Poor old Charlie had a little setback yesterday when he had a sneaky nibble of his wound, making it twice as bad. I had hoped not to have to use the lampshade contraption on him, but it was duly rescued from the attic and placed upon him. He knew, those brown soulful eyes looked so sad as hubby and I were threading his collar through the loops. Today its all looking much better so it was the right decision.

Onto knitting,

This is hubbys Cobblestone jumper.

Its coming along, I’m not sure if I should have made it a needle size down to make it denser. I really don’t know what is the best thing to do with jumpers (or any knitting come to that) so I’m just going to plod on this time and if its a bit drapy at the end, it will still be lovely. I wouldn’t want it to be uncomfortable for hubby if the material became too stiff.

This is my Irish Hiking Scarf.

I think its turned out quite nicely, It has more dark reds than purples in natural light. I haven’t blocked it yet. I was going to, then I wore it to coffee with Mum and Dad and basically its been worn since. I added beads to ten rows at each end after knitting, I just thought a bit of sparkle in the middle of winter always cheers things up a little.

In this piccie you can pic out the reds more and if I’d had my wits about me, I would have whipped it off and taken piccies of it in natural light.

I didn’t go to Tuesday knitting as I spent time with my beautiful son as he’s been working extremely hard for the last couple of weeks and I’ve barely seen him.

Adorable isn’t he. 🙂

Charlie is feeling very sorry for himself. Bless. The vet confirmed it was wet excema and gave him two injections, one for his poorly tummy and one antibiotic. A course of Zantac 75, … (okay…!!) for his poorly tummy, a course of antibiotics and some corticosteroid cream to apply twice a day. I’m sure he will be fine 🙂

Just as I was going to bed last night, I noticed Charlie’s coat on his back looked a little bit strange. I suppose I should introduce Charlie. He is the most loved and spoilt Golden Retriever ‘in the world’ and even he would agree with that, although he might say that there was a Golden Retriever down in Timbuktu that had just had an extra cuddle and really to redress the balance he might need a cuddle or two more.

Charlie had been poorly sick earlier, but I had just put that down to him being a pig. The dogs had some left over veggies after Sunday lunch and Charlie does like to make sure he gets his fair share. On closer examination of his coat it became evident that Charlie had wet excema, otherwise known as Acute Moist Dermatitis. He has had it before many years ago. So at getting on for 1 a.m., I’m clipping the area around the wound, applying iodine solution and clearing up more dog sick. He was sick three more times! On reading my trusty Dog Veterinary Handbook, I find that many dogs need sedating or anesthetising for any initial treatment as its simply so painful. Charlie completely trusts me and stands still whilst I attend to his wound as gently as I can. I can see it is painful, but he knows I’m just trying to help. The trouble with this condition is you never see how bad things have got until you have clipped the hair from the area. Fortunately its only a two inch square that is affected. Then at 5.30 a.m. an eighty pound Golden Retriever lands upon my bed, waking me up with a thud, yet at the same time nearly knocking me unconscious! because A) he’s had a very bad night and really needs a cuddle and B) There is a fly in the room!

He’s settled at my feet now, fast asleep of course, whilst I wait for the clock to tick around until such time that I can ring the vets to make an appointment, as he will need a course of antibiotics to clear this up.

This, we suspect might be the culprit. As often this skin condition just starts with a nick or a scratch and Pip has been known to play just a little bit rough.

And this is a lovely puppy picture of him and our two other dogs who are rather old ladies now.

And this piccie just because its mostly ladies of a certain age that read my blog.

I woke up today, feeling almost human again. I must thank Mary and Carie for the humorous and thoughtful comments they left on my last post. It helped enormously, thanks girls. I must also apologise to Mary, for the bizarre phone call when I’d just heard a phone ring and did the old 1471 routine. A) I was fast asleep when it happened and B) I was probably (who am I kidding!) just a little bit drunk, having been out for a rather boozy lunch with friends. What can I say, guilty as charged me lord 🙂 I did find out that it was the other line that had rung, sorted it out and went to bed properly for a couple of hours, rather than falling asleep on the sofa. No excuses, its just been a tough week.

Hubby and I wandered over to Warwick today, we looked in both wool shops. One was piled high, one was piled not so high, but made to look rather pretty. So I had a quick look around then hubby dragged me off to the antique shops.

We wandered around the antique shops, but the best part of the day were the firework displays. We snook into hubby’s office which has a huge private balcony (you could seat forty people on it) overlooking Warwick racecourse. There we had a spectacular view of the racecourse firework display and also several others in the vicinity, it was wonderful.

The other news is, the Cobblestone jumper has been restarted. We had to count the stitches four times before we were convinced we had the right number. Hopefully, I will have got it about right this time, although, I might have to ask Rachel (she who knows mathematics so much more than I) just to check, 🙂