Our onboard clocks became very confused yesterday (Saturday), like much of nature it turns out, as the temperatures soared to about 16 deg C and the sun blazed through the autumn leaves.

Buster enjoys trampling in the leaves

Although it was quite soggy underfoot after the rain overnight, we escaped to the woods for our walk and were rewarded with carpets of golden leaves and fantastic sniffs.

The weather has been most unusual given that it is the middle of November almost and we all should be shivering with cold. It is like a mid-spring day.

As we start to write this update on Sunday morning, the windows are open on the house and it is a very pleasant 12 deg C outside. No sign of the winter duvet coming out yet for the humans, or the heating going on tonight.

To the woods

Autumn colours drift across the woods

As mum and dad had loads of stuff to do at home this weekend our walk had to be quite local, so we headed to the north of the city and the woods behind the Kingstown Estate.

Quite a large number of other dogs were also taking advantage, like us, of the fantastic conditions.

Since our  last visit, many of the trees have lost their leaves and these now lay scattered on the ground.

Lichen clings to a branch bare of all leaves

Many have curled up and now act like little water reservoirs collecting the rain. These are ideal water sources for ground clambering bugs and it also helps the leaves rot away into the forest floor.

Camera testing

Dad purchased a new camera about a week ago and so the fantastic leaf colours and low dappled light gave him something to work with, as we walked around between the trees and bushes.

Catkins growing on the trees ahead of spring

It is another Canon camera, the Powershot SX150 IS , and his first impressions are quite favourable.  The long zoom lens, 12x optical, allows for some good framing and the fact it uses AA batteries allows him to use the many rechargeable ones he has around the house.

The macro facility is causing him a few problems however, if he read the manual, these are more likely operational quirks rather than a problem with the camera.

First signs of spring

Although many trees and bushes are now bare of leaves mum spotted the first signs of spring with these very new catkins forming.

A bench in a woodland glade surrounded by golden leaves

Still closed up these flowers clusters are, when open, full of pollen which drifts in the breeze in mid-spring.

Whilst we mention about spring, we spotted in the garden the first of the bulbs starting to break through the damp brown ground in the garden.

Given the size of the shoots they were possibly from some of the many hundreds of daffodil bulbs mum put in the ground last year.

If they keep on growing like they are doing, and we do not have any hard frosts, we may even have daffodils out for Christmas, in five weeks time.

Until next time

Big licks

Buster and Charlie

Santa has been to our house once more and brought us some lovely gifts for Christmas Day.

Is this one for me, is it?

The freezing temperatures have not stopped Father Christmas defrosting his sleigh for Christmas 2010.  So what is dad’s excuse for washer bottles freezing and needing to scrape the windows?

Two dogs in Cumbria now have very happy lickers thanks to gifts provided by our readers and friends.

Christmas Day

An early start on Christmas Day for us all but first some porridge and a cup of tea for mum and dad.

How long does it take for them to eat their breakfasts?  Hurry up. Santa has been and we have loads of lovely sniffs all wrapped up under the tree.

Eventually they finish and we can get down to some serious unwrapping.  Every parcel is inspected to see if it contains chocolate, biscuits or squeaky things for us.

Presents for Buster and Charlie

Dad gets a number of bottles of brown gold coloured liquids that he calls whisky. The glass is cold on our noses and they smell slightly of caramel or the sea.

Mums soapy things make us sneeze.  One  gift was of talc  and it has slightly leaked in the packaging.  When the parcel was opened Charlie was covered with white powder. It was funny and he sneezed and sneezed until mum wiped his nose with a cloth.

Christmas gifts from Toby

Thanks to our friend Toby, in South Cumbria, we are the proud owner of two well wrapped presents.

Toby tucks in to his hide boot

Mum has decided that she is going to keep these prezzies in a safe place for a few weeks as we have plenty of other things to be getting on with.

Toby sent us a photograph of the hide boot chew we sent him.  He says he loved pulling out the laces then working on the big flat pieces.

He adds that it took him most of Christmas Day afternoon to deal with the challenge.

You open it, go on...

He goes on to say that the snow and ice is still causing problems to walk on for his human but now that she has some new rubber pull-on walking spikes, walks around the block are back to their normal length once more.

Christmas gifts for dogs

Back to our gifts and one thing missing, thankfully for the sanity of our two-leggers, are squeaky toys.

Posh gifts from Santa

Not one parcel contained a christmas cracker or pully-tuggy toy thing with a squeak.

A whole Christmas without the squeak, squeak of the shrill squeakers and mum reaching for the headache pills before lunch.

Highlight of the gifts has to a be a doggy breakfast and a packet of Scooby Snacks.

Thick rashers of bacon, hashbrowns and other breakfast lovelieness in a box and all for us, yummy.

Sprout stalk to clean our teeth

Dad says we can have one Scooby snack or rasher each per day.  Next he will be issuing a Ration Book like they had during the War.

Christmas sprout stalk

The seasonal Christmas lunch would not be complete without sprouts, and this year was no exception.

A fantastic raw sprout stalk, cut into sections will keep us going for quite a few days. Assuming mum doesn’t break the knife she uses to cut it with.

That is all for now as we need to lay down in front of the fire whilst the two leggers watch something on the magic window. They mentioned something about a lonely goat on a motorcycle in a chocolate factory I think.

Happy Christmas for us all

Buster and Charlie

Week three or is it four weeks now that the temperatures have remained below zero in many parts of the county.

Unfrozen puddle

Our regular walk to the park to check on the unfreezing puddle indicated that in part the water has become solid with ice. However, it is very thin and mum stopped us walking on it in case we fell through.

Interestingly, as can be seen by the photograph, the overnight snow has not covered the puddle over, so maybe some heat is still left in our thermal spring.

Maybe dad could buy the land and build a spa complex on it just for pooches.

We do get sore muscles and bad skin like humans, so why shouldn’t we get a bit of pampering…

Snowballs

Today Charlie learnt all about snow balls and chasing them. Mum tried like mad to make them so he could have something to run after.

Throw me a snowball ...

The latest fall of snow was very powdery, just like false snow you would find in a shop window at Christmas or the stuff straight out of an aerosol can.

Mum had to warm her hands before picking up the snow so a little of it would melt and form a sort of icy-snowball.

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Video

Dad has been busy with the video and stills camera over the last few days snapping away taking pictures of snow.

He has put together a gallery of some of the stuff taken over the last few days below for your enjoyment.

Both mum and dad are now very busy writing up various articles for some of their websites and just letting us lay by the fire, toasting slowly.

We take it in turns hot-bunking on the rug whilst the other gets comfortable in a cooler part of the house. Mum thinks that maybe we were marshmallows or gods in a previous life.  I suppose that dog is merely god spelled backwards. So following that way of thinking we must also be a wollamhsram. Whatever one of those is?

Until next time

Buster and Charlie

Gallery

Some of dad’s pictures and a video he has put together for Naturearoundme.com

Bright sunshine and with mum and dad on holiday once more we escaped the confines of the house and out for a walk.

Puddle still un-frozen

First thing on our list was to check to see if our puddle, the one we spotted the other day, had frozen.

Despite the temperatures overnight dropping to at at least -5deg centigrade the puddle still remained unfrozen.

Mum and dad now wondered what was keeping the water from freezing over.

Maybe it was being fed from an underground hot spring left undiscovered by the Romans when they left the area a few thousand years ago.

Buster enjoys the snow

It is thought that the nearest bath house to us is to be found on the site currently occupied by the Market Hall in the centre of the City so quite a few miles away from our location.

Overhead

Today has been a busy day for the air ambulances in the area.

Whilst we were out on our walk a green and white helicopter flew over us quite low as he went in to land at the nearby hospital.

Frozen leaf

As we type this blog update we can hear again the sound of whirling rotor blades as for about the fourth time today a helicopter is on route to the helipad at the Cumberland Infirmary.

Really winter

Everything is looking very festive and somehow just right for the season after the weeks of cold temperatures.

For many years our winters seem to have been only wet, damp and miserable however the cold, crisp days with the bright sunshine just seem to have lifted spirits.

It has been very unusual to have a white Christmas all through the holiday period.

Charlie enjoys the snow

We have been out far more in the last few weeks than at times during the summer.  Yes we get cold paws and Charlie gets a soggy tummy but we stay clean.

Peaking through undergrowth

Another thing we have noticed is that when it is cold the sniffs really do smell a whole lot better.

With temperatures dropping outside mum brought some of her plants indoors to escape the frost. In normal times they would be ok in the greenhouse but it anything below -4 dec C she says will freeze their roots and stems.

Gorse in full flower

Suddenly the bathroom and the kitchen look like jungle film sets and at anytime you expect a Bear Grhyls or some other explorer or naturalist peaking through the undergrowth.

Bright yellow flowers surrounded one side of the field we went for a walk in today.  Despite the icy conditions and the recent snow falls the gorse still seems to be flowering.

Mum says this is unusual in the north of England however many reports suggest that gorse is now flowering all year around.

Buster and Charlie enjoy a walk

Against the white ground and bare branches of nearby trees the many bushes about 2m high really stood out and provided a happy sunny hedge.

Buster once again wore his blue jacket with the reflective stripes to help keep his hip warm.  He is not really a fan of it as it is a little bit ridged on his back and makes him feel a little awkward. The benefit comes when he gets home and doesn’t feel too clunky and sore.

I love my walks and am always keen to get onto the scent of a new animal.  Today, left in the snow were sets of four paw prints mum thought had been left by bunnies.

Just look at the field

Now I don’t know what one of these critters looks like but they seem to have rounded rectangular paws and smell slightly of damp earth. I think they must be fluffy like me.

Coloured snow

It is hard work being out in front on walks and looking after Buster. Sometimes I just take a break and sitting or lying on the snow just take a moment to look around.

Did you know you can eat snow? Mum picked some of the white stuff in her hand and like magic it turned to licky water,  what a great trick.

This got me wondering what would happen if I licked the snow up on my licker.

I wish we had a sledge...

I have to say it was cold and it sort of crackled but it soon melted and I was sorted. Drinks whenever I needed,  for this walk anyway.

Just a note of caution at this point,  coloured snow is not good.  I need say no more. Yuck.

Husky

Towards the end of the big field we had to descend down quite a big hill. You can see a picture of it to the right of the page.  Next time it snows we know exactly where to come for some sledging. I can run in front with a harness on and pull Buster around just like a sled dog team.

On the subject of sled dogs the Siberian Husky Club of Great Britain have been holding a rally this weekend near Penrith.

The winter sunshine is very warm

Usually in the UK the sleds are equipped with wheels and are pulled by a team of dogs over forest tracks. Maybe this year the full experience may have been possible with the sleds running on the snow, as they would do in the frozen wildernesses of Siberia.

Picture

One of the unseen problems with this website is the number of blurred photographs my dad takes of us. This is not, usually, because he can’t take a good picture but because we do not stand or sit still for very long.

Very often dad will load the pictures on to the computer and all you will see across the screen is a black and white blur  or a shaky tan coloured splodge, sorry Buster.

So you can imagine his relief when he downloaded the above photograph from the camera.

Have a safe and peaceful 2010

Until next time

Charlie and Buster

Gosh it has been hot for the last few days.  So hot we have been staying outside to try and keep cool as the house has been unbearable.  Even the tiled kitchen floor didn’t cool us down.

An indoor - outdoor thing ....

Mum purchased earlier this year an indoor –  outdoor room for the garden.  This has allowed us to keep cool in what breeze there has been away from the harsh sun outside.

It is a great gadget and with the lights dad put up a few days ago allows mum and dad also to enjoy the outdoors into the late evening.

Just chillin' in the warmth ...

Today the temperatures have dropped to be a manageable 23 degrees and to celebrate dad is playing music by Dire Straits and other tracks from iTunes.

We can see that his help is going to be limited as the occasional air guitar is played and the pencil drumsticks are used.  It is going to be a long afternoon…

A cool dip with a friend

Let us hope he doesn’t start mixing song titles into our blog or we will have to carry out a Private Investigation and remind him who are the Local Hero’s.

A cool river dip

Last night we travelled to Dalston.  We went the long way around as it gave us a chance to cool off in the air conditioning.

First stop was the river where we both got some welcome relief from the heat in the cool water.

Gooseberries

Here we met up with another friend who had an interesting twist on the searching for stones game we often play.

She ran into the water and popped her head under the water gathering up a stone from the river bottom and bringing it to the waters edge.  She then ran back into the water and got another and another.

Summer fruits

Mum has started the annual harvest.  First crop has been some of the many gooseberries from the allotment.

The red and green fruits have been topped and tailed and put in bags for the freezer.

Strawberry

We are not allowed them as mum thought they would be bad for us but dad tells us they are great in a crumble during the winter.

Mum thought she was working an a Chain Gang as she worked her way through hundreds of berries.

The many hanging baskets full of strawberry plants are dripping with fruit it being Wimbledon Tennis Season.

Sugar Snap Peas

The hot sunshine has really ripened the fruit and mum has started going to the garden on a morning, picking some of the fruit which she then slices for her breakfast on top of some yoghurt.

You can not get fruit fresher than that and with no transport costs.

One harvest we have been able to try has been the Sugar Snap Peas mum was processing this week.

Water Lilly

Again from the allotment, they were very crunchy and fantastic to throw around before we eventually ate them.

Again another big bag full went into the freezer after a few were lightly steamed for an evening meal.

Finally we just had to share a photograph of the water lilly flower in our pond.  It was lapping up the hot conditions during the daytime only to close in the cooler evenings.  it is quite clever for a plant.

Thats all for now as it is now not Too Hot for Dancing in the Street as gardeners start Singing in The Rain as the heavens open with a welcome Downpour….

Until next time

Buster and Charlie