Happy Birthday Bonnie

Yesterday was Bonnie's 4th. birthday. Happy Birthday Bonnie.
We've now had her for almost 2 years, we got her on the 22nd. March 2008.

Walkies again - for Bonnie and me

I finally started to go out with Bonnie again - boy, I was missing that. See, with a 35kg Labrador, I was really scared to walk with her and that I might not be able to hold her with my fresh abdo scar. Usually.... she is quite well behaved, but if she sees another dog - or anything which takes her fancy, she can pull me quite badly - and I really didn't want to risk my scar opening up again.

Out came the HALTI head collar again! I used to use it when we first got Bonnie. Her previous owner never really walked her, she was only kept in the back garden, and they only had a choke chain for her. So when I took her for a walk first time - all proud new dog owner - it was a nightmare. But the head collar changed her into a different dog, walking reallyle nicely with me and I was easily able to control her. I than stopped using it when she appeared to be a bit more settled with us, as SHE really hates the head collar. But now it is saving me again, as I find it really easy to control her with it, and Yeah, I am finally able to walk her again.  Slowly but steadily life returns to normal for me.

Btw, we've only had the slightest dusting of snow, as can be seen in the pictures, and even that is melting quickly in the winter sun. Bonnie easily broke to ice in that puddle to have a drink.

Lazy Saturday and my first walk

Weekend is here - not that it makes a difference to me at the moment. I had a bit of a scare last night when I realised that my scar is bleeding. Not badly, but... I hope this is not a setback, it's now 12 days after the surgery. I didn't lift anything heavy or anything like that, basically all I did was sitting here on my desk with the laptop, and sitting in the armchair stitching. All that sitting must have done it LOL.

The weather is really mild here at the moment, around 11 degree C,and nice winter sunshine. After some 'gentle' persuation on my part Nafees agreed to go out with me to walk Bonnie. I am really missing walking the dog, not to mention the look Bonnie gives me every time I walk past the closet with the 'dog-walking' stuff, her leads etc. But she is much too strong unforunately for me to walk her by myself. If there is no-one else around, it's fine, but if another dog appears on the scene...different story, than I won't be able to hold her in my current past-OP state. Here are a few impressions:

Nafees with Bonnie Honey outside our house, making a dash for it.

Across the road from us.

A finish and a new start!

Last week was my rotation week for small kits. I do this week always after my 4 weekly 'big pieces' rotation not only to finish the small kits, but to give me the satisfaction of finishing something LOL.
I finished the Labrador this week, and now only have to find a suitable frame. With a small picture like this, it shouldn't be too difficult, I think the mount already goes nicely with it. I bought this pako kit last year at Olympia, that was 2 days after we first got Bonnie - and it's a perfect impression of her.

My new start 'small kit' is from the french Company Savoir Faire Vailly. They have a series of heart-shaped designs and I've got the kits for the cherry and the strawberry heart. It is stitched on dark coloured linen, so I have to concentrate to find the 'right holes'.

I'm just no good at taking pictures of stitching (close up stuff), I really don't know what I'm doing wrong. This one is taken with a 4 million pixel phone camera, quite a good camera. Well, I don't know, nothing I ca do about it. Anyway, this is my progress on the little labrador picture. it is fun to stitch and won't take me long to finish. Now she's got eyes!

Not a lot of cross stitch done the past 3 weeks. here is an update on the poodle, only about 100 stitches went into this for that week's rotation. than was the labrador, and I did even less on that. And last week it was supposed to be the Monet picture, well, I didn't work at all on it, this one will be with me for many more months to come.

This week is Spring queen, and I normally enjoy working on it. it's just that I am way to tired in the evening, after work and cooking dinner etc to even get the cross stitch out the bag. Sometimes it is easier to grab a book for relaxation in the evening, and I have been doing lots of reading.