Round up of 2024

What a year it's been here at Crazy Towers I've achieved the square root nothing, I didn't even have the time to get down to our allotment to prepare the beds and plant all my seedlings so no home grown vegetables this year, to add insult to injury the birds stripped the plum and cherry trees bare of fruit so we had none of those either, the only thing l did succeed in growing were some spectacularly tall weeds

Image Descriptions - Head shot of Eko the Golden Cocker Spaniel and Boris the Black Cocker Spaniel sitting outside in our garden, both are wearing red Santa hats tipped at a jaunty angle looking and the still with a white pop tipped forward between their eyes too o look adorably cute

Thankfully I was given a pass for this years allotment inspection, but if I don't plant it up next year I could

Eko's Nose #WeekendSmile

I love the detail of Eko's face, from the blending of all the gold and white hairs to make up his face markings, the little blonde tufts he has on top of his ears to his unique button nose 

Photo Description - Eko the Golden Cocker spaniel is standing on grass and looking directly up at the camera, the only thing in focus are his nose and eyes as his face fills the frame, what little else there is of him in frame is blurred and out of focus

Did you know that every dog's nose is as unique to them as finger prints are to us. Eko's nose also has the ability to

World Mental Health Day

𝐁𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐬

The only black dog in my life on World Mental Health Day

Photo Description - Head shot of Boris the Black Cocker Spaniel looking at the camera whilst laying amongst some Buttercups in front of a wooden fence

Dawn xxx 

 If you love online Jigsaw Puzzles check out our

The Weekend Smile is Back

I thought I'd restart our Weekend Smile Blog Hop once again

 It's been quite a few years since we last hosted a Blog Hop and I've had to remake a brand new badge, although I've still to figure out how to add all the coding to it to make it a button that can be copied and shared, everything has changed so much from when I last did this, I did it on my PC previously whereas now I do everything on my phone

Basically the hop is about anything that makes you happy and that others will also enjoy

Ordinarily it'll be open from Friday morning at around 0900 right through until midnight Sunday night, but it's started on Saturday today as I forgot to set it up for yesterday

𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 

Photo Description - Boris the Black Cocker Spaniel and Eko the Golden Cocker Spaniel laying on the sofa together. Eko is on his side with

The Kindness of Strangers

My dad is an avid lifelong supporter and shareholder of Portsmouth Football Club and as our long time followers are aware my dad also has Alzheimer's

 The other day dad broke his favourite cereal bowl which he's had for years and got really upset, it was his much loved Portsmouth FC cereal bowl that he uses each morning to start his day

It may sound like such a small thing to get upset about, but to dad this cereal bowl holds so many of his precious memories about Portsmouth FC

With so many of dads memories disappearing as each week passes, this bowl was important to help keep his memories alive of of his favourite football club

As a surprise I went to order dad a new bowl off the Pompey website only to discover

Jackanory Part 18 - Throw Back Thursday

This Jackanory Story takes us back to a time before Eko was old enough to come and live with us

I was able to watch Eko formally known as Wash grow from the moment he was born with regular updates, photos and videos from his breeder Sam, I'd booked him (a male puppy) approx 18 months before he was even conceived

Photo Description - A studio portrait of a very cute young Eko the Golden Cocker Spaniel sitting on a white chair with a white background looking at the camera with a calm confident expression 📸 This photo was given to me by Eko's breeder, if you're the photographer that took it please DM me and I'll add a credit

But our search and subsequent wait for Eko to join our little family had been so much longer,

Looking Forward

Happy Easter to all our wonderful friends and followers

Photo Description - Head and shoulders shot of both Boris the Black Cocker Spaniel and Eko the Golden Cocker Spaniel sitting side by side in front of an ivy covered fence. Both boys are looking towards the camera and wearing cute bunny ears 

It sure has been a tough start to the year for us as a family, not only with my dads health but my partners father also being unwell

Some Good News

My dad was discharged from hospital late on Friday afternoon, it's taken a little while for him to settle back in at home hence why I've not been online much this weekend catching up with everyone 

I'm so relieved to have dad back at home once again as he finds the hospital environment so very stressful

Photo Description - Boris the Black Cocker Spaniel and Eko the Golden Cocker Spaniel sitting side by side facing the camera amongst the dead bracken out on the common

What a Week!

Sunday

At 0245 I was woken from my slumbers to a phone call from Care Line, the phone call I've been dreading for some time now, one of my parents needed help

I was informed my dad was suffering with chest pains and that an ambulance was on its way to him, I quickly got dressed and drove straight to my parents house

As I pulled up I was relieved to see the Abulance crew were already on site and had everything under control, they were just getting ready to pack up their equipment and take my dad to the A&E at Guildford Hospital and I was to follow along behind

Once dad was admitted into A&E and had some tests done it was soon established that his sodium levels were really high and that he was very dehydrated, so he was immediately put on a drip to rehydrate him

After a while dad was taken down for a CT scan to

Silent Sunday 🤫

Boris the sitting out on the common in the warm Winter sunshine, he's facing to the left with a happy expression on his face, his tongue is hanging out to one side to cool off after racing around in the Heather

This post is linked too:-

Over 40 and mum to one

Follow

Regretting Choices Made

This past few weeks have been particularly tough for me personally, nothing out of the ordinary has happened, except I've been feeling the ominous cloud of the Big Black Dog circling around me again

The biggest change in my life since mum's stroke has been losing my freedom, I used to walk the dogs for many hours out on the common, just enjoying nature and never having to worry about what time it was

Looking up a tree trunk into the sky, with the words "Some days I feel very small" written in white in the lower half of the photo

Nowadays I'm always having to watch the clock to be somewhere at certain

Emma Kate

Emma Kate Wheeler

We'll never know

Bench perfectly placed

For those in need

Her family loved her

To pick such a spot

Ten Year Round Up

I don't really know where to start with rounding up the past 10 years

So much has happened 

Myself in Blackpool with a Slush Puppy in my hand licking the straw wearing a purple fleece and ginger hair

I was forced into medical retirement from the job I loved 

Halloween 🎃🎃🎃

Happy Hallowen everypawdy 

Hope you all have a grand evening, although we'll be staying in with mum and dad as it'll be too scary for us pups to venture outside with all the noise

Photo Description:- Boris wearing red devils horns and holding a red trident in his mouth, the background is black with red flames leaping up behind him

Boris 
xxx

This post is linked too:-

Cats are predictably unpredictable 

Ink Torrents Graphics -Wandering Camera

Follow

Jackanory Part 13 ~ Liberty

I found this old post in my drafts that was never published

I've decided to add it to our Jackanory Stories series as it was written several years ago about Liberty, a lovely elderly girl we fostered for a few weeks until her forever home was found

I assume she's now probably crossed the Rainbow Bridge, as she'd be approx 17 years old by now 

Liberty deserves to be remembered as she was part of our lives

We fell in love with Liberty even though she wasn't with us for long, she arrived a few weeks after Badger Boo had crossed the Rainbow Bridge, we'd decided to try fostering as Boris really missed Badger Boo, but I just wasn't ready to get another full time dog as Badger's loss was still so raw. It was so difficult when it became time to take her back to the kennels, but it was also a happy time as we knew she had her forever home waiting for her

Photo Description:- Liberty a dark brown brindle Boxer cross laying on some grass looking at the camera, her muzzle is very grey and she has very distinguished grey eyebrows

It's tragic that so many dogs are unwanted in this country because people keep

Self Care is so Important

Boris says

We're back home after the most amazing holiday and back to walking on our favourite common once more

The holiday was to give mum some much needed respite from caring for her own mother since her stroke in April

Photo Description:- Boris sitting on grass on the common looking very content wearing his grey collar with a rose gold buckle. Behind him in the distance are the trees and a beautiful clear blue sky with a few white clouds

It's been a very stressful time since it happened and has been making mum

A Mini Break

Last weekend we finally managed to get a quick overnight trip to East Wittering, it's been two years since we last had a day out at the beach, what with being in lockdown for 2020 because of Covid and my mum having a stroke in April of this year

Boris was so exited when he realised we were packing up to go away in the camper van, he kept zooming around the house, barking and getting in everybodies way, the beach is probably his most favourite place of all time to visit

 

 Eko on the other hand took it all in his stride and sat watching Boris with a confused look on his face, probably because he's only been away to

Allotment Flowers

Beautiful Sweet Peas picked from my allotment first thing this morning, the scent is just amazing, I always prefer to put them in a clean jam jar as they never look right in a vase

Sweet Peas are one of my favourite flowers, so many beautiful varieties, my favourites being the purples, pinks and whites as they have the strongest scent. This year we've planted six different varieties down on the allotment, and can't wait to see them all in flower

Jackanory Part 12 :- Love at First Sight

Welcome back to our Jackanory Stories series where you can catch up on the many parts of our life when we weren't blogging, you can search this series at any time just by using the word Jackanory, oddly they come up in a totally random order but they're all there, plus the odd unexpected post that we may have referred to our Jackanory Stories in

Today we travel right back to the beginning of Ekos life, to the very first time mum saw a photo of him at only 24 hours old and fell head over heels in love with him. Back then Eko's name was Wash as he was part of the Fireflies litter

It's Hot Hot Hot

We're currently experiencing a mini heat wave here in the UK, we don't have them often but when we do so many dogs suffer because of the heat and people not taking it into consideration

Every year dogs get left in boiling hot cars which is unthinkable the suffering they have to endure, dogs are constantly seen being walked during the hottest part of the day on red hot pavements, or out playing Fetch over and over again on local playing fields

It's heart breaking to see and hear about these poor dogs to those of us who are