School of Dog and Ranger Sam

We have doubled the canine capacity for the weekend on dog sitting duties. Dog politics and 1 beleaguered cat.

In other news, Sam, full of his stinky cold, headed back to the Garioch Ranger for a catch up this afternoon and he is now officially an Aberdeenshire Ranger Service Volunteer helper and will undertake site visit monitoring work through the year. I am so chuffed for him, extremely chuffed if im honest. What better feeling is there when your kid gets to do something that they love in such a high pressure world. I am also so very grateful to the awesome Garioch Ranger Alison.

Tess gave me a bit of anxiety tonight being absent and uncontactable with a dead mobile battery but all ended well when I found her as she got off the bus in the nearest village. Parental over-protectiveness? Nah, just lessons for both of us to make sure we have emergency contacts in place.

Dave is still dealing with awaiting yes or no for the latest redundancy round after they published a cryptic organogram while I came away slightly less anxious re. my side of life in light of a couple of meetings today but only time will tell. August will be the tell of everything we think. A lottery win to turn the old coach house across the road into a waffle house and wee country deli is unlikely. But ya got to be in it to win it!