Penny

Penny
22*.7.2001 - 21.8.17

To many of you she was Mutt, others may have known her as the 'Photographer's Assistant' but to us, she was our Penny.

And on what better day than today - National Dog Day, should I post a tribute to the old girl.

On Monday, after just over fifteen years of being an amazing member of our family, we had the difficult task of saying goodbye. Her failing health meant that it was kinder to let her go... 'chase rabbits' elsewhere.

First meeting at the rescue centre

On the 8th April 2002, along with our two young daughters, I went along to the local rescue home to look at a particular puppy and instead, met a gangly Lab/Staffie cross who had been brought in as a stray. She was both curious and waggy, and after a walk with her on the lead in a nearby field (she most definitely leading us) we thought that she might just be a suitable choice. Although suffering with conjunctivitis at the time (a condition which gave her a permanent weakness in one eye), she was alert, friendly and definitely trainable. However, as she was to be a family member, it would be down to himself to give the final nod.

A couple of days later, the two of us returned to take her for another walk around the field - or rather, she was to take himself around the field. Unbeknown to me, he had a pocket full of ferret biscuits which during this meeting, he was using to his advantage. And there, a bond was made.
"She will do"
were his words and with that, wheels were set in motion to bring this nine-month old mutt home with us. Being a stray, they could only guess her age and working it back, it appeared she might have been born around July 2001. Instantly daughter no.2 picked up on that point and announced that she could share her own birthday, which delighted her greatly, and so began the assumed* birthday.

April 2002 - At home.

However, the friendship between youngest and the puppy was to become a special one, not least because it was down to her hard work at school that a puppy was even considered. Having already grown up for 8 years with a family pet cat, she asked if she could have a puppy. Eyebrows were raised but himself made a rash promise.
"Get your spellings right for a whole school year and we might just consider it"
And what did she do all the way through year 5? Pushed the results from 4-5/10 to 7-8-9/10. She really did put the effort in, and with every parents evening throughout that school year, her teacher would ask
"When IS she going to get this puppy - it is all I hear!"

During the winter of 2001/2, we had said goodbye to the old cat and youngest daughter was quick to pick up on the fact that having an old cat was no longer a legitimate excuse not to have a dog - an excuse which had often been given previously. And so it came to pass that a near nine-year-old was about to have her dream fulfilled, although secretly both himself and I were delighted to have a new family member too. Meanwhile, eldest daughter did her best to appear miffed that her younger sister was getting her way but now it appears, she was equally delighted to have a puppy join the family.

Having been given the temporary name of Penny in the rescue centre, we all agreed that actually, she was indeed a Penny, decided to keep the name, and brought her home to a new family life. 

Best friends

Every Sunday morning for the next two years, I would drive to the 'Hot Dogs' training classes some 28 miles away, where a young girl put a strong-minded yet loving puppy through her training paces. There would be tears, laughter and just rewards for both girl and puppy. Meanwhile, I was watching the training methods too and putting things into practise during the hours of daily walks I was to do with Penny.

Bodacious The Cat Shepherd

It's not every day you get to meet celebrities but recently, I finally made my acquaintance with a fabulous feline, who is a veritable star within the Facebook and Twitter communities. With several thousand followers and his own website, Bodacious the Cat Shepherd is, well, a cat who, along with his human, oversees a flock of the wonderful rare breed Zwartbles sheep in beautiful rural Ireland.

I first got to know about Bodacious when some years ago, I linked with his human on Twitter, but that is a story for another blog post. Instantly, his character appealed. What with that 'take me seriously or else' look, this fluffy cat had a way of captivating his audience whilst giving the low-down on the daily sheepy activities. Forget the A-list celebs social media tantrums - this is a C-list celeb who has also been known to tweet a strop or two when he hasn't had his daily fresh egg.

It was a beautiful early autumn day when I visited the Kilkenny farm, and whilst I was initially greeted by some wonderful canines, I wondered when Bodacious might deign to put in an appearance for this English human. We had probably wandered the farm for around an hour and a half before his human said "There he is" pointing to a corner of the farmyard from the far side of the field we were in. Suddenly a little flutter of excitement ran through me (Yes! I know, for a cat!) As we walked over, he put on the typical 'look-at-meee' greeting...for his human, it certainly wasn't for me!

Knowing that I was keen to capture a few shots of this big little star, his human paid a quick visit to the hen house and returned with a handful of fresh eggs.

Oh yes! His eggs and didn't he make it known he wanted...

Up on his hind legs with a loud meeow - give me!

However, it wasn't yet time for his treat, as there was a photo shoot to do first. And for once he wasn't going to be the centre of attention as this photo shoot was to be for his human. I'm not sure if he appreciated me engaging with his human for this time, when really, all he wanted was his egg.

The photo shoot completed, his human invited me back to the cosy farmhouse kitchen for a welcome bowl of soup, heated up by the Aga. On one of the counter tops, and looking even more cosy was Bodacious's fellow feline Marley, snuggled into a special cat-sized Zwartbles blanket. She looked really happy and content and quietly rested whilst we enjoyed the soup and a chat.

However, we had not long finished when Bodacious hopped up onto the kitchen chair and gave me the kind of hard stare as if to say "You are distracting my human from giving me my egg"

Oh dear!!
It still wasn't time for his treat as now it was time to go and feed the Zwartbles rams in the orchard.

Here, we met Ovenmitt, the third feline resident, along with Bear, a lovely and very lively young dog. It was a case of hey guys, time for a family portrait...if you would just stay still for a moment please Bear!

Ovenmitt is quite used to having his picture taken and even has a trick...

Feed time over and we made our way back to the kitchen where Marley was still resting in her Zwartbles blanket.

Sadly, it was time for me to leave and I had had a purrfectly wonderful afternoon with Bodacious the Cat Shepherd, his human and all the wonderful animals that lived in this beautiful corner of Ireland. I was delighted to come away with lovely memories, and a bag of my favourite Worcester Permain apples picked fresh from the tree - delicious!

And finally, his patience would be rewarded. Bodacious could have his delicious egg.

My thanks to Suzanna for her hospitality and a wonderful afternoon.

Butter Wouldn't Melt...

Over the years, many of you have come to know Mutt - my trusty photographer-assistant and to look at her now you would think butter wouldn't melt.

Sadly, the old girl is now nearing 15 years old, and with it has come traits that one would expect from a puppy. The long and the short of it is, she has a form of doggy-dementia. She has started bin dipping (ugh!), redistributing the contents of the recycling box and recently, she was caught stealing a sandwich from the work surface in our dog-sitters kitchen - oh the shame of it! She has never done this in the 14 years she has been part of our family, just as she has never run into the main road when walking her on The Common...until last week. Now that was a heart-stopping moment! However, one of the things she has always done is, if we leave her for a spell, she would find something of human ownership, often a slipper, and carry it off to her bed - her little den. This was quite an endearing trait of hers, although on one occasion it was himselfs phone, and another, his wallet, both manageably moved and yet both undamaged. On both occasions there were some perplexed expletives as to who had moved them?

Mutt asleep next to my camera bag - so tired after her little escapade!

Roll on to this morning and I had had to leave her downstairs whilst I carried out some tasks upstairs for about an hour. On returning to my study, I found mutt happily asleep on her rug which is snugly situated between my desk and the radiator. I noticed she had chosen to make a pillow from my lovely leather and canvas Olympus camera bag, which also happened to be temporarily next to my desk. I jokingly passed comment to her that it surely couldn't be very comfortable (Yes, we do talk to our dog!!) and I thought nothing more of it.

Time had now come for me to sit back at my desk to tackle the edit from the theatrical shoot I'd had in London yesterday, firstly loading the few hundred images off the memory card from my Olympus E-M10, then the memory card from the Olympus E-M5ii...wait! Where was my E-M5ii?!! It wasn't in my camera bag, where I thought it should be...maybe I was suffering temporary dementia? Had I left it on the kitchen table? As I walked into the kitchen my heart sank. There, next to mutts little doggy-den was my E-M5ii + 40-150mm f2.8 Pro lens - all 1.5kg (and £1.5k+) of it! Eeeek!!!

I had presence of mind to snap a pic of it to show himself later, as he probably wouldn't believe me if I told him, and then I swiftly scooped it up from the floor, checking it over for teeth marks - not one!! The only mark I could find was a scratch on one edge of the lens hood, consistent with it being dragged the 10 metres or so along a quarry-tiled floor. I can only assume she had carried it with the strap in her mouth (she does something similar with her own lead too). A quick switch on and everything appeared to be in order - thankfully.

All I can say is that Mutt the Assistant must also be delighted with the lightened load that the OM-D offers - I couldn't have seen her managing my DSLR equivalent in the same way!  Tomorrow I fly back to Ireland to host my last West Cork Photography Break of the spring season. Gone are the days of the whole of my hand luggage allowance being used up with my much larger DSLR kit. I will travel, as I often do, with just hand luggage. This will include all of my OM-D cameras and lenses, as it has done for the past year or so since switching kit.  My back is loving the much lightened load and the bag has room to spare.

Victim of the Storms

For one reason or another I hadn't taken mutt for a walk in our local park since Thursday last week, and so I had quite a surprise when I set foot through the gate again yesterday. Between the two visits, we had had yet another of the 'confused' Gulf Stream storms, this one striking during the early hours of Saturday morning.
Where once a majestic beech tree had stood guard over the emerging Lords and Ladies around its base, there was instead a wind-cleared vista over scraped bare earth.
The Peyps Walk tree had become a victim of the storms.

The clear-up process was well under way by yesterday but it was obvious there was more to why this naturally shallow-rooted beech had succumbed.

It wouldn't take a genius to work out that the tree had been suffering with disease, and having chatted to the estate workers, it appears this towering 100 year-old had already been given the green spot of condemnation. Sad as it is, these things happen when specimens get to the end of their life. However, even during the lying in state, it was able to put on one last unusual display.

Each severed limb revealed a beautiful design, as if it had been tattooed, and with every one different.
Ink blot interpretation of these disease stains was about to come into play.

Could it be a pansy?... A butterfly?...

...wait a minute, is this possibly the face of a bulldog?

...and this, a border collie pup?

Whatever your interpretation, what I actually see is a changing landscape and the prospect of a new sapling filling the gap.

It isn't always bad.

Day 9 - August Challenge

Challenge - "Dog"

Suggested by - Ian

I often get asked to photograph pets, and these are two I've wanted to capture for a long time, as they are such opposites. I always prefer to shoot in the environment they are most at home in, as it makes for relaxed animals - sometimes just too relaxed though!

Meet Mr Darcy, a laid-back English Pointer, and Mouse, an inquisitive Italian Greyhound. (Ive just finished cleaning the little nose-smudges of my lens!) My hope for these two was to be able to show their comparative sizes, with Mouse cooly trotting under Mr Darcy's tummy.
Hmmm?
Over the years, I have learnt that pre-planning an ideal image with animals will just never come off, so again, I just go with it and capture the character as it happens. And this is just what happened this evening - no size comparisons, just a laid-back Mr Darcy and an inquisitive Mouse. Far better than trying to get them to pose as we want them.
And yes, I took one of Mr Darcy as the main subject too, just so the owner doesn't think I'm showing favouritism.

So, Ian, whether your idea of a dog is something lap-size, or something more substantial, I'd like to think I've covered both bases here.

The grab shot.

My thanks to:

Ian for the suggestion
Mr Darcy and Mouse for being great relaxed subjects

Tomorrow, Day 10

"Heat"

*Available for pet commissions.*
To enquire, use the contact box on the right hand side of this blog.

Yana, the Guide Dog Puppy

Meet Yana a beautiful guide dog puppy.
Training of these special dogs is very tough and so it is the hope of the puppy-walker that she will succeed, where her previous two puppies-in-training sadly haven't quite made it.

As part of her training, she is brought to meet members of the public, to condition her to behave well. She was clearly waggy-happy to meet all the big visitors to the Guide Dogs PR stand and charity cake stall, yesterday...

...just as little visitors were happy to make new friends too!












More details about Guide Dogs and the Local branch can be found on their website

...and Don't Pick Your Nose!

Sunday afternoon stroll.

A pied wagtail also went about his business

As the snow fell steadily late afternoon, the most was made of the extended reflected light
on Saffron Walden Common.

Watch out!

So embarrassing!

Mutt has put a de-paw-sit down on a new pad.

All just too much.

Frosty Cliché

I was trying to resist the temptation to post the cliché frost picture today, but hey!

It was so lovely to see mutt having fun out in the crisp fresh sunlight that I couldn't help but post this picture. For me, the colour palette is just perfect (thanks to the addition of a fellow walker's best friend!)

Lugworms (Arenicola marina)

Have you ever wondered what those little 'walnut whip-like' sandy heaps are on the beach?
OK, so you possibly know they are produced by a worm but which worm and what do they look like?
On a damp January day, we set out to investigate.

Having checked the local beach bylaws as best we could, we found no apparent restrictions on digging on the nearby strand. Our digging was not to be for collecting bait though, and which is the more regular reason for disturbing these casts made by the lugworm, as it is the preferred bait for cod fishermen. In the past and during the plentiful years of cod angling, my other half had on occasions, dug lugworm for bait. This time, it was a curiosity question by the eldest that prompted the latest venture with a spade.

You might have on occasions, seen a band of workers armed with forks and a bucket, down on the beaches, busy stooping at the low tide mark. These would be the bait diggers after the fat lugworms, either for their own use, or digging for commercial use. This practise, if not managed properly though, can lead to environmental and sustainability problems, (as highlighted here by the Marine Bio Organisation)

"Lugworms are harmless and often an angler's preferred bait for fishing cod... Such bait digging by sport fishermen is widespread in Britain and it is estimated that 75% of the members of the National Anglers Council in the UK dig their own bait. It has been shown that it takes at least a month for a dug-out area of lugworm beach to be repopulated near to its original density (McLusky, 1983)."

However, this time, we were just after one specimen of these useful sand re-oxygenators and food source for birds, such as the curlew. By understanding the habits and taking care where to dig, chances of damaging the worm with the spade were minimised. They live in a u-shaped burrow with a depression visible in the sand at the head end and the familiar cast at the tail end, created when the worm expels the sand after removing the useful organic content. 

Needless to say, mutt looked on, desperately wanting to help out with this search.

It wasn't long though, before we had our first fat lugworm, which can take up to six years to mature to full size. Sexual maturity comes at about 2-3 years with spawning happening at low tide, for only a couple of days during a two week window in October / November. After developing for a while in the female burrow, the larvae are washed to the firmer areas of the sand and continue to grow until they are mature enough to be washed back to the wetter sand where they can start to burrow. Each year as they grow, the worms move further towards the low tide line, which is where the mature worms are found.

The body of the lugworm is segmented with bristles being present on the middle section along with the gills. Like some reptiles, lugworms have the ability to re-grow their tail, part of the useful method of self defence.

After this investigative lesson, our specimen lugworm was returned to the beach where, in the space of two minutes, it dug its way back into the sand.
The spade holes were filled in and it was left to the tide to continue the daily pattern of life.

Another lesson well enjoyed.