Sunday, October 28, 2012

Janet and Her New Friends

Any doggie in their right mind would think that their Mistress would be sick with grief from being separated from their doggies.  Perhaps Janet is sick with grief, but she is soldiering on in a major way.

These are the cute ducks at their cottage who came running over with the prospect of Janet having food.  She went back and got a piece of (whole grain!) bread and went back to feed them.  After they started to eat, Janet thought the area above the breast on the female looked swollen and became worried that perhaps they shouldn't eat bread.  Phil checked with the caretaker who said they eat bread all the time, so no worries!


Next stop - The Donkey Farm.  Janet LOVES donkeys.  They also had some goats, small ponies, chickens. ducks and a couple of sheep.  Janet also LOVES all those animals as well.

Close enough yet, buddy?  Janet had some donkey and goat food that she was handing out.  This goat guy was clearly not going to miss out on his turn and kept head butting Janet every 10 seconds or so!

A complete stranger took this photo of Janet feeding the donkeys as Phil considered it to be a complete waste of time (and he is way too cheap) to visit the Donkey Farm.   Janet says he was so wrong!  That's the head butter at the bottom.
 They also went to see Wells Cathedral that they said was spectacular.
 Janet had decided she was going to go to Evensong at 5:15PM as it's supposed to be very beautiful.  Not being church goers, they really don't know anything about the goings on at church or proper church protocal.  Janet wanted a seat near the back so she could leave after a few minutes of hearing the singing.  First seat she chose was an ill choice as someone came to ask her if she was part of the choir.  Whoops!  So then she chose a seat even closer to the rear which turned out to be a seat for a church official.  Whoops again!  In the end, Janet decided it was best to listen to Evensong outside in the main part of the Cathedral.
Beautiful cushion and back in Wells Cathedral.  Most likely behind where the choir sits!
 Last, and for sure not least, Janet's long held dream comes true - she gets to meet Ming and Molly from Great Chalfield Manor.  The Manor is a National Trust property and Ming's blog was the inspiration for our blog.  They were tucked up by the fire in the private part of the house, but a worker was kind enough to ask if they could come out for a photo op.  Also, the Lord of the Manor came out to speak to us and asked Phil if he could send him some photos of Burrard Inlet as a member of his family in the past was married to Capt. Burrard.
Hard to believe she could look that happy whilst missing us! See how British we are coming - whilst!?!


Ming is a super, super cute doggie!  Molly's pretty cute too.
By the way, Great Chalfield Manor tour was also pretty exceptional!

Friday, October 26, 2012

Where In The World Are They?

We haven't heard from Janet and Phil for a really long time and we were starting to get worried.  Turns out, they were trapped in an internet free zone.  This is weird, because we understood they went to England, not Outer Siberia.  At any rate, they are back with some news.

Here is their really nice cottage.  They are very happy with the cottage, but less enamored with the location.  Last year, when they went to the Cotswolds, it was an easy walk to a grocery store, latte, villages, nice trail walks, etc.  This year, while the cottage is located near an old town, Fowey, it's walkable, but mostly along a single track road.


 Because Janet misses us, she has made new friends.  Here are the chickens that roam all around.  Apparently, if you leave the door to your cottage open they will come in, hoping you have cake.


How now, brown cow? Janet thinks this cow is shocked to see an actual car go by.  The reason:
Janet and Phil bought a GPS in London as they loaned their other one to Meg and Derek to take to Italy.  It was set to take the quickest route between any two points.  In the photo below, you can see Janet's hand nearly touching the bushes that line the side of the "road".  There was exactly that much space on Phil's side of the vehicle.   We think it pretty much goes without saying that Janet had a fit everytime they went down one of these random "roads" dreading a tractor or "lorry" coming the other direction!
Janet says she now knows why the British drive on the "wrong" side of the road - it's so they can look each other in the whites of their eyes while they sheer off their respective side mirrors!
 When they first arrived in Cornwall, they had a couple of meals that were so-so, but then managed to find some good pubs.  This was Janet's lunch from Rick Stein's St. Petrocs Bistro.  It was Salted Cod, Scampi and Lemon Sole in a creamy saucy.  Janet said it was delicious.
After Janet says Hi to all the dogs she sees on their day out, she gets to come home and say Hi to these cuties.  There are three Alpacas here....one who will come and eat from your hand, one who will come and smell your hand and one who always looks the other direction.   She has tried every morning and every evening to try to win them over with cut up apples and carrots, but it's slow going.  Still, she thinks they are very, very cute.


Friday, October 19, 2012

Yup...They Up And Went Away!

Sure enough, they packed up their bags, using Peter as a diversion and snuck out the basement door. Unbelievable!  Sneakie, sneakie and as they say in the UK...totally bad form!

So, here is what we know since they left:
 These are two of five sets  of the flights of  stairs they have to walk up to in order to get to their room.  Normally, Janet would crap all over a hotel like this, but she has to admit it is charming (and she also has to admit the glory days of being a travel agent and staying in 5 star hotels for $79/night are over big time!)   Only Janet, who spends hours and hours researching hotels refuses to admit the party is over.  It's a small hotel located in a listed Georgian building, so there are not any elevators lifts!  Janet keeps reminding Phil, it's location, location, location!
This lift was at the subway station.
These "posh public" school kiddies were waiting outside our hotel room to go on an excursion. 

Real Guard.

Fake guard
This man, Sir Henry Cole was one of the first curators at the V and A.  Janet took these photos to show Phil how we could be memorialized (small doggie shudder!) on the side of 1897!
 An ancient statue of Rockers at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  Cool, Rockers!
Lunch at one of the pubs they sought out from their AA Good Pub Guide (AKA Janet's Bible).  Mixed platter of calamari, chorizo, seared pork belly and langoustine.  They said it was delicious.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Something is Going On!


Janet and Phil think they are pretty smart, but we know for sure something is going on.

First, they sneak clothes downstairs under the cover of darkness.  Then they start throwing around crazy phrases, like "Spot On" and "Jolly Good" or "That's just brill".  Normally, they don't talk like this.
Toss in some odd coloured money and Janet's mug shot passport.
 Some pearls of wisdom, sister:  if we had to whip out that photo to get on a plane, we would quit travelling!  It gets even worse - her passport doesn't expire until 2016!
Add some boarding passes and noise cancelling headphones:
We also heard Janet tell Phil she has 3 movies and 4 magazines loaded on her iPad and a new book on her Kindle.
Stir it all together, and it turns out to be a trip, that we aren't invited on!  That's a bummer. While we worry we will be left alone to fend for ourselves, we know Dean's arrival has to be on the horizon.  We love Dean!

Jeremy came by last night to say good bye to Janet and Phil.  He is going to Kitimat to work and won't be back for 42 days.  We are really glad we aren't going to Kitimat - it sounds far away and cold.
Jeremy is showing us some love.

Here I am, with a worried expression on my face.

Noodles says, "woof - don't sweat it.  I've got your back, Rockers".



Monday, October 15, 2012

Our Boring Lives

Janet says our lives are so dull, she didn't even want to do a blog post.  We say hogwash  - get on that computer and relay all the sparkly and riveting details of what we do!  There are all kinds of exciting happenings.  For instance:

When life gives you apples, make applesauce!  Janet made a big batch of applesauce and then canned them.  Jeremy brought over his apple peeler, which he claims will increase her productivity big time.  She hasn't tried it yet.
We have gone from really warm weather to being crashed into fall.  Yesterday, it rained and rained and then rained some more.  It stopped raining for about 5 minutes, so what does Janet do?  She hauls out her bike to go for a big bike ride.  She got about half way through her ride before the skies reopened.  She came home, soaking wet.  Phil wasn't home, so she had to be content complaining to us about it.  We are really good listeners, even if it's boring shit stuff we have heard before.  And trust us, we have heard Janet complain before!

Next on our agenda - Halloween!  We put out some wicker pumpkins and a pretty fall wreath.  Brownyn goes to Target and waits until the seasonal items are 75-90% off.
Janet needs to tuck under the cord and make the lights in a couple of the pumpkins go on.

When Jeremy brought over the apple peeler, he put this paper bag on Noodles' head.  She did not like it.  Until Jeremy dropped a cookie inside the bag - no problem!
This is not fun!

No, wait!  I take that back - there is a cookie in here!  Noodles will do almost anything for a cookie.
Today, we picked the perfect time to go for a walk.  It was beautiful and hot outside.  We went all the way to Cattle Point, which is the furthest we have gone since Rockers' surgery.  By the time we got home, it was cloudy, windy and foggy!
We aren't being good doggies and trying to do a nice pose.  We are focused on some ducks on the water that we would love to go chase.  I know Janet won't let us because I'm not allowed off leash at the moment, but Noodles did her level best to drag Janet in that direction.  Janet thinks slippery rocks at the ocean = ligament surgery.
Upon reflection, perhaps Janet is partially correct - her life is definitely dull, but ours is not!


Monday, October 8, 2012

Janets 15 Minutes of Fame!

Holy Crow!  It is so nice here, it's almost unbelievable. And, it's Thanksgiving!  Today was also the Victoria Marathon, which made Janet start thinking perhaps she could train to do a half marathon next year.  At first she thought it was a stupid idea, but not all that long ago she also thought riding her bike for 50KM was stupid.  We doggies have some reservations about this alleged new athletic gig as we barely survived the biking gig.  Maybe she will forget about it.....paws crossed!
Janet loved this ladys sign...she had several signage options and a cow bell!  Janet remembers on "THE bike ride", all kinds of people were cheering on the sidelines and it made Janet so happy she started to cry lots of times.  Are we the only guys out there that think Janet is a major cry baby?  Man up, sister!
Our good friends, Lori and Steve invited our people over for the holiday meal.  We doggies were left at home but drooled over the dinner photos.
Janet's only contribution were the potatoes in the blue dish.  Lolo put out an amazing spread of food, as always.
We also went to Uplands Park, but only Noodles can go off leash.  It is really dry in the park as we have just had the driest September on record.  While we like the nice sunshine, we also want all the fishies to have water in the rivers, one of which on the island, is in danger of drying up.
Janet took us on a walk around the 'hood this morning, past a new stone fence she has been admiring for weeks.
We were thinking it was a dry pack stone fence, but it turned out there was a very small amount of cement in between the stones.  We think it's really beautiful.

Last, but not least, Janet's 15 minutes of fame:
Janet is on page 3 of the newspaper with her volunteer friends Katherine and Teresa!  It looks like Janet is the only guy doing any work....whats up with that, Katherine and Teresa?  Janet said it was tons of fun and they served almost 400 people in the first 45 minutes.





Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Suzy Homemaker Crashes and Burns

Janet was on a major roll - jam, salsa, freezing corn and making pesto.  Then, she did the unthinkable- tried two new recipes.

The first one was a different salsa - Jalapeno Salsa.  After peeling all the tomatoes, a laborious task that Janet hates and then deveining all the jalapenos, she was ready to start cooking and canning.  One and a half hours of work, produced TWO jars of salsa!  She was pissed angry!

That was in the morning.  In the afternoon, she decided to make Jalapeno Jelly.  Janet makes Red Pepper Jelly every fall, so didn't think this was a stretch.  She was lured in by the recipes description of  "jewel coloured" jars of jelly.  This took the better part of the afternoon and in the end, Janet said the colour of mud would have been a more apt description.  No photos available as now she is way, way beyond pissed angry.  Trust us doggies, you did not want to be in the kitchen.  We wisely retired to the deck.

The next day offered something Janet was more familiar with - freezing corn.  Phil bought three dozen at Silver Rill.
At last, a small measure of success!
This is what it looked like outside, near our house, a day or so ago:
Absolutely incredible outside!
And here is Rockers demonstrating how cold it is inside our house at this time of the year:
Inside, not so much!  This is Rockers doing his imitation of the sled doggies in the movie Nine Under.  If Rockers thinks its cold inside our house, what will potential human guests think?

Noodles found some random piece of plastic that Janet and Phil have yet to discover where it came from.  While she was still pondering some apple recipes for Janet, she ripped it to shreds.  Go, Noodles, Go!