The look of love!

First of all, thank you so much for your lovely comments over the last two days on my Grandpa's photos. I was a bit worried I'd gone a bit over the top with the write ups, but I condensed them as much as I felt I could, whilst still conveying some of the feel of his journeys. It was a terrible time, but at the same time an amazing opportunity to see parts of the world he would never have experience otherwise. Grandpa was always a very upbeat kinda guy, there was no ' woe is me ' about him right up to the end. I really only got one opportunity to talk with him, about 6 months before he died I travelled to Australia alone which was when we got all the old photos out and we talked about the war and family history a bit too. I wish we'd had another chance, he was so robust I guess we thought he'd go on forever - not that 94 years and 7 months isn't a good innings!

Everybody, especially teenagers/ youngsters old enough to understand - I urge you to chat to ' the old fogies ' in your family before it's too late. I promise you it'll be much more interesting than you imagine.

For example;
One of my great uncles was missing presumed dead. My great aunt took up with another fella. My great uncle had actually been taken prisoner ( I forget exactly where, but somewhere hot and there was a river involved because I remember he'd had to row his as part of his getaway! ), escaped and made his way home again. " Awkward "!! Wish I'd been closer to him, that would have been a cracking story! Imagine the adventure he went through ... Just, wow!

Anyhoo - It's hellishly stormy today but I had arranged with Jo that I would exercise Fossey today. I waited and waited for the worst of the storm to pass and left the house whilst it seemed relatively dry. It's about a 3 minute drive to Fossey and by the time I arrived the rain was falling heavily again.

Fossey had been told I was coming and was cock-a-hoop to see me, as seen in the left pic, giving me a token of her love. It's always whichever shoe she sees first, one of Ben's Crocs today, not a boat as it appears to be. Ben's a big chap for his age ( 16 ). He was never one of those kids who was picked last when they divide themselves up for rugby practice!

The right hand pic is up in the field in a raging wind, being battered by the rain. We had to go out as Fossey was clearly in need, without going into details! Once she was done, we had a little circuit round the field to allow for a wee or two, then hurried on home. Soaked, both of us!

Gosh, another looooong write up, sorry - it's the weather, there's nothing else to do!!! Stay dry/warm/cool, whichever applies to you!