Farnham Bike Ride

This is probably the hardest bike ride I've ever done, harder I suspect than riding round San Diego last year. We started out on the usual Christmas Pie from opposite out house and headed towards Tongham. We stopped off at the local village shop and bought ice lollies (how civilised) and had out first pit stop on what was a very hot day. We then headed off towards Farnham. After feeling pretty fit when we passed out usually turnaround spot at the Princess Royal we decided to head towards the Shepherd and Flock up which is unique in that it resides in the middle of a very large roundabout along with a lot of other very old houses which obviously used to be once be the main road from Guildford to Portsmouth. I knew this village existed but had never known how to get there or what it consisted of. It was just so weird, you go through the yard of a farm which was like a ghost farm - there was no-one about! Then under this appalling concrete bridge covered in graffiti and then bang you can still hear the A3 but you are in a different world, a village lost in time - under the dual carriageway. Totally bizarrre and quite sad really that this wonderfully quaint village has to live in the shadow and the noise of modern life.

So , we get to the Shepherd and Flock pub but the garden was pretty full and there were no umbrellas free - and this was one of the hottest days of the year so far! So we had the balmy idea of riding right into Farnham town centre buying a bicycle lock from Halfords on the way. We headed off to Castle Street and onto Zizzi's to have a well earned meal. We looked a little out of place as we were dusty and sweaty whereas the rest of the people in there were so very obviously on boring family outings. I didnt realise how hungry I was until the spaghetti Bolognese and garlic bread came out - I wolfed the whole lot, not a scrap left behind as well as about two pints of water! It was as if I'd been starved for a month - it was delicious! Although we did get a few weird looks from other people in there.

So, very full and very hot we headed back through the town and had the most amazing stroke of luck, we had run into an annual classic car rally that drives through the town. We stopped and watched (plus it was a good break after eating so much!) it was a great spectacular and best of all unexpected! There were some wonderful vehicles there from a Lionel Jeffries lookalike on a penny farthing to a Cadillac Bel Air - amazing, expecially as we both like classic cars. What a bonus.

We then headed home stopping at the Princess Royal for a well earned pint - although by now I was beginning to feel a little jaded. I wont say the journey home was easy, we were tired and by now very hot but we made it and in all this was a round 22 miles - I now feel exhausted but incredibly fulfilled - maybe I've found my fitness drive again and mostly because of yesterdays successful introduction to contact lens! They really have changed my life.

I am now reading.....

......this book will save your life! A wonderfully witty account of how you can lose your life in todays rat race but ultimately grab it back - loved it, well written, funny, sad and as is everything Los Angeles 'quirky'!

I can see!

After many months of Alan trying to persuade me and putting it off again and again I finally went to Boots to have a consultation for wearing contact lens. I am very sqeamish about anything like this and have a kind of claustrophobia when being examined in any way medically - in fact I have passed out in the opticians before - so this was quite a leap of faith.

I needn't have worried, the service was quite amazing, kind, attentive and most of all I came away being able to see. It was so good being able to see the menu in Bar Ha Ha without having to wear glasses, it lifted me immediately. I'm sure this is one of the reasons my fitness regime has vanished recently - I just couldnt see the point anymore - I'm getting old so lets just give up - but now well, I can honestly say this has changed my life and I cant wait to go out on my bike tommorow and wear my M frames and be able to see EVERYTHING!!!

I know its going to get some getting used to putting them in and taking them out but hey, I'm not one to give up easily so in say a months time I wont even think about it.

....and while I still had the lens in I bought myself a trendy pair of Jackie O sunglasses :)

Gardening is my other passion

Apart from showing dogs - no showing, living and breathing Gordon Setters to be precise my other passion is gardening. OK, so maybe sometimes the two dont go together too well for instance when Gordons knock over my plants but on the whole there is a delicate balance and the garden usually looks quite good. I love being out in the garden, I hate being in the house and I love growing and nurturing seedlings and plants and I think my garden shows that off.

This picture shows a small selection of flowers grown my own garden.

The weather still isnt summer though despite it now being the 1st June - here is a rainbow and you can see the black cloud full of rain coming over the garden....

The Book I Read.....

I've decided to log any books I read while writing this blog. Books are incredibly important to me and although I'm not the fastest reader on the planet I probably read between 10 and 15 a year which if you read statistics these days is a lot more than most - who never read (which I feel so hard to believe).

Anyway, the book I'm reading at the moment is The Testament According to Gideon Mack. It's the story of a non-believing minister in Scotland who meets the devil (a little Neil Gaimenesque) . It's an incredibly thought provoking book, masterfully written and is an incredible insight into the post war presbyterian family in Scotland - I'm really enjoying it.

Post Script....I've just finished this book and I tend to judge books by the feeling I have when finished or the thoughts the book leaves me with on its conclusion - the best example of this was the Secret History by Donna Tartt - I wanted to meet the characters they were so real - anyway I digress this book has made me feel as though I've lost a friend now I've read the last page, I loved 'being with' Gideon Mack, I'm going to miss him and by my standards thats the best endorsement I can give this book!

What a Wash-Out!

What an appalling weekend. It has not stopped raining since Saturday evening and I mean RAINING! Last night it could be described as torrential. I feel depressed and cheated - I cant stand being inside when I have a day off - it's pure torture. The dogs are bored, the cats are grumpy and the poor, poor chickens - they are living in a quagmire. I tried to cover their run with hemp to help dry the mud out but this just made it even more attractive to dig up and thereby creating more mud pies!!

Many of my plants that were showing such progress and were blooming early have been weighed down and broken with the rain and wind and the bottom of the garden is flooded - again. It feels all too much like that incredibly bad spell of weather we had in late winter when I just felt desperate and incredibly miserable - lets hope this spate of rain doesnt last as long!

It was also the day of the Surrey County Show - that must have been a complete and utter wash out - thank God I didnt buy any tickets!

On the plus side though this is the first day we've had three eggs - in varying sizes - Leia still lays very small almost bantam size eggs but I'm sure they'll get bigger as she gets older, she's still only a few weeks old.

The Golden Gate Bridge Reaches 70 years old!

Yes, its true that great icon of the Bay Area in San Francisco is 70 years old today! Quite incredible that there are people who can easily remember the Bay without this incredible feat of engineering.

I have crossed this bridge possibly half a dozen times in my two visits to San Fran and it never ceases to amaze me how enormous this bridge is and how many people cross this bridge as part of their drive to work.

Trivia about the Golden Gate Bridge:

• The bridges most famous detail - its colour is called 'international orange' and was chosen to blend in with the surroundings.
• Along with our very own Tower Bridge in London it has the honour of being the most photographed bridge in the world (hmmm....I only have pictures of the GG bridge - even though I only live 20 miles from London I have never photographed Tower Bridge - how embarassing).
• The Golden Gate has a sister bridge in Portugal called the 25th April Bridge.
• The bridge has the highest number of suicides in the world
• It connects the city of San Francisco on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula to Marin County as part of US Highway 101 and Calforinian State Highway 1.

Happy Birthday Golden Gate, I'll be back again as soon as I can!

What a Beautiful Weekend

After the appalling weather of last weekend, this weekend was gorgeous. It was warm, sunny and best of all, today I spent all day in the garden. Gardening is my therapy and comes a close second to dog showing. Dogs and Gardening dont always go together (how many plants have I lost because of a dog chasing the cat across the garden!!) but on the whole the two go together well, I garden and the dogs enjoy 'helping' me - they love being with me and Alan and they love being outside for the whole day.

Anyway, the garden. It's never looked so good (if you ignore the lack of grass caused by the three months of rain last winter) many plants have self seeded due to the warm winter, perennials have bloomed early,








the gaps and sight of earth is rapidly deminishing!



...and the veggie patch! Well, this has got to be one of this years BIG success stories. We are growing Mayan Gold, Yukon Gold and Pink Fur Apple potatoes, carrots, parnips, kohl rabi, celeriac, spinach, beetroot, peas, mangetout, runner beans, dwarf beans, aubergine, sweetcorn, butternet squash, chilli's, tomatoes, peppers, leeks, onions, artichokes, cauliflower, cabbage, sprouts, purple sprouting brocolli, loads of varieties of salad leaves and this doesnt include the numerous fruit bushes and trees and the herbs we grow. The warm soil, the warm weather and more recently the sun and showers have started off a brilliant collection of veggies - and in a few weeks time we can reap the rewards of our efforts.

What a shame I have to go back to 'the company' tommorow to have my soul and character chipped away at even more - what a shame I cant just stay in my beautiful garden surrounded by my wonderful animals instead of sitting in a ghost town of an office surrounded by a complete bunch of idiots!

Time to Apply for that Visa maybe?

Today, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair announced that he is to stand down as the Britsh Prime Minister on the 27th June 2007.

His successor will be Gordon Brown - this is the reason I may have to emigrate!

Tony Blair had and still has his faults but even I (never a Labour fan or voter) feel he is a genuine man who even if a little deluded and ill-informed sometimes truly believed he was doing the right thing.

Brown on the other hand is driven by his English hating, marxist chip on his shoulder which means he wants to destroy the biggest tax paying group - the middle, hard working class (as I call us). He is so bitter about people in Britain who have made it that he will kill his biggest tax payer - and then of course the country will go to the dogs - so sad, so tragic, I love this country but he will single handedly destroy all that's Great about Britain so I see my days here numbered - if of course anyone else would have me.

Happy Star Wars Day!

OK, so let me explain. I am not into Star Wars and to be perfectly honest I just dont get it - in fact I have never seen the original film in its entirity and have fallen asleep at the two last films. The reason I call this Star Wars day is that I like to humour the Star Wars geeks. You just have to say to them Happy Star Wars day and see their eyes light up, they think it's real - but then I explain it's my idea of a bad joke. Todays date is May the 4th - so May the 4th be with you - to any SW geek this is blasphemy - I find their reaction hilarious!

Anyway, today I took delivery of two more chooks. This time they are pepperpots so very dark and in fact look the same colour as my dogs - black and tan! So here's my dilemma, I have got to give them names that are associated with Star Wars in some way but just cant think - it was such a male oriented film. How about Leia (layer) and Padme? Or Obi Wan Henobi? Cant decide - I've had them for a couple of days now but just cant decide what I should call them.

The kind, sweet quiet Souffle has turned into the chook from hell as she intimidates and pecks these two poor creatures - they really are finding the pecking order. I hope it will work out.