NotSheep

It was a bit rainy this morning, so we stayed in the caravan for more time than usual. It’s not a very big caravan, but that doesn’t usually matter, since we’re in and out so much and spend so much time at the beach or playground or just generally around the site. When we do stay in on a day like today though, we do start to feel a bit on top of each other. The boys did some educational stuff we’d brought up - some maths and German for Barney, some French for Freddy and George. They also watched some television for a bit, then when the weather dried up a bit we went to the beach with the dogs. We saw what we thought were jellyfish - dozens of them, all over the beach, presumably because the tide had just gone out; normally I’d have googled to find out if they really were jellyfish, but since there’s no internet access at the caravan, that wasn’t an option. Later googling confirmed our analysis

When I say no internet access, I really mean it. To get on-line, I’d have to drive about 10 miles into the nearest big town and go to the library - which has lots of sites blocked, including my webmail There isn’t even a wireless network in town that I can steal a few megs of bandwidth from (I’ve tried! LOL)

The afternoon was spent around the site, on bikes or in the playground. At one point when we were inside, Barney looked at the glued-together jigsaw which is on the wall above the table - it’s the cover of the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper album - and asked, “Which one of them is Elton John?”

Since the dogs are able to leap over the fence around the deck, I hooked their leads around the slats to keep them contained. That worked until Andie chewed through her lead - well, I assume she did, since the lead was in fine condition this morning and when I found it on the deck it was in two pieces. So that’s one lead and one collar she’s destroyed this week. Fortunately we have both a lead-doubler (which lets me walk both dogs on one lead) and the retractable leads with us.

When we were tidying up before bed and I was changing Toby, I left the pups on the deck gnawing on bones, the caravan door open so I could hear them. Until I realised I couldn’t hear them anymore. I then spent 45 minutes running around the site looking for them, with several other people from the site helping, including three teenaged boys on bicycles, who’d offered to help after I’d asked if they’d seen them. Another dog-owner from the site went out into the town and down to the beach in case they’d gone that way - I didn’t really think they’d have left the site but it was a possibility. I was just starting to get really worried when Barney rang me to tell me that they had arrived back at the caravan on their own.

I went back to the caravan and got everyone settled down and had a shower. I was just nursing Toby to sleep when there was a knock at the door - the site owner. I was ready for him to complain about the dogs running wild, but in fact he wasn’t worried about that at all. He’d found two teenage boys around the site and they’d claimed to be helping someone look for their dogs; he didn’t believe them, so they brought him to me so I could confirm their story. I was glad to do so, as they’d been doing a great job of searching for the dogs, even if they didn’t actually find them in the end. They weren’t pleased about being accused, but I could see both sides; the site owner was only trying to do his job.

Wasn’t this supposed to be the quiet life?