Archie and Rufus play ball

Or: Archie plays ball while Rufus watches, and moves not a muscle.

Or: Archie plays ball while Rufus watches, bewildered.

A shortened visit to the gym, but still it's a visit. The pool was mobbed, so I gave it a swerve. While I was away, Elizabeth came to collect Archie for a shortened visit too. She's had a cold, and wasn’t feeling like a ten mile hike today in the cold. So she took him to the Meadows, then to her flat for a while. He loves going there, where he rips up boxes, has treats, runs off with her socks and generally has a great time. But you could tell he didn’t think he got the full value today when she dropped him off about midday instead of 5 o’clock.

I got the fire on, and after JR had also been to the gym and then made soup, we settled down for a lazy afternoon at home.

Rufus arrived to spend an hour or so with us while his mum went off gallivanting in town.

I took the two dogs out to the back garden for a play with the ball. This is alien to Rufus, who may never had played with a football in his life before. He did watch, though, and sometimes looked in the right direction. Archie was happy to always beat him to catch it.

Rufus tried on some little bootees that friends sent Archie for Christmas. They were a small size, too small for Archie (thank goodness, said he) and even too small for Rufus' front feet, though he did pose in them briefly (extra).

We've had a lazy afternoon, playing my playlists that yesterday I thought I’d lost forever! JR has spent quite some time browsing holiday destinations - watch this space.