Zzzzzzzz

 What?

Oh it's you again.

Go away!

We're busy sunbathing.

Peace and concentration is needed.

A party invitation!

We are very excited as we have been invited to a lunch.

The Madwoman says it is not a lunch but a launch but we think she is wrong as it says there will be sausage rolls, so it must be a lunch, yes?

Unless it is something to do with launching sausage rolls at us, which we would not complain about.

It is something to do with a book called Narrowdog to Wigan Pier which is being published soon: there are some humans involved but as in the previous two (Narrowdog to Carcasonne and Narrowdog to Indian River) the real stars are, of course, wippitts: Jim is joined in this next book by Jess.

Here they are (nice bandannas!) with their humans keeping to a respectful distance in the background, as befits mere co-stars.

And here they are again, showing that just like us, they are good at kipping too.

A life of action and adventure does after all need to be balanced with appropriate

periods of slothfulness.

And sausage rolls.

Find out more about Narrowdog to Wigan Pier at

narrowdog.com

Meet the Normans

Well, the Madwoman was determined that we should meet a Norman, so yesterday back we went to the Open Air Museum.


And here he is.


Meet Norman.

Everyone else seemed to be called Norman too. Bit confusing if you ask us, not to mention lacking in imagination. What about a few Freds?As usual, they were missing no opportunity to whack away at each other, or sometimes at themselves. The one on the left had just managed to hit himself on the head with his axe just before this pic was taken. We promised not to tell. We lied.

Meanwhile, over in another corner they were about to start firing grapefruit.

Now, lets see ... how many Normans does it take to fire a catapult?

Four?

Six perhaps?

No - turns out it takes eight!

We didn't have the heart to tell them that just one wippitt could have run the same distance with the grapefruit in half the time it took them to load and fire it.

Not the Normans

We got trotted off on one of the Madwoman's educational expeditions at the Chiltern Open Air Museum again yesterday: this time we were supposed to be meeting the Normans.
When we arrived there was no sign of any Normans: just this sign.
Lambs. How sweet.

Unlike this bunch, who rushed up to the fence and then stared very rudely at us. 

We shouted 'Mint sauce!' at them and then ran away.

Still no sign of any Normans though.

Lots of bluebells - although as Angel pointed out, once you've seen one bluebell, you've seen them all.
No sign of any Normans lurking amongst them.

This is Archie being intrepid.

And no, there still weren't any Normans when we got to the top: just a lot of heavy breathing as the Madwoman stopped to get her breath back. She should chase more balls. That would get her a bit fitter. Works for us.

Ah, now this looks more promising.
Fancy hanging your sword up on an electric fence though.
I wonder if they've left the electric switched on?
This might be fun after all ...

Ah, here we are. 

Although they look suspiciously familiar.

      

Apparently the Normans all slept in or something, so some local medieval Paladins of Chivalry have popped in to hold the fort until they arrive. You might remember them from our previous blog  at Easter. 

What is it with you humans?

Any excuse to whack away at each other with swords. Still, they look as though they are having fun, so maybe we'll leave them to it ...

Magic movie moments

Yet another wet day, so for your amusement and entertainment, we thought we'd share a few highlights from our favourite films with you.

"Raindrops keep falling on my head ..."

From Butch Wippitty and the Sundance Kid.

(And yes, it really is about time the Madwoman either repaired

my summer raincoat or bought me a new one)

"So, are you feeling lucky vole? Are ya?"

What do you mean, is it 'Little Mouse on the Prairie?'

It's Dirty Houndy in Wippitt Force!

Back to the back lady

Out we were taken again today - but this time to have our annual back maintenance from nice McTimoney person Caroline Hicks. Caroline is very patient with us, and it doesn't hurt, although you wouldn't believe it to look at Angel's expression here. She was only making worried faces because she could hear splashing noises and squeaking of toys coming from the hydro pool next door. As we've already said, we don't do wet. 

We feel ready for anything now!

Another action packed weekend

You can tell it's must be summer as all of a sudden the outings are coming thick and fast. Here we are, back at the Chiltern Open Air Museum again, this time to watch the Vikings in action.

What's for dinner?  Mushrooms and cabbage.
Nice. Glad we won't be sharing your longhouse tonight. 
If  you're sure there's no sucking pig, thanks all the same, but we'll pass on the dinner invitation ... 

Angel has an itch.
The thing about an itch is that it has to be dealt with there and then.

The Viking fighting has started.

We're glad to see that the girls are getting stuck in too.

That's right, kick him while he's down.

Definitely the safest policy.

Oooops. Now they're all running this way.

Was it something we said?

Time to go home.

Yet another outing

Are we there yet?

We had a nasty moment at the weekend when the Madwoman announced that it was bath time.
Happily it turned out that what she meant was that it was time to go and pay a visit to Bath the place, rather than the bath tub. Or to be more precise, to visit her horse who lives at Bath.

The Madwoman had her stupid head on and forgot to pack the camera, so you'll just have to make do with this picture, taken by Bob Atkins, when he was posing for a photo shoot ages ago.

Flash is the redhead in the middle.

The Madwoman is the one hiding as usual behind the photographer.

We go on an outing

We were taken on an outing today.

The Open Air Museum again, to see some Mediaeval re-enactors.

They knew lots of stuff and in the end we had to drag the Madwoman away from her discussion with these two about spinning and the joys of using a quill instead of a modern pen.

We were more interested in visiting this person, in charge of the mediaeval kitchen. She had jingly bells attached, just like one of the neighbours cats.

We didn't know that humans chased garden birds too.

It's amazing what you learn at these days out.

We soon lost interest when we discovered that there were no roast capons or sucking pigs that needed our expert opinions. Although we wouldn't have minded being offered a bite or two of pear. We're partial to a bit of fruit too.

And this was the knight in shining armour.

Well, the armour at any rate.

Presumably there's a knight running round in the nuddy somewhere.

If your human needs entertaining, there's still time for you to go and see them for yourself: they are there all weekend.

Not an April Fool

We were going to do an April Fool blog, but by the time we'd thought up a really good one, the first of April had come and gone again. So we'll save it for next year instead.

In the meantime, excitement as the toys in our toy box got changed round again.

Makes up for the Madwoman hogging the computer recently - but more about that later.

Dashing and decisive as ever:

Archie homes in on the stuffed honking pheasant

Angel takes her time over her decision ...

And settles for the squeaky duckling