Have you hoard about it?

Here's one we prepared earlier ...

We went for our Sunday stroll round the Open Air Museum this morning, stopping along the way to watch the blacksmith at work in the forge there. He was making nails: it had taken much time and sweat to make a dozen last time he'd been up, and he was hoping to produce at least fourteen today. We left him to it and continued on our way, stopping once again on the way out at the Iron Age hut. They had a Saxon in residence, demonstrating Saxon crafting skills: shields had been left casually propped up against the fence, presumably in readiness to repel any invading armies who dared disturb his crafting ... There was a handy looking axe buried in a block of wood (but no swords in stones we noted), and various other items such as a decorated dagger sheath and a wooden hammer. We were quite impressed until we stuck our noses inside and peeking behind the door spotted a rather more modern 21st century collection of woodworking tools. What a cheat, we thought.

Passing the blacksmith again, still laboriously hammering away at his meagre collection of nails, we did think about suggesting he just went and borrowed a few off the New Age Saxon ... but in the end decided not too: he seemed to be having such fun - and at least he was genuinely making them from scratch.

Needless to say the Madwoman once again failed to bring the camera with her, so we've used our initiative to give this post a bit more of a Saxon flavour: the pictures at the top show us using a towel, an eggbox and some gravy bones to recreate the discovery of the Sutton Hoo hoard.

Shiver our timbers!

Angel tests the squeak in her toy bunny

Avast there our hearties - it's International Talk Like a Pirate Day today, so we're doing our bit, although we'd rather have pieces of treats than pieces of eight ... In fact we were rather expecting, and looking forward to, quite a few pieces of treats today, as the Madwoman had promised to take us treasure hunting as part of Talk like a Pirate day. Unfortunately this plan has been thwarted as Archie had an upset stomach yesterday and was sick in the morning: he was also noticed to be favouring a paw. Although he seems fine this morning, the Madwoman has postponed the treasure hunt for a couple of days. Spoilsport. Maybe we should make her walk the plank ... trouble is, there are only goldfish-infested waters in the garden, so we don't think it will be much of a threat. In the meantime you'll just have to make do with a picture of Angel playing with her squeaky bunny toy.

Ar-har me hearties!

Archie practices his hidden treasure locating skills

Apparently Monday is the International Talk Like A Pirate Day, so to celebrate the Madwoman has promised to take us on a treasure hunt. Excited? We are. And we will of course, also dress for the occasion ... in the meantime as it is raining, we are doing a little indoor treat-hunting in order to hone our skills. We'll remind the Madwoman to take her camera along so if you come back on Monday you can see us in action ...

Odour nil

Sulking. Well, wouldn't you?

Angel found something really whiffy to roll in this morning: even someone as nasally challenged as the Madwoman could smell her a mile off. When we got back to the car we were fully expecting Angel to be subjected to the wippitt wet wipes which live in the glove compartment for just such occasions but tragically, they appear to have vanished. So we got a ride home inhaling the delicious aroma while shivering in the gale force winds blowing through the open car windows ...

Once back we had to wait for our elevenses while Angel was led away to the bathroom and scrubbed from head to toe: after a brisk towel-down her fur is sticking up like hedgehog spikes and she now smells of Neem shampoo. So only a short-lived triumph for the art of scent. Next time we must remember to hide the shampoo as well ...

To the rescue!

Like a fish out of water ... well, it was, earlier. Meet Blondie.

The Madwoman has been taking things easy for the last few days, so we've been putting our paws up too ... it was action stations this morning though when she went out to feed the fish (there are two which live in the front garden) and found that one had managed to beach itself on top of a bit of vegetation near the edge. We thought it was only whales that did that, but it would appear that goldfish can too. First of all there were shrieks when she thought it was dead, but then it started panting, so she quickly scooped it back into the deep end while we supervised. It seems to be okay - we all trooped out to check on it again before going for our morning run - lets hope it's sense of direction has improved and it doesn't do it again, as we're just about to settle down for a nap and would prefer not to be disturbed by any further fishy goings-on.