Restarting The Puppy Days

Evening everyone I hope you’re all having a good week so far. I’ve been struggling to know how to start this post as I can’t decide what pug to write about first! Its been an eventful few days for everyone to say the least. Plus we’re all feeling fatigued from the early starts and the hectic routine that comes with a little puppy. But here is just a little overview of our first few days.

If you follow my blog or twitter stream you should know lots about Polly already, and as Peggy’s the new girl that everybody’s keenly asking me about I will start the focus on her.

Just in case you didn’t know, Peggy joined the family on Sunday **

I was stunned by just how quickly Peggy seemed to fit in to her new surroundings. She eased her way comfortably in to the new household in just a few short hours. The first thing that we did when we arrived back was take both the girls out to the garden, bearing in mind that they had already briefly met in Peggy’s kitchen, but there was still a lot of sniffing each other out in our home garden. After a short while we managed to get Peggy to go to toilet, which was a really promising start for us [More on training in a separate post tomorrow]

We had no problem whatsoever in getting Peggy to stick to her feeding routine as she is a right greedy little piglet! You tend to read that in the early stages of moving into a new home a puppy’s appetite won’t be good, and as I recall this was the case with Polly for a few days where she was picky with her food. But Peggy tucked right in to her meals which was a relief!

And finally, to finish with a question that everyone has been tweeting and asking me – how are the two girls getting on?

My honest answer for now, is that time will tell. Its still very early days and both the pugs have a lot to adapt to! They seem to be doing ok, however it really is hard to make a judgement yet when its so soon. I’m a tiny bit concerned for at the moment, because Peggy is at that nipping stage where she will just bite everything – toes, fingers and pug tails. But I can tell Polly doesn’t really like Peggy constantly keep nipping her and there have been a few growls of frustration and confused looks from Polly as if to say ‘is that thing still here, biting me?’

So until Peggy can learn to stop nipping, we’re keeping the girls at paws length because I don’t want to start their sisterhood on a negative tone. It not spiteful biting its just that young puppy nature and she is too little to know the difference between good and unacceptable behaviour yet, but I’m confident that she will learn and I have hope that they will soon adore each other.

Sorry for a lack of pictures in this post, but I was at work some of the day and in between pug sitting I haven’t had chance to whip the camera out today. I’ve got tomorrow off so I plan on getting a few shots in so stay tuned for puppy pics.

Thanks for reading, enjoy the rest of the night x

Cute Puppy Pics Take 2

I will write an update tomorrow on how the girls first day went as I know that lots of you have plenty of questions for me on how Polly and Peggy got on, but hopefully the pictures you will give you some idea that it went fairly well

Calm Before The Storm

“What’s that you say Mum? I’m getting a sister tomorrow?”

“But will I still get lots of treats and cuddles?”

Yes tomorrow we’re picking up our little Peggy pug! We’re all very excited but at the moment we’re a little bit nervous too – once again everything is going to be very new to us. I have no idea how the girls will be together to begin with! It still doesn’t seem to have sunk in that we’re getting another pug tomorrow morning! AH!

Wish us luck and stay tuned for lots of puppy pictures tomorrow ! x

Tweet-Up Success

Good afternoon everyone, I hope that you’re enjoying the beautiful September weather. We were very lucky today because back at the beginning of the summer a group of Twitter users all organised a tweet meet for today and it was a huge success. The meet up is of course in aid of our four-legged pals – our doggies! We had a couple of TweetUps at the beginning of the year but due to poor weather, illnesses and life generally getting in the way we haven’t had another one for a good couple of months. So naturally today was long overdue!

The combination of lovely warm sunshine and a great turn out of people were all it took to make the meet successful.

All of the usual suspects were there today.

@BaldricksMum

@ArthurPugs

@Wonderwinger

@Snuggpugs

@Polly_pug

Plus a few new faces!

@EricMcBrug

@MissyMooLPB

It was fantastic to see so many people show up today, and its lovely that people are so willing to travel a little bit for the meet up, we’re lucky enough to live fairly close to the country park but others travelled in from as far as Surrey, Tunbridge Wells and Canterbury. There were doggies from all over the place today!

Once again, all of the dogs played so nicely together which is a pleasure to watch – the big and the little were all part of one big pack today.

Because it was so hot we had to take lots of long rest breaks….

But rest breaks = opportunity to sniff!

A big thank you to everyone who turned up today as I do appreciate many travelled in as I mentioned before, but the day wouldn’t have been the same without you all! I know that there were quite a few people who couldn’t make it this morning but after the success of  the meet I’m confident that another will be organised soon enough

 

Who’s up for planning the next Tweet Up? x x

Dorset 2012

Our holiday may be over but the blog posts are here to stay! Here are all of my recaps in one easy to find place.

Arriving at Lime Tree Cottage.

Our first day exploring the area.

Sunday morning at breakfast.

Visiting Corfe Castle.

Taking a tour of Bath City.

Walking round Kingston Lacy Woodlands.

Going to Beaulieu Motor Museum.

Spending our last day in Moors Valley Forest.

I’m already dreaming of the next one…

Homeward Bound

 

“Mum, I’m ready to go home now.”

We’re on our way home!

I’m really sad that our holiday is already over… however I have loads to look forward to when I return back so I can focus on all those good things now. Like on Sunday a big group of Twitter pals are having a TweetUp which is always such fun, then in just over a week this one is joining our family!!!!

And hey, its not all bad.. Its nearly the weekend now too hope you have a good Friday x x x

Moors Valley

Good evening, one last time from Lime Tree Cottage! Our holiday has just whizzed by and I can’t believe we’re already on our last evening in the cottage. We’re travelling home tomorrow morning, fairly early as we have to check out by 10am. We’ve got quite a bit of journeying on busy motorways plus being a Friday we think its for the best that we head home earlier rather than later anyway. With a day of travelling tomorrow in mind, we chose to have another low key day again today and visited Moors Valley.

Moors Valley is a huge forest full of pine trees and it is a truly lovely spot for a bit of peace and quiet.  I would recommend a visit to anyone holidaying in the area, there are plenty of onsite facilities like cafe, toilets, information centre etc however two minutes walk and you feel like you’re in the middle of the forest.

The car park was relatively full for a week day in early September, however when we were walking around the trail we hardly ever passed another soul! The forest is incredible and I was overwhelmed by the size of it all. I felt like we had been transported to a completely remote spot in amongst all of the enormous pine trees.

It was so calm and quiet in the forest  

We bought a little map of the forest from the information centre but I wouldn’t recommend buying it as it was rubbish and had us all completely confused. This is the only complaint that I have – the trails weren’t very easy to follow and I would have enjoyed doing a structured walk around the forest. The signposts were very ambiguous as all they provided was the colour of a trail and no directions!

Trail or no trail we mooched around quite aimlessly and still had a very enjoyable time. The weather was perfect today, the sun was bright in a sky full of light fluffy looking clouds and the temperature in the forest was just right. Every now and then there was a cool breeze, but we were still able to leave our jackets off most the day.

Pleased with another chance to flaunt the sunnies

And needless to say puggy loved it.

Since Polly’s been allowed off the lead walks have been given a whole new meaning to both her and us. She adores the freedom of it and I swear she goes round with the biggest smile on her face the entire time. I love watching her look so happy. Bit of fresh air is so good for us all!

Lovely bit of zooooming around.

She had her own little tag from the park clipped around her harness while we were round the forest

Too cute.

We found a lovely viewpoint overlooking the forest where we spent a while just admiring the location and chilling out together. I’m so grateful for the family times we have all shared together this holiday, its so nice that we can come on holiday together and have such a nice time.

And just like that, another holiday has come to an end…

The last day of a holiday is always bittersweet isn’t it? There’s a part of you that isn’t quite ready to let go of that wonderful holiday vibe, but at the same time you crave home and a sense of normality. But I can honestly say that I enjoyed every minute of our holiday in Dorset and I think I speak for all of us. We have been so busy and totally made the most of our trip… we have seen some incredible countryside, woodlands, forests, towns, ruins, and more.

I will be leaving tomorrow with some cherished family memories…..  here’s to the next holiday

The Motor Museum

Or as I thought of it – the masculine museum. Today we went to Beaulieu which is home to an enormous collection of automobiles across the generations and, at the moment is looking after a collection of vehicles from different James Bond movies. Dad is a huge Bond nerd so naturally he was itching to go. We had a big leaflet in our cottage on Beaulieu and it looked like a decent day out so we gave it a go today. 

Dad really enjoyed himself and headed straight to the Bond section first. I thought it was good, and I do enjoy seeing a collection of different items but honestly…. it was all a little lost on me? I thought I might have liked it more because I do like nice cars hell we even had a vintage car in our family before that I was interested in at times…but it was kind of just okay to me.

I was pleased that Dad loved it. Plus for someone who is passionate about cars and vintage vehicles Beaulieu is heaven on earth. It was all kind of Top Gear-ish and not really my kind of scene.

I went inside the museum briefly, had a quick glimpse around and was happy to walk straight back out again.

There is however, more to Beaulieu than just a motor museum. There were huge grounds, gardens, an abbey and a stately home to look around. And so we spent the majority of the day at Beaulieu in the end

With a nice ice cream shop half way round.

Our holiday has gone so, so quickly I can’t believe we’ve only got one more day left!

How is your week going? x x

Kingston Lacy Woodlands

Hello once again from Lime Tree Cottage. We had a nice quiet Tuesday, how was your day? After a busy day yesterday with lots of travelling we decided to keep it somewhat low key today. On checking our National Trust handbook we saw that Kingston Lacy wasn’t too far away so we decided to give that a go. We visited this national trust property last time we were in Dorset on our way home, but we were all happy to return again.

And obviously its a little bit different this time around because we’ve got this one, who naturally isn’t allowed in the house with all those precious treasures and ornaments.

And actually I forgot to mention in my post yesterday that this little lady behaved absolutely fantastically considering that she is not used to cities and continuous big crowds of people. She is such a confident little puppy and I was so proud of her yesterday in Bath. So today we gave Polly a little treat and took her for a lovely walk in the woodlands around Kingston Lacy.

The woodlands were lovely, with enormous old trees towering over us and providing plenty of cool shade as we made our way round the trail slowly.

Polly absolutely loves her walks and today was no different with skipping about here and there and sniffing galore.

The first thing she took a liking to on today’s was the sheep, they received a little bark.

I suppose she’s probably never seen sheep before? They must be very confusing for such a little pug. Aha.

So must funny statues be confusing to a pug.

I have to laugh at how little Polly looks next to them!

Hehehe!

Sniff.

Sniff.

Now time for some zooming!

Zoom! Zoom! Zoomies!

Such a happy girl in the woods playing  

And thank goodness she loves having her picture taken as she is just so precious! I’m going to be a busy pug mum when I’ve got two gorgeous girls to snap pictures of

Picnic stop!

Notice the scavenger waiting.

As we went round the trail we got a glimpse of some of the formal gardens.

And the kitchen gardens.

And by the time we were finished this afternoon we had done a total of just over 3 miles.

Although we have visited Kingston Lacy before we made it a completely different day out by doing the woodland trail. The house doesn’t open until Wednesday anyway, but because we’re staying so close we may just go back for a visit one more time to have a look around.

We have another busy day on the agenda tomorrow though…..Beaulieu

Bath From A Tour Bus

Good Evening everyone! I hope your week got off to a nice start, ours most certainly has here in Dorset. The sun came out for us today, which was really lovely because we spent the day in Bath and had a smashing time. I have wanted to visit Bath for ages now because from what I had seen of it, it looked like such a gorgeous city – and I was not wrong! Our cottage is about an hour away and while we were close we decided to make a trip into the lovely city.

Our day involved quite a lot of travelling.

We travelled by car, park and ride and by an open air tour bus. It was mum who suggested we all get the tour bus once we were there, and it turned out to be a really good decision. By taking the city tour it enabled us to get a real glimpse of  Bath, which frankly we wouldn’t have been able to cover by foot in a single day. Plus because we were up high on the bus the views were far superior to the views we would have got on foot.

I haven’t been on a city tour bus before but I can see why they are so popular: the buses arrive frequently (approximately every 12 minutes) and you can get on and off as you please. The only down side I suppose is the price, tickets are about £11 which makes is quite expensive when you consider that we travelled as a family of five of us. But then again, when you’re on holiday you sort of allow for things like that as they are a rare treat. However Polly didn’t find the bus much of a treat when I put her down by the footrest!

“Oh let me up?”

“How about if I poke my tongue out?”

Oopsie sorry its so easy to get carried away with pictures of Polly, I can’t help myself when she is so cute! Back on topic.. Bath..

Yes so, the tour was really worth while as it felt like we got to see lots of the city! I was so relieved that my expectations of Bath weren’t let down, it was everything I hoped it would be and more in a way. It was exactly my sort of city, with prosperous buildings, shops and gardens and yet there is still the sense that you are not too far away from the countryside too.

You can tell that Bath is a city that takes pride in itself as it looks completely in keeping with the marvellous old buildings: there are pretty flower arrangements, well kept lawns and the thing that I spotted immediately was a lack of litter.

We are terrible for our litter and I think it is disgusting, so seeing a city looking so clean and tidy was very liberating and rare. I wish that everywhere was a little more like Bath.

It was fascinating gawping at all the lovely old buildings.

 

Because we could get on and off the bus we did see quite a lot of the city on foot too, we walked up and down the high street, looked outside the Roman Baths, plus walked around the Royal Crescent

Perfect opportunity for picture taking:

Love her

We’re having a fabulous time on our holiday x

Have a good week everyone ! Much love x x x