Teaching Tommy holidays are for.

These pictures were taken when on holiday in north west Scotland. It was the first holiday that we took Tommy with us and as you can see from the the pictures and a previous video I posted Tippy had a great time running round keeping him under control and showing him what to do on holiday.

A weekend break for Tippy.

This weeks picture of Tippy was taken at Sutton Bank near Thirsk in North Yorkshire. We were on a weekend break and stopped off here for a walk. Later that day we found a bed and breakfast that took dogs although we often went bed and breakfast and Tippy would just sleep in the car, she was a very good dog and made no fuss of anything you asked her to do, in fact she was probably happier in the car than in a strange house with strange noises. For the evening meal we went to a local inn and they let Tippy come in were she lay under the table as quiet as a mouse.

Beautiful Tippy.

This weeks picture of Tippy is quite a recent one, I think I've already said how it was hard to get a picture of her actually looking at the camera so to me this one is a special one, not just because of that but also the look on her face.

Tippy the sheep dog.

Lambing time seemed to be Tip's favourite time of year, she spent all her time outdoors watching the sheep and lambs. She was not still for a minute forever running round the farm checking out all the different pens where the sheep and lambs were housed during lambing time. She gave the impresssion that she knew each one by name and if it wasn't in view she would go and search it out. Also no vantage point was overlooked in her quest for the best view, it was quite amazing to see her leaping from one lot of bales to the next often very high up in the barns. There was the odd occassion when she lost her footing and ended up in the pens with the sheep, there would then be a mad scramble to get out, the sheep didn't seem to mind her keeping an eye on them but she wasn't so welcome in the pen itself.

Tippy doing homework.

These pictures are amongst my favourite of Tippy. As you will see she was a very good dog doing her homework. I don't remember what was wrong with the lamb other than it must have needed warming up, by the look of Tippy's coat it was a wet day so no doubt the lamb suffered because of that. Anyway I can assure you it is a real live lamb and Tippy chose to be there with it, it wasn't something staged for the camera.

You may have noticed that I have made my other blogs private, I have had to do this for personal reasons and I will reopen them as soon as I can.

Sea Dogs.

This picture is one of my favourites of Tippy and Tommy playing in the sea - are they having the time of their lives or what?

All at sea.

I hope you aren't getting to fed up of seeing Tippy having fun at the seaside, I will move on to her doing some work soon so you can see she that she didn't live the life of a playdog all the time. Unfortunately when we were working we didn't always have time to be taking photographs which is why there is a lot of her on holiday. Here you can see her playing ball, running around and playing in the sea.

I hope you don't think I'm going in there.

Last week I showed Tippy taking a swim at the seaside. As she got older she was less keen to venture in to the water. This week’s pictures show her content to watch Tommy slashing around, by the look on her face I get the impression she thought he needed to grow up.

Tippy the Sea Dog.

I always think it’s great the way that dogs can just jump right in to water and start swimming without ever having seen anything deeper than a muddy puddle and without a single swimming lesson and all without the slightest hesitation. As you will see from this week’s pictures. Tippy was no exception to this rule, especially if there was a ball involved. I can remember there was one time at Durness in northwest Scotland when we were playing ball on the beach and at one point it ended up in the sea. As always Tippy was immediately on the case which was great as it meant we didn’t have to get wet retrieving the ball. The problem was that on this occasion instead of for the ball staying put it was going out to sea with Tippy in hot pursuit. I started to have a panic attack when both the ball and Tippy disappeared around the outcrop rocks. Thankfully she was soon to reappear from around the other side with ball in mouth which she dropped at our feet, she was completely unfazed and ready for another shot at retrieving.

Tippy's Top Tips.

Those of you who read my blog will often see Tommy getting involved with the gardening work. Tippy was never an enthusiastic gardener but there were a few occasions when I could get her to pay attention for a few moments. This week’s picture is one such moment. I’ve included the post that the picture was taken for so you can see what it was all about.

Tonight Tippy is going to show you a little something we put together the other day. Me and Tom went to the garden centre as Tom wanted some bonemeal so while we were there I decided to buy some pots to do something I've been thinking about for a while now. I was just going to get three ordinary clay pots, it doesn't really matter what the pots are like as long as each one is smaller than the other, the reason for this will become evident in the next picture. As it turned out there were three pots that both fit the bill and that took my fancy.

If you start off with the biggest pot and fill it with potting compost and then take the next size pot and just put it on top of the one you just filled and lightly press down, this will both firm the compost in the lower pot and also mark where the pot will eventually sit. There should be a part all the way around the lower pot that the second pot didn't touch and this is now where you need to put some plants, I used Busy Lizzies but you could use begonia's or sat Petunia's, trailing Lobelia would be good too. When this is done then you do the same thing again with the second pot first of all filling it with compost as with the first. If you planted the first pot right you should be able to just sit in down on top of the first pot without damaging the plants. See the picture below.

For the third pot you can finish off with the same sort of plants if you choose, I decided to put a Fuchsia in the top pot as I felt it would just give it that bit more height. Below is the finished article although I'm thinking I might see if Vicki can get some some trailing Lobelia from the shop as I think it would be better with something flowing down a bit although in time the Busy Lizzies will grow up and fill out.
This next picture was taken later on in the summer and shows you how it all worked out.
All the best,
Bob.