Give a book for Christmas!

I'm truly hoping to have more copies of Dig It! available for Christmas - put and order in, and I'll get a reprint done (if I get enough orders).

Money back guaranteed if I can't get a book to you.

Dogs and gardens are eternal friends and an eternal frustration when things don't go right. The thing to do is to keep your sense of humour!

Look at the funny side of life and you'll enjoy yourself so much more!

Cats and dogs

I had an idea yesterday that is somewhat relevant to this website. Ideas can be dangerous things, but I think this one is safe enough, and it may lead to making some money for me and my friend Allison Hean - the clever illustrator of the book that this website is all about.

I write things, and Ally has illustrated things for me. These two things together added up in my head to my idea. I was thinking about poetry, as I often do, and I thought that maybe I could take Ally's pictures she's done of dogs and cats for me, and put them together.

You see I have written various poems about both dogs and cats, and my idea is that I could put a dog picture with a dog poem and a cat picture with a cat poem. OK, it's not an absolutely wonderful idea, but it might end up being cute.

If I could make up some little books and sell them for a little bit of money, it would be empowering for me and will be useful to Ally too, I think. She's working hard and doesn't need the money, but it would be good to be able to give her some money derived from her wondrous illustrating talents.

So that's the story - if anyone has any thoughts on this matter, I'd be ever so glad to hear them! Please leave a comment - the life of this embryo book depends on you!

Time for a New Print Run

Hello,
It's time to face some facts.
1/ My time is finite
2/ My things to do are ever increasing
3/ Writing a sequel to 'Dig It! Gardening Tips for Dogs' was probably never going to happen
4/ I love talking to people about dogs
5/ I can afford another print run at the moment

Add all of those things together and you come up with the inevitable 'yes' do it!

So, in order to make sure you can get your hands on a newly printed copy, why not send me a message and I'll put one aside for you.

Where are my Dogs?

That's a question I don't have to ask at the moment. It's winter, and the dogs are on their sofa.

Or they may be outside, but very soon they'll knock on the door, asking to come back inside. Well, more likely jumping at the door which is their way of knocking.

Lah De doesn't get let outside for long, because, well, he does like to dig. The grass is slowly creeping back where he's dug it up, but I don't think it will be all better before summer, which feels like it's a long, long way away!

Winter is my most unfavourite season. I get chilblains on my feet and I get cold. Give me Autumn, I love Autumn. I live the weather in Autumn, I love the colours of the leaves, I love it all!

Spring is OK, summer is a trial, but Autumn is divine!

All Out of Books!

I sold two copies of 'Dig it!' last week, a good thing, yes?

Maybe not - I've completely sold out of 'Dig it! Gardening Tips for Dogs'! Now I have to make a decision - do I do another print run, or do I relax and just cruise through life without the stresses and strains of book distribution?

I'll leave the decision up to my followers and interested others. The book is fun and funny, the illustrations are terrific, and connecting with other dog lovers is always great.

But the cost! The worrying! Please give me some feedback and help me make my decision!

It all adds to the joy and strain of self-publishing. Fun, fun, fun!

Winter Drives the Dogs Inside

The cooling weather means the dogs don't want to go outside. It would be good if they'd do useful things inside, but no such luck!

We have mice in the house again, but the dogs don't catch them. Our traps catch the mice and occasionally one of the dogs will pick up the dead mouse still trapped and take it somewhere.

Most of the time though, the Pharaoh Hounds sleep on the sofa. Nena, our Schnauzer spends more time outside, but then, she's got a double coat with a woolly under layer of fur.

It's fun watching them when something wakes them up. Noe woofs, then the others go mad barking, with no idea what set the first woofer off. Such fun! Cats will never be able to give that sort of fun.

Our Diggy Dog

Well, Graham and I took our diggy dog La De (pharaoh hound) as well as our schauzer Nena to the dog park two days ago. He could have dug there as much as he liked and no-one would have got upset.

There were some nice piles of sand at the park as well as some interesting looking areas with bushes and dirt. He ran around sniffing and peeing, but he didn't dig at all!

Which just proves the saying 'you can lead a hound to dirt piles, but you can't make him dig.'

The visit was lots of fun anyway, for all of us. It's lovely watching a pharaoh hound run - they are such beautiful movers. Nena seemed to enjoy running around too. She's not as super elegant as La De, but she does move well.

Nena peed on almost as many things as La De did, silly girl!

A good day was had by all!