Day 314 - Size of a Sofa

bigdog

I missed a golden photo opportunity today, so I'm afraid it's yet another picture of Robin.

We've had him off lead around the house today, as he seems more relaxed with Loz, and at one point he went and lay by the sofa...at which point, I realised that he's the size of the sofa!

It's not a huge sofa, I grant you...just a fairly normal sized two seater...

It's funny really, much of the time, he doesn't give the impression of being that big...but then other times he seems really huge...he's no great dane, of course, but to us, being so used to the size of Jazz and Bluez - there's quite a bit more of him! 

We've thought about whether another dog will help him to use up some energy, but we can't have another dog as large as he is - this house just doesn't have the necessary space. 

He's a very playful dog, but we haven't played with him much, as we have to keep his energy down in the house...but he does like to play the roll around on the floor and bite each others faces game, which he could do with another dog in the kitchen, and of course much of the year, in the garden.

So our current thinking is that we could get another dog, smaller, probably a bitch, maybe a few years older, and importantly, very submissive.  Robin is a little dominant, so we wouldn't want another dog that would compete with him - better to get a naturally submissive dog who would happily allow him to be the boss.

The photo I just missed was this...

no-birdy there

This pile of feathers, less than ten feet from where I was sitting at my desk, just moments earlier, had a beautiful kestrel (or maybe a sparrowhawk, I'm really not sure!) atop it...

I'd stood up from my chair and immediately saw it out on the lawn..not daring to move, I asked Anna to pass me the camera...as she was removing the lens cap and switching it on, the bird upped and flew away...doh!!

It must have been there for 10-15 minutes to completely devour the bird it had caught, so I guess I stood up just too late...oh well...

In other alternate photo news, someone sent me this brilliant aerial shot that must be 50 years old or more...

our house

Our house is about 20% in from the left, and 20% down from the top, the leftmost of the two cottages in the corner of the field. 

We have quite a number of very large trees within metres of our house, which aren't even there on this photo.   Most of the buildings are still the same, although some of the out buildings are now converted to homes.

But at least there are no additional buildings...

It's nice to know that there are places that haven't been developed further over the last half century!

I feel privileged to live in one of them...

:-)