"Mummy, we neeeeed another puppy!"

In life we learn to accept that there are some things that will never happen. And in the life of my family, one of those things is the getting of another puppy. Not while we have two dogs at home already. Not when the big boss thinks that two is a reckless surfeit of canine friends, agreed to only under the influence of a good bottle of red.

Not even when puppies are this cute and Littlest "neeeeeeds" another one -

But as the cliché goes 'never say never' unless the never refers to something that is either impossible, or that will absolutely never happen.

And in the never happening camp are such activities as me paragliding; or base jumping; or doing a parachute jump; or scuba diving; or bungee jumping; or that old oxymoron of enjoying a hot air balloon ride. Risk averse as always, my inner sheep dog is wagging its tail and keeping all feet firmly on the ground. I don't think Littlest would understand if I suggested that there are three dogs in this family already - Four-legged-friend, Bertie Baggins and my inner sheep-dog ... and in any case, I'm pretty sure I've had that sheep-dog for a while, so it definitely doesn't possess puppy features. Sadly!

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Colour, Delacroix, flochetage and why don't we all have a go at inventing words

Yes - it is a real word. Flochetage. Well, a real-ish word. One invented by the painter Delacroix, when he found the dictionary cupboard bare and required a word to describe his technique of layering different coloured paints, using lightly pulled brush strokes to create texture and pattern and thereby enhance his base-layer colours (... lost? - stick around, read on and all will become clear. Or perhaps muddier ...). Flochetage implies both stringiness and threadiness. Apparently. And it sounds good - in a filling-the-mouth-with-sound sort of a way. Try it ... flochetaaaage. Not that I speak French. So I am probably mis-pronouncing it. Nor am I an artist. So what do I know about painting techniques - except that I think this one works. What I do like is the concept - you invent a new technique in whatever it is you do, hunt around for the vocabulary to describe it, find the dictionary is lacking, so make up a word of your own and announce to the world what it means. Delacroix isn...

Holiday cake and old friends

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My beloved boy, how lucky I have been

It's an odd thing that when we are waiting for someone to die ... and I say someone here even though the one in question was a dog - but to us he had character and a place forever in our hearts and was more of a familiar someone than some of the people in our lives. So, I'll start again - it's an odd thing that when we are waiting for someone to die, our senses go into overdrive. We notice things that normally would be part of the background of our every day. We breathe more - or rather, we don't but what we do is notice our breathing more, as we watch his. We pause. We think. We listen to ourselves and our inner voices speak. Memories flood our dreams ... though sleep is fitful. Why am I telling you this? ... ... we lost this beautiful boy today And in the hours before he went, I saw perfect spheres of dew on blades of grass - little orbs holding micro-images of our world; a bumble bee drunk on nectar, yellow-dusted with pollen, resting in a crocus; ten - yes, ten! ...

Walking The Dog

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