Notes from The Kennels - Summer 2014
"All I really wanted to do was sleep by the fire. The rain had been pouring down and the wind shaking the windows of the old granite cottage where I lived.
But, someone shouted my name and rattled my lead and I knew it was time for me to go.
I scrambled up, a little unsteady on my feet, for I am an old dog now, too tired I think at times for gardening, and I wander to the front door.
The door opens and poking my head outside, I find that the rain has stopped, the wind is silent and the sun pours down glinting on the dark green leaves of the shrubs in the tiny cottage garden.
And so it is, that I am here again in the large Gardens by the sea. I really do enjoy myself once I get out here. I gamble about like a young fellow again and rush at the odd bits of stick and wood I find on the grass, throwing them up in the air and catching them with my teeth.
Everyone smiles at me in the Gardens, they pat my head and call my name, if I wander too far. So I just keep very close to everyone. I become a very sociable chap, chatting to other dogs, telling them what is going on and where we have planted new flowers. I try to learn their names but always forget.
When tea break comes, well that is the best time of all really, I usually invite lots of other dogs over and then all the Gardening People grab their biscuits and lift their mugs of tea high in the air, until someone fetches the "Dog Biscuit Tin" and throws the biscuits on to the grass, a long way off I might add, so it is a race to get to them, and someone mutters, "That will keep them quiet for a while"
My friend Phoebe comes to the Gardens too. She sort of helps, but most of the time she will stand, with her head on one side and those deep, rather sad brown eyes, gazing longingly at the Gardening People to throw her the ball, or whatever it is. I play a game with her and take the whatever it is, that is slightly chewed and a bit nasty, and I try to hide it or I carry it around with me. She goes wild looking for it and makes all the Garden People hunt for it. So everyone forgets what they are doing for a while until I drop the whatever it is at their feet and they hurl it so high in the air that it nearly reaches the sea, and someone mutters, "That will keep them quiet for a while"
At the end of the day when the tools are packed away and the Gardening People have tidied up, we all wearily wander home. I casually look around me, at the deep blue of the sea and the flowers in the Summer breeze. I have come to love the bumblebees too as they fly and hover over the poppies and the cornflowers, I nuzzle up close to them to peer into the flower and they seem to talk to me, they seem so happy, so alive and full of energy, and sometimes, as if they are saying thank you, I have noticed them hover close to the Gardening People before gently settling again on the flowers which they have planted for them"
Ollie Dog
"All I really wanted to do was sleep by the fire. The rain had been pouring down and the wind shaking the windows of the old granite cottage where I lived.
But, someone shouted my name and rattled my lead and I knew it was time for me to go.
I scrambled up, a little unsteady on my feet, for I am an old dog now, too tired I think at times for gardening, and I wander to the front door.
The door opens and poking my head outside, I find that the rain has stopped, the wind is silent and the sun pours down glinting on the dark green leaves of the shrubs in the tiny cottage garden.
And so it is, that I am here again in the large Gardens by the sea. I really do enjoy myself once I get out here. I gamble about like a young fellow again and rush at the odd bits of stick and wood I find on the grass, throwing them up in the air and catching them with my teeth.
Everyone smiles at me in the Gardens, they pat my head and call my name, if I wander too far. So I just keep very close to everyone. I become a very sociable chap, chatting to other dogs, telling them what is going on and where we have planted new flowers. I try to learn their names but always forget.
When tea break comes, well that is the best time of all really, I usually invite lots of other dogs over and then all the Gardening People grab their biscuits and lift their mugs of tea high in the air, until someone fetches the "Dog Biscuit Tin" and throws the biscuits on to the grass, a long way off I might add, so it is a race to get to them, and someone mutters, "That will keep them quiet for a while"
My friend Phoebe comes to the Gardens too. She sort of helps, but most of the time she will stand, with her head on one side and those deep, rather sad brown eyes, gazing longingly at the Gardening People to throw her the ball, or whatever it is. I play a game with her and take the whatever it is, that is slightly chewed and a bit nasty, and I try to hide it or I carry it around with me. She goes wild looking for it and makes all the Garden People hunt for it. So everyone forgets what they are doing for a while until I drop the whatever it is at their feet and they hurl it so high in the air that it nearly reaches the sea, and someone mutters, "That will keep them quiet for a while"
At the end of the day when the tools are packed away and the Gardening People have tidied up, we all wearily wander home. I casually look around me, at the deep blue of the sea and the flowers in the Summer breeze. I have come to love the bumblebees too as they fly and hover over the poppies and the cornflowers, I nuzzle up close to them to peer into the flower and they seem to talk to me, they seem so happy, so alive and full of energy, and sometimes, as if they are saying thank you, I have noticed them hover close to the Gardening People before gently settling again on the flowers which they have planted for them"
Ollie Dog