While we sail the ship that never goes to sea...

In memory of Zoltan (1998-2011), the guard dog of Herald House

A snowy day

Snow in Willesden, London. 2 February 2009. Sphagnum

You wouldn't put a dog out in this weather, would you? Our other dog, Minnehaha (a Yorkshire terrier) has long hair which gets matted with frozen snow and needs emergency treatment when she comes in bedecked with snowballs. Zoltan seems much better coated for it. He has two layers, with a repellent, glossy/wiry outer one and a downy undercoat - and prances around quite carefree. The Yorkie only has one layer of long hair, rather like human hair and it gets frozen with snow around her twiggy little legs. One of our neighbours leaves a large German Shepherd out, as you can just see in one of the pictures above, though it has a sort of shed where it can shelter but it still barks and scratches to get into their house. (It got into Herald House a couple of times, but that's another story. It's somewhere in the back pages, a search for Cujo should find it.) Cujo (not his real name) howls pitiably sometimes, particularly when ice cream vans pass by playing their jingles, not that that's likely today.

Ossian

Where are the bees?

There's a lot of clover, and it should be full of footballers (bumble bees), shugies (drones) and redarses (redarsius), but nada. The odd bumbler in lavender beds* is all Zoltan and I ever see on our patrol. Nary a jasper even. If we can find the bees, maybe we'll find the sparrows as well. They've all gone somewhere or maybe they've turned invisible, or maybe the time of bees is over.

Ganache

* I think I know who you mean. Ed

Severe weather warning

Don't go out if you have short legs.

Herald security tests nuclear dog

Intruders beware, Zoltan guards the grounds of Herald House.



The fearsome creature even drinks viciously.



Here he is seen training to bust illegal water sprinklers. (Note: this was before the sprinkler ban.) If his handler hadn't called him off for his own safety, he would never have stopped.