Don't know what happened. Maybe we were too tired to hear them. But the alarm, not the dogs, woke us up this morning. They got lots of praise, anyway - and a walk to The Ditches. (See news for more on that, and a couple of photos.)

We managed to seize our opportunity at 10am, and managed to get an hour and a half's walk in, without getting wet. It's now pouring down again (3pm'ish). We'll watch for our next chance. Wake-up time? We've settled on 6.45am, just half way between their normal getup and ours. But don't worry, they'll be back to 6am again by the time they go home.

It's ugh! Even the dogs don't want to go out this morning. We'll leave it for a bit and see if it reduces to just just "heavy rain".

Big ditches, little ditches, wide ditches, narrow ditches, muddy ditches, cleaner ditches, deep ditches, shallow ditches, 2 labs, 1 kong on a rope - Heaven! Alfie and Molli couldn't believe their walk just now - down the line, as usual, but veering off to "The Ditch Field". Within second they found the first ditch and expected me to scream at them to come out, but these aren't the horrid oily ditches by the side of the path. And when they found more and more! The field is just ridges and furrows, and ideal for throwing a kong on a rope. And they met several other dogs to play with. They are just flaked out now, dreaming of next time. Sorry, I didn't take the camera this time - I'll try to take it next time.

Alfie and Molli had a wonderful afternoon at George's, in a farmhouse (and land) on the mountains above Halifax. Maybe Alfie enjoyed it more - the boys ganged up a bit, and Molli got a bit jealous, giving George the evils whenever she got chance. But generally they got on great, chasing round the outside of the house. Lovely to see the tricolor! - watch for the photos - but difficult to get all 3 looking the same way, and not actually edging right up to the biscuits!

But they're not winning the war. David got up and fed their barking at 6am. Then came back to bed. I got up at 6.45am, but they know I'm not happy. And am doing things like this until 7.30, or maybe 7.45, when I'll take them out. Watch it start raining now! It's still very hard not to smile at them.

And after all that keeping them awake. Last time that I drag Molli thru to the kitchen on her bed! She can get up and walk. We'll see what tomorrow brings, after their 3rd walk today, including a swim at The Burrs. Unfortunately I was still ill, so we didn't make it over to see George. Tomorrow. But the dogs haven't missed out with David, Nic, Alexia and Steve around. Not sure who was funniest tonight when they came back with David and Nic - they both told me the same incidents, difficult to understand through their laughing, about Molli jumping over a wall and nearly ending up in a plant pot or litter bin. And Alfie doing a swerve mid-air to avoid the same thing. A&M were trying to tell me similar stories about David and Nic, I'm sure! All very happy, anyway. We've got SO many photos, but I need to make them smaller first.

Not bad for first day, we think. Due to David tiring them out last night. Molli was flaked out. So was David - then, because I've still got this virus, he got up to feed them and is now out walking them in the rain.

They didn't seem to have any problems remembering us or where they were - and have had waggy tails ever since. I thought I should have a heart to heart and told them that when we go over to see George (our cover yellow lab), they have not got to gang up on him. Nic (my daughter who is home briefly from China) commented that there was no  need for Molli to "gang up" on anyone. She's a gang by herself. Aww.

David and Nic have just taken them on a tiring walk - but I know they'll be barking at 6am. Sadly, I'm not feeling too well at the moment (a "viral infection" - in other words they don't know what it is), but all my joints are aching, so I was very glad when Nic offered to accompany David instead of me. Hopefully I'll be back to "normal" tomorrow, but if not, we also have other daughter, Alexia, and boyfriend Steve over for the next couple of days, so the dogs will have no shortage of playmates and walkers.

"Would you like to come to Fleetwood for the weekend?"

"Hmm, that would be nice, but we are minding a fox terrier."

"No problem. You can bring it. The car will disappear or something."

And so, on Saturday, we headed to Fleetwood, with the boot prepared for car-sickness. Unnecessary! We are used to car-sickness. Myself and our 2 daughters all suffer from it, but we have learnt to cope. Preferable, don't travel first thing in the morning, and never on an empty stomach. Much better to have had and digested a meal a couple of hours before. And this seemed to work for Daisy. She was fine.

And she had a whale of a time on the beach. Unfortunately we didn't feel confident to let her off the lead, but she was on a long one, and we had taken our kong on a rope. She thoroughly enjoyed it, and settled in fine at our friends. She ended up sleeping in our room (away from the cat), and kept me awake rattling her ID tags! (We put an extra one on the dogs we board, with our own details on.)

Again, she was fine on the return journey, having had both her meals that day. I still don't know where the idea comes from that she sleeps all day, though. Not with us! She wants to play all the time, but like I remember my dogs from growing up, is able to sleep sitting bolt upright. You just see her head nod. She's really funny. She's definitely my dog while she's here. Wherever I'm sitting, I can guarantee that she's within a paw's reach of my feet.