Somerset Day 5: In which things do not go exactly as planned.

This is what the bedroom downstairs looked like, in case you wondered. 

As we began packing up Hazel went a bit funny again and sat in front of the door. Perhaps we should not threaten to leave her behind so often, maybe she is learning English ;)

The steps going up to the cottage were dangerous! I fell like 4 times because I am awesome. Hazel had a habit of running around the corner and trying to jump up them and then sliding and leaving claw marks behind:

 

I can't believe it but we didn't take any pictures of Freddie, the dog that lived next door and Hazel's de facto best friend while we were there. He was a great big lumbering and slobbery black lab. Very cute and a little bit afraid of Hazel's craziness.Can't say I blame him.

We set off back up the country and had a bit of a break where Hazel practiced her driving, before carrying on to Birmingham.

Now, those of you who have been paying attention know that Hazel comes from Birmingham! So we had a bit of a stop at her breeder's house which was nice but did not exactly go as I had imagined it would. Hazel's mummy was not so much pleased to see her and came out of the kitchen a bit snarly and had to go back. It is probably because she is in season, poor thing. Hazel's Daddy, on the other hand, was *really* pleased to see her -wink wink, nudge nudge- and also had to go back, although they did have a few nose kisses which was sweet. After the excitement with her doggy parents Hazel was a bit freaked out and ended up being very shy and not at all like herself. She was nervous of the people and really didn't want to do much but have a cuddle with Dave or myself, which was really a shame. She did get some strokes from them if she was sitting in my lap, silly thing. I've never seen her like it before, although it was probably a bit strange to go back if she recognized the smells and whatnot. So. Bit of a fail, that. Maybe we will try again someday. Anyway, here she is glued to her Daddy, although she doesn't look like a crazy weirdo. You will have to take my word for that.

And then there was a quick petrol stop and it was home time! But the heat was off when we got home and it was a bit of a mess because all the book boxes were still out. Ah well. It is good to be home.

Somerset Day 4: In which we do very little and enjoy it.

Hazel started day four in a weird mood. She was kicking blankets all over and scratching at the sofa, so we put her in the kitchen with the baby gate and she made herself comfortable without ruining the cottage's furnishings.

There are approximately zero pictures of me, so we took one. She was bored or sleepy or both. But always cute.

Spotty red cups of caffeinated goodness!

She lay like this for about ten minutes, although it looks very uncomfortable.

In the afternoon I swept up a bit and was shocked by the amount of mess that Hazel manages to leave behind in all of three days.

There was time for a quick game of Tobago...

Before Hazel, Queen of Everything, announced that it was bedtime.

Somerset Day 3: In which there are pretty views and a rocky beach.

Please enjoy the next few pictures which were taken by Dave while I got to snooze. How I love him. They are all taken from the top of the hill where our little cottage was.

They were taken in the approximately 2 hours of sun that we had the entire time we were there. Also the owners said that hazel didn't need to be on a lead so we weren't breaking the rules. Lastly our camera is stinky and the shutter thingy doesn't open all the way which is why some pictures have a black corner.

Hazel was given the bacon and egg that I did not finish for her breakfast. She was a happy doggy.

 She was less happy when she became my pillow:

But happy again when we got to the beach, where they were apparently having some form of fossil festival. Too many people!

I'm not gonna lie, the beaches they allow dogs on here aren't so nice. But Hazel enjoyed herself.

We hope that this was just rain water >_>

Hazel was really cold and shivery after he splashing about. Poor monkey. We tried to cuddle her warm and dry her a bit but it didn't work so well. She did warm up when we started walking again though.

We stopped for some ice cream near the people-beach which was surprisingly nice after the doggy beach.

For some reason when we got back to the car Hazel decided that she wanted to ride in the trunk. She just jumped right in, it surprised me. She can do some impressive jumping.

And then of course it was home time, and cuddles:

Somerset Day 2: In which we discover begging and quicksand.

This man may look sweet, but he is a naughty, horrible, awful man.

Today Dave taught Hazel that if she sits nicely by the table and begs he will feed her. He is a bad, bad man. She was doing so well until then, mostly because we have no dining room table so she has very little experience with it and just cuddled up on the sofa. Not anymore:

But seriously, how do you resist this?!

So then we went to Burnham-on-Sea which has such a promising name, don't you think? As we were walking down to the beach there was a sign about being careful when the tide is out because there can be sinking sand and stuff. They weren't kidding. See the pool in this picture?

Dis is what we in the trade call quicksand. Which wouldn't have been such a problem but Hazel ran around and got on the other side of it and we couldn't really call her back because obviously she would plow right through the puddle. So! I tried to throw the Frisbee that we had with us over it so that she would go after that and avoid the puddle but my frisbee skills are nonexistent and the frisbee was sacrificed to the gods of the quicksand.

Apparently this did not appease them and when Hazel had learned to avoid the puddles the ground *next* to one of them opened up and tried to eat her. At this point one of us went dashing into the quicksand to rescue the puppy (rather than take a photo, she was rather stuck) who came out looking like this:

Only imagine it over her whole body. I came out looking like this:

Would have been a good day for the wellies.

So anyway, we got out of there and went home to play Stone age.

And have a cuddle under the chair.

Somerset Day 1: In which there is a lot of car travel and doggy pants.

Hazel was very adamant about us not leaving her behind:

 

Which we didn't, as she was parked at the front door whining the whole time we tried to load the car.

She traveled well though, spending most of the trip in the backseat foot-well, with the occasional nose poking into the front.

 

 

 Arrival! Dave looks puzzled.

Hazel was still a little bit leaky so she got to wear some lovely pants! She didn't pull them off and shred them, which was a surprise.

She didn't even notice notice them after a while.

Hazel had a snuggle and Dave and I played guillotine for the first time--and I brought it with me from America! But it was in the boxes of books that were stored upstairs and now they have all been brought down and re-shelved.

And then for the last out of the night, Daddy wore the super-stylish wellies. It's lucky they are so big on me :D