Beautiful Morning!

This time last week, Dusty was very poorly. We had to take him out to the vet twice on the Friday – an hour round trip each time, but worth it.

He’d woken up with no bounce at all and he was holding his head on one side and twitching. He looked almost as if he was about to have a fit.

Jo gave him drops for a mild ear infection, but said to bring him back straight away if he got any worse. A couple of hours later, he had a swelling under his chin like half a hen’s egg. It was rock hard and clearly giving him a lot of pain. He couldn’t even rest his head down and was trying to sleep with his head up. So back we went.

Thank goodness for antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medication. The swelling softened and he started to feel better. But he was still so quiet all over the weekend and didn’t even want to go for walks.

By Wednesday he was back to his normal mad, jumping-about, bright-eyed, full of beans self I am very glad to say. In fact, it seemed to hit him that he’d been out of action for almost a week and that he’d got to make up for lost time! Yesterday when we saw Jo for his follow up appointment, he was absolutely fine.

I’m not even going to mention my toothache. Oh, I just did. It’s been a month now and I have yet another appointment to go back in two weeks. She can’t see what’s causing the pain, so she’s replacing my fillings and putting liners in. I think I have another two to be done – I was in such a state of terror as I crawled out of the chair, I’m not quite sure what she said!

As you know I’m not a fan of this time of year, but this morning made me realise October can be beautiful. Dusty enjoyed himself at the beach.

I was down there at low tide and it was extra low meaning some of the creeks weren’t there and even the big one fizzled out, the further out you went. On my way there, a skein of geese passed by, honking their heads off followed by three swans. Behind me the ducks on the dykes were quacking.

There were cormorants lined up along the edge of the water and the usual huddles of gulls here and there. And it was so still and peaceful.

There were dark clouds gathering over Walton though – or maybe it was Clacton which is just a little further along the coast.

Then again, it looked pretty dark over towards Harwich and Felixstowe too.

Years ago, we used to search the beach for holey stones to use as weights for crabbing. This one would have been perfect.

We called them lucky stones as a stone with a hole going all the way through was meant to bring good fortune.

They are also known as Hag stones, Witches stones and Hex stones and have generally been used to ward off evil by farmers, sailors and just about anyone.

I’ve put mine on the windowsill.

Harley has a new pink collar and pink name tag. She said "It's very pretty, but does it make my bum look big?"

Oh, and I've a new book of ghost stories out on Kindle. 

It's raining now, not such a beautiful morning, but it was a great start to the day and right now I am feeling very lucky.