My Best Friend

I want to tell you about my best friend. Many of you will probably have met him as he was a regular at the "Coffee Pot" held in St. Mary's Church, Winterborne Stickland on Monday mornings. For those of you who don't visit the "Coffee Pot" I am talking about my dog, Levi.

We first met when I was visiting the RSPCA Rescue Centre at Bawtry in South Yorkshire. One part of the Centre was sadly nicknamed "Death Row" as this was the area that dogs who had failed to be re-homed were reaching the end of their six month life extension.

Levi had originally been seized by the RSPCA following a cruelty investigation in Leeds and after a three month stay there had been moved to Bawtry in an attempt to make him more adoptable. He had problems... He was a big, strong Labrador/Rottweiler Cross and had never been socialized, trained or had any other company – human or canine! People had tried to adopt him but all had ultimately declined when they couldn't cope with him.

When I first saw him he was dejectedly sitting in the corner of his cage. I stopped to say hello and he immediately came across to me, tail wagging, and pressed hard against the bars so that I could reach through and stroke him. After taking him for a walk I found out why nobody had adopted him before... He was strong! He had no idea how to walk on a lead and knew no words of command. Also he was really, really friendly and wanted to jump up and lick me all the time. Anyone smaller than me would have been crushed by him.We were instantly bonded. I didn't want to go home and leave him, and he didn't want to leave me.

The two weeks we had to wait to adopt him were agony but finally we could take him home. That's when the fun started...

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Did it rain on St Swithin’s Day?

There’s a tradition that if it rains on St Swithin’s Day (15^th July) then it will rain for the next forty days, and there’s also the converse tradition that if it’s fine then the next forty days will also be fine.  

This is very much an “old wife’s tale” and records actually show that if it does rain on the 15^th July then the next forty days are likely drier than average!  In fact there’s never been a forty day recorded period of rain between July 15^th and August 24^th…

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A Hard Day on the Planet

Phew! It was a hard day on the Planet yesterday. A dash to Shaftesbury for a session at Hope 2 Cycle, an even faster dash back home to take Sue (she-who-must-be-obeyed) for her medical appointment.

Expecting a leisurely evening with the possibility of a cast or two on the River Piddle to get a nice Trout for supper I instead had to deal with the "Imperious Curse" cast upon me by my agent demanding a 2000 word 'filler' article of (in her own words) "Quirky rural stuff. You know, that weird stuff you write when I'm not there to tell you what sells" She loves me really; fills me full of confidence

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