Joust about there

It's officially the summer season and that means it's dog shoes and days out galore!

This weekend we had our first dog show of the year with Bravehound and I am pleased to say that Missy placed second in Still Game and sixth in dog udge would most like to take home - not a bad start to the year!

Wee Ben joined in and placed second in waggiest tail, so a good day all round! Always lovely to have my sister join in on a dog show - although she is starting to get competitive, clearly caught the bug for it!

We then dashed over to linlithgow for our next camping adventure and the jousting on Sunday!

Before the day got too hot, I got some photos of Missy in her Redwall armour (in which there is no coincidence that it matches Sir Checkmate!). We've done the joist loads now, and whilst the plot changes a little each time, I'm always heartened to cheer on my favourite pantomime villain!

We did banner making, had a go at medieval calligraphy and just overall had a lovely day. It was great being right beside the campsite and being able to walk to and fro and next year we're thinking of doing the same for the Caerlaverock joust.

And then we got back home and the rain came. It's been a great year for the garden, although a dry spell, even a few hours would be appreciated to get everything picked!

There's a lot booked on in July, so I'll keep you all updated as and when I can!

Joust in Time

Following on from Missys mishap with the evil squirrels; we had literally booked a trip away the day before - last minute and non refundable. 

We waited out it out and, as she had passed the ten days bed rest and was getting very frustrated and bored, we decided that a change of scenery was perhaps just what the vet would recommend. 

The plan had always been a very quiet glamping trip to de-stress from the rat race, so why not? 

And Maisie came too! We had double booked a weekend looking after her with our holiday, so just extended her stay with us. To stop over walking Missy, we split them up for walks so that Missy was effectively still on bed rest whilst Maisie got a full walk. It worked a charm with, I think, both dogs appreciating the alone time with a human. 

We went down to Penrith and stayed at Howdy Glamping in their gypsy pod. It was exactly as advertised, neatly tucked away in a woodland and in a black spot for signal, just what we wanted! 

We did get in some adventures. One day was spent at Brougham Castle and the neighboring King Arthur's Table. That was our best day weatherwise as... 

 

Our day in Ullswater was rather wet! We did the steamers so that Missy spent most of the day resting barring the short walk we did at Howtown Pier. There wasots of dogs on the sailing, and we enjoyed chatting away to folk. We stopped for lunch at one end of the lake and then had tea and dessert on the other end!

 and then it was time for home and a stop at Carlisle Castle. It was a great castle but I was getting concerned about the amount of stairs. Whilst Missy is a master of the spiral staircase, we're to restrict too much of that motion, and Maisie has legs that are far too short for such tall flagstones. She gave up halfway and I had to carry her the rest of the way!

Theres not a lot to say of the holiday. We didn't spend as long as we normally would at places (thank goodness our passes got us in free!) owing to Missy. And if I'm honest, owing to ourselves. Hubby and I have definitely burned the candle too much at both ends recently. We definitely needed the quiet evenings listening to birdsong and playing cards.

We finishes our little holiday back home with the Spectacular Jousting in Linlithgow. Always a highlight in the calander. We took it super easy: no walk in the morning for Missy. She walked from the car to the Jousting. Lay down and watched said jousting whilst being fawned over for her Sir Checkmate inspired regalia, and then a wee dither about the stalls before we repeated the above in reverse.

Whilst she didn't get to meet her favourite pantomime villain, we all had a terrific time. Missy is definitely on the mend and wants to do much more than we're letting her, but these things take time to heal. So hopefully the cha he in sights and smells will be enough to have her feel less bored for now. 

Anyway, until next time, here is a photo of the infamous Sir Checkmate to tide you over! 

Following the Stars

It's been a quick one! For Maisies last weekend with us, she went on her first ever holiday! (Something that was meant to have happened sooner, but Covid kinda got in the way).

This was a mixed week with Maisie. In some regards it was more successful (no barking during video calls, I was able to work upstairs in my study rather than the living room and she was eating both her breakfast and dinner with great enthusiasm), but at the same time we hit a real low when she had a moment of absolute petulance and went missing for 45 minutes. 

Petulant? How? Well, she ran around and past hubby as he tried to pop her on lead at a point in the walk she kept vanishing on, bounced over the stream, stopped, looked at him and casually strolled off. Tail sashaying along behind her. 

I got a panicked call. My number was given to everyone in the park and, after almost an hour, she reappeared proud as punch. 

And subsequently lost all right to be off the lead! 

So I won't lie, I was a little anxious about the weekend. Hubby had planned a boys weekend at a friend's, so I kidnapped my mum and we did a girls weekend away to the borders. Why the borders? Well, honestly, our number 1 option of the lakes was sold out and way over budget! 

We got lucky though as that was the weekend of the Jousting at Caerlaverock. 

Yes. More jousting. Am I sick of it? Nope, not at all! 

This event was much quieter than Linlithgow, despite being the exact same scale of show. I won't lie, as I bounced about the little jousting course astride my hobby horse, I was really pleased that we adults could have fun too without elbowing small kids out the way. The dogs got a lot more attention too from the re-enactment crew. 

We also got super close to the action. Missy is an old hand at this. She lay down atop my feet and power-napped during the show. Maisie, not so. We knew that she really disliked gunpowder, so had thought this a safe option, but it was quickly apparent when she refused to return to the Jousting arena for the falconry that she did not like the noise. Crowds seem fine as she was happy trotting about the stalls, but she wasn't happy  around the speakers. 

Not a problem. We explorered around the castle and the older ruins and called it a successful day at that. 

It was misty mountains this morning on the dog walk before we got a pleasant surprise when my Uncle decided to join us on our last little excursion to the Crawick Multiverse. 

It was a good way to end the holiday, getting to catch up whilst wondering about the giant art exhibits. Maisie seemed to have a good time too,much preferring the quiet of the multiverse to the crowds at the castle. A learning curve for us all. 

Although she was genuinely at her happiest when, arriving home, she spotted her daddy and bounced right up into his arms for a cuddle. 

Honestly, it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside to see.

We caught up on our respective trips, my brother in Spain and my hubby with his boys weekend and us at the borders and then everyone headed home, leaving Missy, hubby and I in what was suddenly a very quiet house. Missy quickly settled down to sleep whilst I caught up with hubby and now a bath is run and I plan on a long quiet soak! 

A good way to finish a weekend.

Although I am gonna miss that cheeky wee face! 

Linlithgow Jousting

A very busy day today!

This weekend was annual jousting at Linlithgow Palace and, for the first time since I knew it existed, its landed on a weekend I'm not rota'd to work - so there was absolutely no way I wasn't going.

We started the day early and had a wander about the castle before it got too busy (and it did get very busy!) so that we could legitimately tick it off the castle to-do list. Missy has well and truly conquered the spiral staircase although we accidentally wrapped a few people up in her lead winding up and down! Everyone was in good humour though and she was quickly the centre of attention and got lots of pats and cuddles.

The event itself was much more than I expected. The historical reenactment societies were out and there was a host of medieval games to play, armour to try on and gruesome stories of torture and battle to revolt and enthral all the kids. Between the two jousting shows, the jester show, the dragon puppet and the games, we actually ran out of time to look at all the things on offer. 

Missys rapt attention

The jousts were cleverly done - we had our villain (Sir Checkmate) and our Knight-of-the-Flowers-knock-off good guy and they did tremendously well with their banter and theatrics. The horsemanship was impressive as they managed to not wound each other whilst keeping in character and shoeing off the various skills expected of a knight (I think we were all relived when the heads they were to cut in half turned out to be of the lettuce sort!)

The last standout moments were the jesters and the 'dragon training'. The jesters stood out because they were absolutely brilliant fun to watch with perfect comedic timing. They had the whole crowd laughing and cheering from the word go. The dragon training was actually a giant puppet. There was a puppeteer in the head and then all along the cloth body were holes with hoods on them for kids to go in. The day out was a whole family one so I had my niece and nephew with me and, as they were asking for volunteers, I was being silly and jumping and waving going 'me, me!' trying to encourage them to show some interest in participating and I got chosen! I was put to the head of the group and I think the idea was that the kids behind me could follow my lead/I could be trusted not to run into the puppeteer. Either way, it was tremendous fun running about in circles roaring and jingling the bells that were sewn into the body. I don't think I'm going to be allowed to live it down anytime soon, but that really doesn't bother me - all this being grown up malarkey is just boring!

Although the hubby has decided that I'm not allowed to be left unattended again at these things! He'd literally nipped off to the privy to find me parading about as a dragon, so I can hardly blame him for saying so!