today’s post.

    We do burning in the US too; usually called controlled burns. In addition to getting rid of fuel that could create serious problems with lightening fires, the control burns can help the forest. The burns can get rid of the undergrowth to stimulate tree growth and some pine trees need heat to open their cones and spread their seeds.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Thanks David 🙂 There is a lot to understand about how we manage the land in different ways. There are many plants that thrive in Australia because of the culture of mosaic burning. We couldn’t burn England though, there is not enough of it and it is too wet 🙂

      Like

      Reply

  13. I do adore Fizz. So she used her Gravatar…..clever isn’t she.
    Loved all the foliage in this Blog. Hope Fizz doesn’t mind all the wet trails….she does use a rather perturbed expression sometimes.
    A Gravatar of both of you would be nice.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Thanks Ettel 🙂 Fizz doesn’t like water but if her ball is in the water…? Think of her as being like a brave cat 🙂 I am hoping that this winter won’t be another wash out, Fizz is just the right colour for snow.

      Like

      Reply

  14. Fires in oz are part of the natural cycle
    Some plants don’t germinate without it, aborigines, like north Americans, were skilled at using it for land management. After a fire. the first plant to reappear is the bramble

    Like

    Reply

    1. Thank you Barb 🙂 Australia is a very different climate from the UK. From what I have been reading and discussing about pre Aboriginal history though Australia was not always dependent on burning. Before Man came along vegetation was controlled by the large herbivores that lived there and it was us hunting them to extinction that created the problem. The Aborigines being hunters then learned to use controlled burning as a way of farming the land. Burning creates new growth which attracts wildlife that you can then hunt. A type of farming. It is just the way that Man adapts to different climates. We modify our surroundings. It is a big subject that I don’t nearly understand yet and probably never will but it is interesting.

      Like

      Reply

  15. I don’t know how to tell you, but she IS a water dog. At least she’s the wettest dog I’ve ever seen. How many baths does she get a day? A muddy, wet dog, if I’ve ever seen one:) And sneaky too, changing your picture and all. Who knows what else she’s done, besides eat your sock?

    Like

    Reply

  16. I do miss that green and pleasant land except the rain but it is raining here too and lots of colours changing. It is an odd part of Spain that attracts spanish tourists in the fall. And oh yes the Spanish water dog is very popular here ….. Smaller than the Portuguese one. Love that dog!

    Like

    Reply

  19. Love the videos of Fizz! I finally finished 6 more designs of her. She is a precious little dog. And yes, I have often regretted volunteering my time and efforts. So much so, that I seldom do it any more. Leaves little room for being taken advantage of!

    Like

    Reply

  20. I hope you are having as much fun writing these posts as I am having reading them (I hope Fizz had fun too) and I personally liked the moment when, having run through the muddiest part of the “path” to get the ball, Fizz decided she was too delicate to walk back through the mud and had to walk on the edge of the path. BTW, were those pictures of rose hips or some other berry?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you Virginia 🙂 It is hard not to have fun with Fizz. As soon as she hears me getting ready to take her out she is excited and she bounces off the farm. The berries were Hawthorn.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Thanks for identifying the berries, I am on a berry kick right now but have found that most of the ones in my little woods are from non-native invasive plants like multiflora rose and Oriental bittersweet. Ugh.

        Like

  21. Looking like the holidays with all that holly and ivy, hawthorn, too. 🙂 That little Fizz has such an adorable face, the way she keeps looking up to see if you’re still coming. One really needs a good raincoat and wellies out there!

    Like

    Reply

    1. Thank you Eliza 🙂 I need a good raincoat and wellies. Fizz seems to be escaping her monthly trip to the barbers. I think that they are going to let her coat grow through the winter. That is good, I suppose sheep farmers would know things like that 🙂

      Like

      Reply

    1. Thank you Ibeth 🙂 I am trying to delay the shift of power for as long as I can. She may be the star but I am the camera man and without me she would be nothing. I think, anyway maybe she will give me a job when she is famous.

      Like

      Reply

  24. There is controlled burning here in small areas. Our main threat is uncontrolled fires when people burn offerings at graves dotted around the countryside. I love the bracken. It reminds me of the Welsh hills back home. There ought to be a TV programme about you two. One man and his dog?

    Like

    Reply

      1. It is seasonal, Colin. It can get very dry and like a tinderbox. We get very high humidity from May to October but its really only in the typhoon seasons that rain is an issue.

        Like

Leave a comment