Great Dane

This Great Dane had Zebedee for breakfast this morning.









Well, not really. It didn't take Z long to get back on his feet and stand up for himself.



We've met this bitch before, but only today I learned that she is the same age as Zebedee, almost to the day. Very, very playful. But sadly not as gentle as Max, for example, so Zebedee gets thrown about a bit too much when she plays with him. I may be a little paranoid about it, but perhaps I'm forgiven for being a little paranoid, given the experience we have had with Zebedee and his dodgy leg. Wouldn't want to go through another 3-4 months of restrected exercise with him!



Oops - almost forgot to post a blossom photo...

Flash!

No, I haven't bought myself a flash yet. But Miles did. And he let me have a little play with it. Very little play, as I was very tired after spending all day in a Business Link seminar.



Zeb with his Moose.



I will definitely get myself a flash, too! Very soon.

Duck!

There are just a few ducks in the tiny fishing lakes we "found" the other day...






"Mmmm... dinner..."






Back in our garden, there's bickering at the coconut.



"Mmmm... dinner...."






Zebedee looking like he really really wants me to give him one of those birds to play with.

Pigeon is also a bird

I seem to be chasing after birds nowadays. I went to Castle Hill this morning again to check out who's there, but all I saw was pigeons.



In the afternoon in Piddinghoe I snapped a photo of this gorgeous little bird. Someone in Flickr British Bird and Wildlife group identified it for me: a female stonechat.



And no post should go without a photo of Zebedee.

Wood is good

Last night we went to a fabulous Polar Bear gig in the Komedia. It wasn't till this morning, when I lifted my clothes off this chair's back rest, that I found out what Zebedee had been up to while we were out.



When I took this picture and was laughing with Miles at the puppy's skilful removal of part of the chair leg without making the chair break and fall, Zebedee came over, wagging his tail realising that he must have done something really clever and funny as we were laughing, and proceeded to nibble the chair leg some more, as if to say "Look, here's how I did it!".

Malling Down

A revisit to Malling Down, one of the places we visited on our Sussex Summer Safari back in June.







There is a dewpond, and it even has a name!





Another snap I happened to take of Zebedee and later noticed the tooth...



Look at it - it's huge! The molar at the back looks ridiculously big for the little puppy's mouth. His head needs to grow to keep up with the rest of his body... and teeth.



In the evening we went for another hour's walk at Castle Hill.

Puppy School Graduation

Since Zebedee starts his Junior School tomorrow, I thought I'd take his Puppy School graduation photo first. So here it is. With the rosette and everything. ;-)



Oh, and BTW - today he lost both his upper canines while we were playing tug-of-war. I have no idea where they went. Probably down his throat! I did find one of his other teeth that fell off today, though. His upper adult canines were already coming through just in front of the milk ones.

Lazy days and Mondays...

I think this photo pretty much sums up what we were up to today.



I love waking up in the same bed with my lover, but I don't mind waking up sharing a bed with a silly puppy, too. ;-) His own bed is on the floor in the background, but he gets up on my bed in the morning and greets me with a waggy tail, playfulness, kisses and lots of yawns. And gooood stretches. Aww, he is the cutest thing in the world, I tell you.

Anyway, teething! As I told you, yesterday I saw that his lower adult canines were coming through, and that he still has his milk canines intact. Well, not anymore! Before I knew it, the left lower canine was gone when I looked at his mouth today, and in the evening, while we were playing tug, Zebedee started behaving oddly as if he was chewing on something, but he had nothing in his mouth so I guessed there was something going on with his teeth. Bless. (I remember how annoying it was when I had a milk tooth that was ALMOST loose but not quite enough.) The right lower canine was so loose it was only hanging on to the gum by a tiny bit and I managed to get it out and put it safe. Now I have two of his milk teeth. I will take a photo of them soon. Even if no one else wanted to see a photo of them!

Ditchling Beacon

Very foggy and very drizzly day - "perfect" for a walk in the countryside...





This is a terrible snap of Zebedee, but I'm glad I took it because when I looked at this photo on the big monitor at home I realised what I was seeing...



His lower canines are coming through! I've highlighted them in this cropped photo. He's still got his milk canines intact, though, and the adult canines seem to be growing in too much in the middle of the jaw. Hmmm, hope they don't cause any problems.



Below is one of the many (about 300) dew ponds on the South Downs. I didn't know what a dew pond is, but there was a sign explaining it, and it said something similar to what is written on this page:

Dew ponds

When it rains, the water soaks into the chalk. So, dewponds were made on the Downs to collect rain to provide water for cows and sheep. The bottom of the pond is lined with clay which stops the water disappearing into the chalk rock.

Since the invention of plastic piping and water troughs, dew ponds are not often used or looked after. However, where they do exist, they have become a valuable habitat for many creatures, such as great crested newts and dragonflies. Dew ponds are part of the history and way of life of the South Downs. They are easy to find along the South Downs Way National Trail.

Edestä, takaa, istuu, makaa

I've posted a lot of photos of Zebedee in this photo diary. Some people say too many, and some people say not enough. I say there will be many more. ;-)

The other day I was taking photos of a friend of mine, just to test out coloured gels for the background light when taking portraits. At the end I thought I'd take a photo or two of Zebedee, but he wasn't in the mood for posing. I had to coax him into the position with a sheet of rawhide (the only thing I had handy at the time), but then he wouldn't let go of the rawhide so that I could take a proper picture. So I took one shot of him anyway. With the rawhide in his mouth. Makes me laugh every time I look at this photo of a "reluctant model".



In Finland, when someone has taken a lot of photos of one single person or an animal, other people looking at those photos get bored and mock them with a rhyming saying (...where xxx is the person/animal they are not as interested in as the photographer was):
xxx edestä
xxx takaa
xxx istuu
xxx makaa

which means:
xxx from the front
xxx from the back
xxx sitting
xxx lying down

So here goes. With recent photos of a 4,5 months old little Z. (Just to hammer it down properly to anyone who is not so keen to see any more puppy photos.)

Zebedee from the front:



Zebedee from behind & Zebedee sitting:



Zebedee lying down:



And hey, I've got some extra ones!

Zebedee from the side:


Zebedee from below: (with Ollie, his puppy school friend)


Zebedee by a flowering plant:



Zebedee looking over a cliff edge on a windy day:



Oh, that reminds me of a couple of great photos Miles has taken of Zebedee. With his permission -
Zebedee looking at the Seven Sisters (on a windy day):



Zebedee biting Ollie's bum:

Telscombe

We decided to go somewhere new today for a walk and headed for the tiny village of Telscombe. Zebedee is four months old today, and he had a little hard time in Telscombe, to be honest. Here he is looking scared, the poor thing:



And what was he looking at? This incredibly scary scene:



He is still very scared of horses. Even little ponies like this. Must find a way to socialise him with horses soon. And cows. He's find with sheep now, but nothing bigger than that.

There are lots of horses and sheep in Telscombe. Probably more horses than people.



There are only a few houses, apart from a farm or two, but the houses that are there are quite pretty.





I've been through Telscombe a few times before, but never realised that there is a church there, too! So it really is a village, not a hamlet, even though it is such a small place.






And yes, don't laugh - I found a new kind of flower again. Or perhaps just a new colour of a flower I've seen before. I've never been such a girl before in my life... never used to pay attention to flowers much; not until I started photography as a hobby.



Other plants can be as beautiful in my opinion.



The scene just outside of Telscombe.



Oh, almost forgot: last night we had a fearsome thunder storm with hail! I have French doors into the garden and the hail was pounding on the glass making a hell of a racket. Zebedee got scared so I followed him upstairs and played with him and gave him treats so that he'd associate good things with the loud noise, and pay less attention to the storm and the noise in general. Here are a couple of photos that I took with my pocket camera. Really bad quality photos, but then again I wasn't going to go out with my camera: some of the hail were as big as cherry tomatoes, and they weren't gently floating down from the sky, either!