After a long gap. I'm still here at Bodyfuddau, getting older and more decrepit but coping. Only have one dog now, Silver. She's getting elderly too but still galloping a mile a day down the lane while I accompany her on a mobility scooter.
The sheep are all gone. Luki and Badger lasted till they were 18 which is pretty old for a sheep. When Oli had to tell Llinos that Badger was no more, she said sadly, 'That's the end of my childhood. isn't it. Badger had arthritis like me so went to live on the farm with Oli as it was dangerous for him here as he could not get out of the stream if he wandered into it and I couldn't rescue him. The last rime he did that Oli had to rescue him. He had a nice life though.
I think I may have to find another home for this blog as I am not quite sure where it is now.

Due to our wild Welsh weather and my state of health there is not a lot to report on the animal side. Having waited a year for some continuation in the treatment of my second knee and my right arm, both hospitals sent for me practically simultaneously. Fortunately, the summer festivals being  over, I could call on Emma for help. She had to commute as she and Phillip now have a year old son called Noah, a charming little boy. But she valiantly came up nearly every day to do the animals while I rattled back and forth in hospital transport between Ysbyty Gwynedd [Bangor] and Liverpool. Had my second new knee which like the first has been a great success. Only real problem was me rather than the knee and I am still somewhat groggy a lot of the time.
It didn't help that lightening struck our telephone [new dual one I had just bought] and there is still a peoblem. Emails don't work and only phone is a 30 year old bt one that I brought downstairs to the sitting room so that o can hear it and with luck get there before it stops. Spent some time in good nursing home. We are lucky around here in our medical services. The next thing is to get the arm done  -- cat can on friday and then preop in March. When the lightening struck Dyfi dog landed on my lap utterly terror struck. He is the biggest but also the greatest wimp of the three,
While I've been at home I have been investing in the services of an excellent jobbing carpenter to get various long outstanding jobs done. This had the double advantage that he [Pete] is quite in love with the wolf pack. as he calls my collies.

collies and gardening

Today for the second day running we actually have warm sunshine here in Snowdonia and I have even done a few minutes gardening at intervals. I bought a wonderful implement with a fairly long handle and a very sharp curved blade from a company called Elderberry who sell things for people with disabilities or sheer old age.  This thing has actually enabled my almost useless right arm to weed patches whose weeds I can then gather up with the left hand. Probably I'd better put some bits of wire fence on flower beds before Jess realises it's spring and decides to help.
This is her smiling. Yes, I do mean smiling, not snarling.

 I am in the process of writing a book of animal stories, pure fiction, unlike And Hereby Hangs a Tail which is true. All the tales concern a small border collie who doesn't like sheep, her dragon friend and her boss who is a poet.
This episode concerns gardening so I thought I'd post it.

THE FILIGREE SHEEPDOG DECIDES TO HELP

The poet had been busy in his garden. Now it was lunchtime.

He looked around his newly dug flower beds. The antirrhinums his friend had given him were all planted in a newly dug bed. He thought they would be lovely next year when they came into bloom. They would look really nice in front of the phlox he’d planted last year and which were growing well.

Now, he thought, it’s time for a nice cool drink and some lunch. Ffili followed him into the kitchen and put on her most hopeful look.

‘I suppose you want your lunch too?’ said the poet.

‘Yes, please.’ said Ffili.

The poet placed a nice bowl of meat and biscuit on the floor by her water bowl and Ffili tucked in enthusiastically.

When she’d finished and the poet had made his own lunch, he opened the door for Ffili.

‘Perhaps you’d better go out for a few minutes, little one,’ he said.

Ffili went out. I liked it better when it was wild and grassy, she thought. She eyed the fork that the poet had left stuck in the flower bed. Strange that people needed a thing like that for digging. She could do it much quicker with her paws. She decided to surprise him with a bit of help.

She started on the flower bed behind the new plants. He hadn’t dug that at all. Her little paws flashed in and out and the soil flew behind her. It was good fun, especially when she came to the plants. They were tougher than the earth and she had to dig hard to get the roots out. She’d noticed how the poet dug out a lot of grass and stuff, so she dug really hard and even pulled some roots out with her teeth.

When she thought she’d done enough, she went in to fetch the poet. He was sitting by the fire with his slippers on, but he followed her out to see what she was wuffing about.

All his lovely phlox plants were lying around the lawn in pieces and a good deal of the flower bed too.

He was surprised but definitely not pleased.

It is getting necessary to limit my livestock activities and gardening. The front garden has now been rationalised to the point where it is mostly lawn [if one can call it that when Silver has continued to wreak havoc in spite of my underlay of carpark netting!] and the only flower beds are around the edge. I'm trying to stock them with plants that can defeat weeds and don't need too much attention.
I had thought my are was recovering from the shoulder operation gradually but then it started getting worse instead of better. This was a bit alarning until the surgeon pointed out on the latest xray that I had broken my collar bone. So I am slightly mollified on the grounds that one could expect that to limit progress.

Meantime the animals are all well except my dear old Felix, who at the age of nearly 12 jumped the top wall and met his death. So now there are only two sheep.
The photo is Felix RIP in front, followed by Luki [left] and Badger [right].

I seem to have neglected this for best part of a year. It has been a complicated year. The recession has more or less put a stop to my language teaching so I have been selling books on Amazon. That has meant a lot of time checking, cleaning and listing books. Also Dog walking has taken more time, partly because my walking has deteriorated [had my 80th birthday in July] and partly because my dear Emma has not been able to walk dogs as she was heavily pregnant for sveral months. That has a happy ending -- the arrival several weeks ago of baby Noah.  The picture which hopefully will appear below this is Dyfi with emma's Rocky up on the mountain while Emma was still coming. Rocky is part bulldog and part Boxer and is very clever. This year he even noticed what Emma wanted when she was shepherding sheep out of a field preparatory to a game of ball and he took to doing it for her, and not a drop of sheepdog blood in him. Dyfi is wearing a muzzle in case they  encountered any sheep on the mountain; he is not to be trusted.

Emma is recovering from her caesarian and is hoping to get back to some dog walking soon. Rocky wants to see his friends.
Dyfi, meanwhile comes with me every morning to feed my three woolly pets. He stands outside the pigsty while I dish out shee- muesli. He is actually quite useful as without him Felix comes in and stanps on my heels with sharp-pointed hooves. The first day I fed them Badger had forgotten the routine and was inside the pig sty. Finding the way blocked by me and Dyfi he charged and I went on my back in the mud. By the time Badger had extricated himself from the dog lead he had also removed Dyfi's collar. I struggled to my feet yelling 'Paid!' [don't] and found Dyfi faithfully beside me and not giving chase. One virtual gold star for good behaviour.

Summer's End at Bodyfuddau

Wasn't much of a summer, was it? I quite enjoyed some of it as, at least when I could abandon the computer, I could do some gardening. I did have quite big areas in front of and behind the house. Behind was only accessible by either going right round the house and through several gates or through the archway where they used to keep the carts [and I used to keep my goat]. A small part of that is raised beds and slate paths but it has been taken over by a jungle of ras[pberries and tay berries, rhubarb and black currents so I leave it as it is and gather what i can. All the rest of the back is grass and is mown by pet sheep. I am in process of extending it to make a big playground for dogs, including training for Dyfi. The latter will happen more in the winter as I can then bribe the woollies into that area with food and make him behave in their vicinity. That's the plan anyway. I'm awaiting a nice big shed to keep dog agility equipment and grooming wherewithall.

The front I've kept as garden and, with an hour a week of help, I can more or less manage that and it has been quite pretty this year. The improvements included a rockery beside the front door and two weeks ago I was putting Dyfi's lead on before a walk when Silver ran full tilt into my feet, canoning me into the rockery face down so I have spent all that time eating only spahgetti, soup or bread with no crusts. Just got to managing marmelade with thin peel. Apart from such accidents I manage very well gardening now as, so long as I'm on the flat, I don't even notice the knee. My right arm is getting worse but I'm getting fairly adept at some things left handed.
Two photos give an idea of the front garden. One is my trellis after last winter's gales, showing also the state of the lawn after much circling by Silver, who runs in circles whenever excited [that's how come she collided with me]. The other is after resurrecting the clematis and putting green plastic mesh on the lawn for the grass to grow through. She still circles but only mows pathways, doesn't make excavations.

Sorry for the long gap. I have been hindered by many hospital visits of which I don't think you all need details. The final result is that I am now back home with a complete new knee and it is fast getting so much better that I'm beginning to forget how awful the old one was. Before the date for the new one arrived the old one bled into the joint and I had to be rescued by two very kind para-medics and spent the week in hospital on morphine with about a binbag full of ice round my leg. When they brought me back Welsh winter had kicked in and the ambulance just got up my lane and my front garden was an ice sheet I didn't dare walk on.
Fortunately Emma had been in residence ever since I went and she walked a 3 mile round trip in the snow every day to walk the collies and feed ducks and sheep.
Then at last I had the op. Managed to give 6 extra drakes to a good home the night before I left. To catch them one has to arrange for the recipient of ducks to come here at about dusk so that I can corrall them as they come in for their tea. Anyway I now have a more suitable little flock ready for spring but no one is laying. They haven't forgiven me for being kept in through two long periods of snow.
Emma moved back in while I was back in hospital and is still here most of the time, bless her, although I am now quite good walking about indoors and even outside a bit. Haven't risked walking dogs yet as Dyfi could chrge into me and dislodge crutches. The dogs are thoroughly enjoying Emma and her dog, Rocky. who is their bosom friend.
Picture of snow play. The one up above that isn't a collie is Rocky. He is bulldogxboxer and is exactly like a very small boxer with chopped of legs - very energetic.

Now I wonder if this site will let me post the collie one down here? Evidently not so see above.