New Neighbours

A male blue tit has been very busy these last few days sorting out this nest box and trying to make it acceptable to his female. I think they have now finally settled but for several days it was touch and go as to whether she would accept it of not. He was hedging his bets though as there are at least three other tit boxes in the garden and he had been preparing all four but this was the one he had been displaying outside so clearly this was his first choice. It's good for me as it's right opposite my office window.

This is just an Easter wish for you all. Enjoy the holiday and don't get too sick on chocolate. As for me, today is a day for staying in by the fire as it's freezing cold and snowing!

Silly sheep... ...dog!

These sheep are engrossed. The have wandered across the field to try and understand the spectacle that is revealing itself before them. Believe it or not, it's Brac they are interested in and far from being concerned about his presence they seem completely mystified by him.
So why is Brac commanding so much attention? Because bored with me stopping to take photos of sheep he has wandered off through a scraggy hedge to my right and into a small coppice. There is a lot of growling and grunting going on with a few barks through in for good measure. I decide to take a look and see for myself what he is up to and the rest I thought worth photographing...
Scroll drown to the images below.



As I turned around I saw the tip of Brac's tail slowly emerging from the hedge. By the time I get the camera focused he is half way out. He is clearly trying to retrieve something that he does not want to give up on and the frustration is very apparent.


Suddenly it all happens and he springs backwards with his spoils. It's one of the recently coppiced canes.


Having dog-handled it through the hedge he now feels his has won the right to parade with it up and down the path while the sheep still gaze at him in wonder.

Back at Agility

This morning I was able to take Brac to agility training for the first time since just before Christmas. You can imagine how excited he was when he got there. There was no training for a month over the Christmas period and then when it started up again it was cancelled for the first two weeks due to bad weather. Since then there have been a couple of training days cancelled because the organisers have been away and of those that were available either we were away or Brac had a cut paw. Next week there won't be any agility training as Crufts is on and most of the trainers and some of the trainees will be there.
Despite Brac not having been for so long he hadn't forgotten any of it and was far more 'on the ball' than me. I was still trying to fathom out my lefts from rights when he was half way around the course. I swear he is probably better off without me barking commands at him all the way around especially when half the time they are wrong and he ignores me anyway. I think I need to go round with Gaffa tape over my mouth :-)