Are the voices in my head too loud for you?

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I suppose I could argue that today has been a thinking day, but if I am honest I would have to concede that it has been contemplation in the manner of Pooh rather than Satre.  Don't laugh, but I can usually think my best thoughts in bed and then transfer them to paper when I emerge from my cocoon.  Honest!  I can think, order and then get up, shower and start writing.  Something went wrong this morning between waking up and starting to think.  (I blame Fi Glover on Radio Four).  I certainly began to think through the paper I need to write - but I then woke up again and it was 12.30pm!

Now at this point any sensible, motivated academic or creative artist would apologise to the muses - quickly shower and slide into her desk chair as though nothing had happened.  (Three hours could be caught up by working after Dr. Who tonight - assuming Dr. Who is on!)

When I woke, as a cup of tea was placed on my bedside cabinet at around 4,30pm, I was disorientated and thought for a second it was 7.30am.  As I eased myself gently up the bed to smile somewhat weakly at my partner and enquire as to the time, Teazle our smokey grey and white cat, adjusted himself on my midriff and took his purr down a semi-tone.  Mungo, our collie x rolled on his back on my partner's pillow; my guide dog looked up and beat his tail and Jo, our rescue collie slept on at the foot of the bed!  I wondered if the rather lame excuse that I was comforting the dogs and cats as they made the transition to having a new puppy in the house might hold water and then decided honesty was the best policy - I had relaxed; and evidently I had needed to sleep!

I feel great now.  But my partner is yawning.  There is a degree of shift work just now with two dogs in quarantine in the kitchen on Squit Alert and the others in the rest of the house!

Puppy News:  Humph has mastered the Library and is now wondering what the hall is for.  He is taking his time and we are letting him.  He looks like a fluffy poodle wearing a rubber life-preserver ring (except it is under his fur).  I am trying to avoid derogatory terms like pot bellied here.  His eyes are still very blue-green so I am guessing they may turn a lighter rather than dark brown - and his nose looks like a little milk choc drop - unlike other disposable commodities that he produces - which still lack firmness.  Still he shows promise - he could probably exhibit at the Tate with what he's produced so far!!!!

Writing news:  I have confirmed in my head my paper's title:

Amor Vincit Omnia? Talk to the Hand 'cos the Face ain't Listening

It may need work...

Two wonderful things about my day's hibernation are that I feel much more alert and relaxed.  Now I will have to do some work tonight - but I guess I won't need to go to bed early!!

Puppy Watching

Friends who have birthed their own children tell me time has a habit of standing still when the baby first arrives home.  Even the simplest tasks seem to lose their focus as hours pass admiring the newly arrived one.  Having a  new puppy has certain similarities.  My partner and I examine each poo with critically informed interest.  Discuss when to introduce each new set of challenges and just enjoy, delight in and play with Humph, our Newfoundland puppy.  He is growing rapidy.  He has a bright, open disposition and he has discovered Coca-cola - he is now tall enough to drink from a glass left on a chair seat!  Tonight he will explore a new room.  After sleeping most of the day, we are hoping this new stimulus will set him up for a good night's sleep.  He is seriously cute - but hasn't the guile to recognise this yet - so is even more adorable.  He has a friend in our beloved Dido, 10 and a half and on a slow defrost as far as having a puppy around!

Enough of the furry antics in our household.  I am trying to get excited about Evelyn Waugh's Scoop! and failing.  It may just be that his colonial 'voice' hasn't stood the test of time or it might simply be I have puppy-itis.  I have a clearer sense of where I need to take the paper I am writing and I plan to write it tomorrow - whether my toes are being eaten or not!  I tend to give a lot of time to thinking through my views and arguments.  I am fortunate once my 'throughline' is clear, I can write reasonably quickly.  My main focus is on identity in this piece.  I will need to take a few days footnoting and adding quotes etc... Not to mention tidying it up. But 'twill be done.

Fortunately now Humph has his routines I can claim some time back.  Or rather he has taught me what he needs and when and can now dismiss me to get on with other tasks.  What's that old saying?  Dogs have owners and cats have staff?  Pups may be the exception.

We are addressing how we can become greener.  We love our caravan and the freedom it gives us - but it needs a gas guzzler to tow it - and we have felt guilty about owning a 4x4 for ages.  Although it is occasionally justified when the weather is bad, with global warming, the concept of becoming snowed in is increasingly apocraphyl.  We are looking at a number of small cars and are contemplating relegating Edmund (caravan) to a writing space for me - or to be sold.  Selling makes the most sense, but it is strange how many happy memories are tied up in the thing and that gets in the way of the logical and sensible.  We know we can cut down our CO2 footprint by cutting journeys.  I am also considering growing our own - a way to keep fit - and have organic veg' available.  One of our dogs could easily be a JCB - he digs so much - so that should help!  First things first we need to renovate the greenhouse and start to clear the big garden a bit - then I must research the fine art of composting.

Let's hope Humph will pull a wheelbarrow when he's older...

"I've Got Life"

I am sorry it has been ages since I blogged.  I went South for our son's Half Term break expecting to stay a few days in England 'doing' teenage 'things' - when we ended up staying a month.  Nothing could be done about it - just one of those things - but we were needed - so we stayed.

It's difficult to know where to pick up from in terms of the story so far.  I am so very much better.  I am writing with no shame and great delight.  I suppose the inevitable has happened.  I have fallen in love - and I am thrilled.  It was his sense of living in the moment that first caught me - not to mention his quirky good looks - bronze, fit and shot through with almost auburn hair.  He glitters in the sunlight.  We haven't known each other long - but it is the real thing however difficult it is for my partner.   It is true he is a lot younger than me.  It is also true that I was pretty ill earlier in the year - and some critical folk who cannot let bygones be bygones might grumble and gossip and say I am letting the side down as a priest allowing my feelings to run away with me like this - I am supposed to be a morally upright sort.  Well, I'm sorry - but I just can't help it.  I know how I feel and what I feel is real.  I am humming all the time in my head the Nina Simone song about finding life.

I am dying to tell you all about him - so here goes.  Humphrey Lyttleton Wallman-Girdlestone is an 8 weeks old (today) Newfoundland puppy.  He is my love and a delight to have around.  He came from a kennel aptly called Joybringer - and although his breeder occasionally resembled a hell-raiser with her rather uncompromising manner - she certainly knows how to produce a beautiful pup full of joie de vivre!

We collected Humph on 21st June and brought him straight home.  Sixteen hours in the car while he and later in the journey, our Golden Retriver, produced squits was not for the faint hearted.  We took him straight to our vet early on Sunday morning having not slept because we wanted them both checked.  Fortunately he wasn't too dehydrated so we could take him home and begin his emergency 'Recovery Plan'.  Dido, our Golden Retriever, who has a strong constitution recovered quickly, but Humph isn't quite out of the woods yet.  For now they are in 'quarentine' in the kitchen and the other dogs are being kept elsewhere.

There was a difficult moment when the breeder found out that I was sleeping in the kitchen with the dogs overnight.  She feels this is deeply detrimental.  My partner hadn't the heart to tell her that usually four dogs and two cats sleep with us in our bedroom - and that I wasn't sleeping in the kitchen so much for Humph as for Dido who is used to having dog or human company that she can rely on and snuggle!

Humph's poop results are back - and the real killer conditions have been ruled out, however, the lab' is able to grow some bacteria from the culture and will need about another six days before they can identify it.  For now we are to keeping him on the bland puppy food we have and we watch and weight to make sure the outpourings do not become more syrupy.  If they do - then back to the vet.  Poor dog.  If personality is enough he will romp back to health - but alas it isn't always that straight forward.  We are taking comfort in the fact that he is very playful; happy to be left alone and feeding and drinking well.  Favourite toys are a small plastic Coke bottle with treats inside and the lid screwed on.  He loves the noise.  Also a fluffy toy shaped as a Phesant that quacks.  I have concerns that this is giving him a developmental mixed message - but he positively giggles with delight when he plays with it.

Humph is growing by the hour and his paws are like tea plates.  We suspect he will have grown into his name by the time you read this!!!  We may need to change it to Hefferlump.

The other dogs are being remarkably long-suffering and coping with the separations.  The cats have met Humph and I suspect think he is a clockwork toy.  They seem wholly unmoved.  I am happy.  Not just with Humph - but with the milestone he represents.

Now the mad panic begins.  I am not sure if we will need to go to see our son again over the next couple of weeks or whether I will be able to attend a conference I have been looking forward to so much.  Whatever and whichever - we have a new member of the Pack - and a very fine young creature he is too.