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.

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.

Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden

It was another hot day (28°C) and not the best for a drive in a car without an air conditioning, but nevertheless, we went to Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden for the three hours that it is open on Sundays. Not easy to take photos with the puppy pulling on the lead that is attached to the hand that is holding the camera, but between us we managed to take turns in attending to the puppy and take a few OK photos of the sculptures and the lovely garden that they were in.

































Hang on a minute - exactly HOW big is that puppy?!?

By the way, I'll show a detail from the above photo:



See the lower jaw? Three milk teeth missing! :-) I didn't get a chance to see Zeb without his upper middle incisors because the following day I noticed the they are loose, the teeth were gone and tiny adult teeth were already showing! Seems that it takes a lot longer for the lower front adult teeth to appear (after the milk teeth have fallen out).

Back to the sculpture garden then.