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

The helpfulest doggy in the whole world.

Hazel, greatest dog in the world, has a penchant for pants.

This picture reminded me a lot of one of the early photos.

This one, from day 12:

She is kind of good at getting her nose in the way. But I can't hold it against her.

Okay, I know I should not encourage this. But how stinking cute does this look?! Besides, any important mail goes in the mail box these days, she is allowed to shred random junk that comes through the post slot. Dave does not approve though. But heck if I'm racing her to the door to get the junk mail, Hazel is one speedy doggy.

We did some work in the living room this weekend for the first time in, oh, approximately thirteenth weeks. Hazel was very helpful:

And nuzzley:

And just did not understand why this happened to her:

In news not entirely related to the doggy princess of the universe (am I allowed to write about anything else?!), there are some jobs in our house that are known as "Dave Jobs." These include but are not limited to taking out the garbage, moving the lawn, and anything involving insects. This is also a Dave job:

Which Hazel and I braved this afternoon. Are you wondering why this is a Dave job?

Because for some reason when I try to put it all back together there are just too many wires and not enough things to stick them in. Also, nothing works in the end. Meh.


So anyway Hazel got a little bit emo because I was paying far too much attention to plugging wires into the wrong things and fitting the doors of furniture back on. But it's okay because it's cute:

Yes, I know, we would all rather be at Brooks. Yum.

Moving right along, Haze gave the recycling center a head start with the boxes that the cupboard doors I put on today came in. She also managed to almost her her nose mallet-ed like 5000 times and liked to put her nose approximately 2 millimeters from whatever was being screwed. With the electric screwdriver thingy.

And then she got into the screwdriver action herself:

So yes, I do think that I have the super most awesomely helpful dog in the whole world. If you have any flat-pack furniture to put together soon and you are looking for a nice little helper, Hazel is available at the bargain price of £15/hour or you could just give her a chewy. Either or.

We are off to Somerset Thursday-Monday which is exciting because A. I had actually heard of Somerset before I came to England, B. At the seaside we can get a 99!, C. We are totally passing a Krispy Kreme in Birmingham, and I plan to force Dave to stop but he is none to keen. D. I am hoping for another super-secret-stop on the way down or back but have not heard anything yet so we'll keep that on the down low E. Holiday means a new board game! We ordered Stone Age but it hasn't even shipped, so we also bought Munchkin in town this afternoon, F. We are staying here and it looks pretty awesome, G. I am really taking this alphabet list too far. Suffice to say that I am excited, fun should be had by all, and you should get some cute pictures of our Lord and Master, Hazel.

Couch snoozing, ash clouds, and a trio of goobers,

Hazel continues to make a big ol' mess all over the place. I can't blame her, but I can't say that it's loads of fun either. You know how it is. But she is still really cute in her moping around the house. Exhibit A.

She gets really *really* excited when we go out every night, but she has stopped whining and crying all day long because she hasn't gotten her walk yet. This is a welcome change.

However, it also means that all the work we did to try and get her to not get so excited in the car that she squeaks with joy is a bit of a fail. Seriously, you want to know what it's like to ride in teh car with the crazy dog who should have already had loads of walks today? This:

Yeah, it's good times.

 

So anyway, we went out the other night to the-field-that-is-enclosed (aka the only place Hazel is allowed off lead at the moment) and Hazel had a ridiculously good time. She has the 10 meter line but she doesn't run around the same when she is on it. 

We also happened to notice that there was some weirdness going on with the sky and it took us about a million and a half years to realize that it is the OMGWTFBBQ Ash Cloud. So in case you wanted to know what the Cloud of Airline Anguish looks like, here it is: 

 

 

I also thought that this picture that I took when Hazel and I were waiting in the car after for Dave to get something in a shop was kind of interesting and I like the way that it highlights the disgustingness of the back window of the car. Mmm, dog nose slime!

Oh, and look at this! 

 

 

Which turned out way better than the group-shot-panting-Watsons:

That's all I got for today folks!