Its Christmas!!! Yes it was

Last minute preparation on the 24th saw yours truly putting together a bespoke bird table for MBAOSPW

with a matching festive bird feeder .

The boys managed to avoid getting up at an unGodly hour and so the festivities began at a civilised 8 am 

and by 9.30 one of the dogs had eaten the Christmas butter. No names no pack drill.

Dinner was served and was good enough 

and allowed room for festive fireworks on the Christmas pud which due to lack of microwave took 2 hours to cook.

Favourite present for the dogs was a large chewy aligator toy. It wont last. They never do.

Sun set on the rock, this is actually a crap pic of some lovely colours. 

Christmas tea was served and this year was different to last years in that both yours truly and MBAOSPW managed to eat it as last year we were struck down by a terrible at that time unknown virus before it became really popular. 
 Happy Christmas everyone and I hope yours was a cool yule despite all the restrictions. 

Almost like Christmas

With the Christmas binge coming ever closer (yes we are behind) the need to get outdoors and earn some of the treats weighed heavily enough to coax me out of my scratch and hit the hill

which was a good thing to do as for once it was  not raining 

and I thought I would get to see a wonderful sunrise 

with a few K9s for company.

But it was not too be , the short days and my eagerness to get the day started meant that I was too early 

and had to leave site of soon to be sunrise 

to get back to HQ

to put the bins out. Perils of country life . 
 

Christmas stocking

What with Covid lockdown again and Brexit uncertainty (the only certain thing about it being we have been massively conned by those with their noses in the trough) and Christmas, we have been stocking up on essential supplies. So another small delivery of dog food has arrived 

and the pantry has been stocked with enough tins and dried food to last until the apocalypse passes and we move on to the bright future promised to us by the blond clown prince.

On a lighter note Christmas is looming closer and even though it will be very different to the one promised by the BCP its time to get festive and 

dress your dogs up for the annual humiliation photographs. 
 

Keep fit

Those that know me know that I like to keep fit (usually by sitting down and eating cheese) and do insane challenges annually but 2020 threw a massive spanner in the works and the plan to cycle non stop for 500 miles was rebranded into dress as a lion and cycle 85 miles on a bike trainer. So you might wonder what the above picture means, well dear reader its the gps map of yours truly unloading a lorry of dog food which by the time it was completed I had covered over a mile carrying sacks of calories for the mutleys.

Speaking of which..

they have been showing how fit they are 

by sprinting up the north face 

of the Bonsai Mountain. 
 

Sad tidings

the blog is over 2 weeks behind due to technical difficulties or laziness, take your pick, so on the 15 December Elf took a turn for the worse 

and by 1am was fighting for breath and obviously distressed so 

by morning we all said goodbye and she joined the rest of the Dolyhir Clan over the Rainbow Bridge.

She did amazingly well for a tri paw and was the mother of 6 of the current residents here at HQ. Now we only have Mrs Bear from Rocky and Reba here at HQ. 
 

So supportive

This is the happy face of my beautiful and oh so patient wife as she gleefully films the attempts of the apprentice as he tries to out do Vidal Sassoon and give yours truly a lockdown haircut.

The expression on everyone's face speaks volumes as to how successful this enterprise was 
 

Sofa wars

Competition for sofa space is fierce at Rock HQ

Elf is allowed as much as she needs as she is not very well. 

The rest need a spot of retraining 

because sometimes it would be nice just to sit down and watch TV or read quietly. 
 

While you were out...

Been a while since the boys have been out and about on the Bonsai Mountain 

so the day after the first dusting of snow (over a week ago) we set off to do a circuit

and despite a bit of a whinge from RRMK2 all was well

until we reached the gulley of doom. As can be seen from the pic above the gulley of doom has been removed.

Not that the dogs minded they love mud.

But someone has taken a huge big digger and dug a new access road all around and over the Bonsai Mountain and Hergest Ridge.

The apparent explanation for the massive reconstruction 

of the side of the hill, the above shows how wide the footpath now is,

is that the commoners were finding it unsafe to round up their sheep

along the tracks 

like these totally unsafe ones the kids are heroically managing to stand on without injury.

Lucky for us

Our side is not visited so often by anxious commoners

so our side 

remains unspoilt for now.