Smiling again

Here is Gus in the garden late morning. The smile is definitely back on his face. Wifie slept downstairs last night to keep an eye on him, and she did have to get up three times to let him out. He was lacking energy as I walked him over the Knott, but he did get up on his usual plinth to wait for a little treat. Then a couple of hours in the sunshine of the garden, and he was well enough to play with his new toy.

He is framed by what Wifie calls the heart rose, the petals of which are shaped like little hearts. We might call it the phoenix rose, as it amazingly reappeared after being buried by builders' rubble for the best part of a year. When I finally cleared the heap away, there was no sign of it. But a couple of months later, the first tentative shoots reappeared.

When we visited last week, Pam and Bern's little dog Tara had a pair of the coloured rings, and Gus adopted them. He had never had any toys before he came to us, and it took a while for him to learn to chase a ball or a frisbee. So we bought a pair of rings for him. The typical obsessive collie traits come out when he has something he likes, he would chase and retrieve these all day if we let him. So he's rationed, and we don't take balls or other toys on his walks.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who wished him well last night. The wishes do seem to have worked, in combination with Wifie therapy.

As well as Gus getting better, it has been a day of little excitements. We had a toadlet in the garden. How do they find us when we are hidden behind a big stone wall? And where is the nearest toad pond?

On our walk this morning I saw my first Northern Brown Argus butterfly of the season. Then a little later my first grayling too.

Later, I had a good sighting of the tawny owlet again, and there was just one I think. It was much too wary for me to get close enough in the gloom of the woodland for a photograph.