Easter 2010

The Easter Bunny visited our house yesterday, leaving large bunnies for the children and smaller ones for the adults. They were waiting on the dining room table when we sat down to a late lunch. Later, in danger from prowling dogs, some of the smaller ones that had survived human jaws migrated to one of the book shelves, seeking education, boning up on  History.

Bethan and Rob joined us and it was good to have half our children and grandchildren at home to share a meal. Gillian and Paul are staying for a few days. Gareth and Nina had made other plans and Susannah is on a shoot in Bogota. She gaily told me she had sorted out her kidnap and ransom insurance so was fully covered!The Easter tree was also in the dining room. On it there is a rabbit that looks more like a hare, lots of painted eggs and some pig pegs. I'm not sure what the connection is between pigs and Easter but we ate roast pork and chicken, so there was a connection there for us, yesterday at least.

We didn't have any Easter eggs but we did have chocolates. Thornton's chocolates are very more-ish.

Not many left . . . but there were nine of us sampling them and only one layer!

Elliot, Eve and Louis gave us some handmade chocolates.

They're too pretty to eat, aren't they? I love the little bee!

I recollected the Easter eggs my parents used to sell in our shop in Kent. There was the usual Easter selection that can still be seen today, the chocolate moulds being covered and filled in different liveries through the decades to reflect 'popular' culture. My parents also offered for sale elaborately decorated chocolate eggs, varying in size from golf to rugby ball, sometimes even larger. They bore delicate sugar and marzipan flowers and dainty ribbons in Spring colours of yellow and purple and green. My favourites, which I have never seen since I grew up and left home, were finely spun sugar eggs with a small window into the hollow interior in which would be set a pretty scene from Nature. They came in different sizes but each one fascinated me and I never tired of gazing through the tiny apertures at the magical, fairy-tale scenes before me. I wonder what memories my children and their children will retain from childhood? Easter egg hunts were tricky to organise with dogs always in the picture but we did manage one or two. If the only thing they remember is laughing with extended family over a meal then that will be a happy recollection and chocolate bunnies will be the hook on which to hang the memory and place it in their history.

The Fourth Blog of Augustus Lazarus Cooke (Gus)

                          Here I am before Christmas, still wearing my puppy collar.

Hello everyone!
I see I wrote my last blog exactly four weeks ago today back in 2009. Happy New Year by the way. (I don't know what that means but I keep hearing all sorts of humans saying it and it seems to please them.)
Well, Christmas came and so did lots of visitors. I met four new people. First there was Susannah, one of my Humans' daughters – they've got three, you know, as well as a son, but they didn't have them all in one litter like me and my siblings. Susannah brought Nick along with her but they didn't try to sleep in the house which was just as well 'coz all the beds – and the caravan – were taken and there was only floor left! Bethan came to stay with Rob – his family's got a black Labrador as well, called Fidget. Then there was Dorothy, who is Mr Human's mother. He's ever so old so she must be ancient! The Humans were expecting Mr Human's brother and sister-in-law to come but they were late getting back from Ethiopia so I haven't met them yet. Anyway, on the busiest day there were seventeen humans, six of them quite young, six of us dogs and Monty and Winston Ocicats. There was LOTS of food but we weren't allowed in the dining room though we managed to sneak in a few times.
 

We've had OODLES of snow and it's ever such fun playing in it but I do get tired quite quickly 'coz it's difficult to run when your legs keep disappearing up to the knees and sometimes the shoulders! I don't know whether it's because it's been really cold or whether it's my age but my coat is changing. It used to be very soft and velvety all over but now I've got a strip down the middle of my back that's quite coarse, just like Jenna's. I will be nineteen weeks old on Sunday and my Humans are beginning to have difficulty telling me apart from my sister at first glance. Our eyes are different and of course I've got a white chin.

I've got a new collar! We were going out one day and I got over-excited and pulled so hard on the lead that my puppy collar broke! Mrs Human bought collars for Buddy and me. Buddy didn't break his collar but it kept coming loose and sliding up over his ears so we've both got stripey blue buckle collars. I think we look cool! Frodo's wearing Buddy's old collar and he looks very handsome in it. I really like Frodo – he's awesome. I'm too big to sleep in the same bed as Frodo now. I suppose my Humans might buy us an extra big bed? I heard them saying that I might soon be able to sleep in a bed upstairs, rather than in my night-time pen, but that hasn't happened yet.

I'm wearing my new blue stripey collar.I feel quite grown-up in it and it's just like Buddy's!

I'm very good at stairs now. I can get up them quite quickly but I'm still very careful coming down (Mrs H says I go 'be-dom, be-dom, be-dom') and in the early morning, after I've been out for a breath of air (well, a pee and a pooh, actually . . . ) I hurry back upstairs and try to jump up onto the bed where the Humans sleep with Jenna.

I still like just about everything but there are a couple of things that I'm not keen on. I don't like Mrs H singing or sneezing and I'm afraid of the roaring machine that sucks up dust and dirt. It might get ME one day! The cats and the other dogs don't seem to mind it – well, Buddy can't hear it anyway – but I'm going to carry on keeping out of its way and watching from a safe distance. Luckily Mrs H doesn't use it very often.

I heard the Humans saying that Tia and Foxy are coming for the weekend – ooh GOODY! I hope there'll still be enough snow for us all to enjoy together – they haven't had much in Dorset. I'd better go and push out some zeds so I'm ready to play when they arrive.

Can you see Buddy's collar? Mine matches his though it is a bit smaller. Aren't we smart?

Hwyl fawr am nawr! (That's Welsh for 'Goodbye for now!')