| Archive for silversurfers.myfreeforum.org The Premier Forum for the Over Fifties! |
| Maywalk |
Just calling in to say Hi All.Gigi my Cairn Terrier says Hi to everyone. 
SQUEAKY CLEAN. May I tell you all my little story which I have put into rhyme I’ve done some naughty things but I have never committed a crime, I am a Cairn Terrier named Gi-Gi and I am not too fond of the dark And my mum said the worse thing about me is my piercing bark. When I come home after each walk I jump up on the toilet seat And proceed to have my bum washed and dry my muddy feet. And if I see the blooming cat I dash out after it like a ruddy shot I hate the darn thing using my garden for something it should not. Something that I love each day is to have the cleaner brush over me It’s bliss to feel the gentle suction pulling out loose hairs you see, If they miss doing this ritual I annoy them until they get the hump So they get the cleaner out again saying “Come on you silly lump.” One day my folks were looking for me in our small bungalow “Gi-Gi where are you?” They shouted as they walked to and fro “She cannot be very far” said dad “Of that I am quite certain” At this precise moment my mum pulled back the shower curtain, I was taken aback as I sat in the bath as large as life if you please My mum doubled up with laughter as she sank down on her knees. I adore their granddaughter and cannot wait for her to visit us Because I know I will get plenty of attention and lots of lovely fuss She dresses me up in her doll’s clothes with a sock on every paw And puts knickers and vest on me with a scarf wrapped under my jaw. I love it when she has dressed me and I can make my family giggle Because they all say that I have got the Marilyn Monroe wriggle. I know that I can be a pain sometimes but I adore all of my family And even though I get told off at times I know that they still love me. copyright---Maisie Walker 2001--- all copyrights reserved. |
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| Sandie Seward |
Hi Gigi! Welcome to Silversurfers Forum.
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| Guest |
I do have a photo of my Dandie Dinmont, Shannon, which when I find it I'll post here. Meanwhile here's some Dandie History.
The name comes from the book 'Guy Mannering' by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1814 - Dandie Dinmont was a character in the book. He was a border hill farmer who had many pepper and mustard terriers. Interestingly, a border farmer called James Davidson lived, at this time, on Hindlee Farm and kept many of the mustard and pepper terriers. He met Walter Scott after the publication of the book. Naturally he was given the nickname of 'Dandie Dinmont' and it was also applied to his dogs and, as they say, the rest is history. |
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| Sandie Seward |
 Sorry, forgot to log in! The above post was by me. Must be getting tired as it's almost 2am. 
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| marieann |
I have heard a lot about Gi-gi Maywalk but this is the first time I have seen her, lovely.
A friend of ours had a Dandie Dinmont a few years ago Admin. It was so timid and gentle I loved it, it is the only one I can remember seeing. He had a Border terrier also and that was exactly the opposite. |
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| Maywalk |
Hi Admin and Marieann.
Yes Dandie Dinmots are super little dogs. I walk pass someone evey day with her two. They are lovely little souls.
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| Dee |
Hello Maywalk, also Gigi. These will probably be the threads I will visit most often, love anything to do with animals and birds. Feeling a bit guilty at the moment because I snipped a big lump of ivy off the wall, a big wall. Revealed a Jenny Wrens nest, she shot out of this tiny well-built home of moss like a little rocket. Think she is still there, hard to see it is such a tiny opening and I do not want to upset her anymore. I am anxious though.   
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| Sandie Seward |
Dee, as long as the nest isn't damaged, she will probably be alright. It's a shame when that sort of thing happens. The best time of year to prune and tidy is Autumn, because then the nests should be empty, and if you inadvertantly disturb one it's not so bad. | ||
| marieann |
I know how you feel. We looked out of our front window last week and the conifer shrub our neighbour had against the wall between us had been cut down. The blackbird which lives in our front garden permanently was demented. He kept flying backwards and forwards looking for his nest and Tony wasn't much better for all there was nothing we could do. | ||
| Dee |
The only reason I did anything at all was because the ivy had attached to the window frame, it just turned out to be a long one, the nest itself is 5ft from ground and 8inch from bathroom window. 
Regular visitor in our garden. |
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| marieann |
You're lucky Dee, we have to go about ten miles to a wildfowl trust to see a woodpecker. He is beautiful.
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| Sylvia |
I agree with Marie, he is beautiful Dee. Someone once told me that if I put some proper bird seed out like you have done, and hang it in a position where the neighbourhood cats can't get to easily, then it would attract all sorts of unusual birds into the garden. I must do this.
We seem to have more than our fair share of wood pidgeons and they have more than doubled in numbers during recent years. Hope it doesn't attract these particular birds because they are far larger than most other birds. |
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| Dee |
Pleased you like the picture of our Woody, we have loads and also the Green Woodpecker. They are quite tame too but it has taken a while to gain their confidence. Thought I would just update on the Wren, she has now hatched and feeding her chicks, I am so releaved and have been constantly peering out of the window to see her, and today I did. | ||
| Sandie Seward |
That's great news, Dee, thanks for the update.
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| Sandie Seward |
Still trying to locate a suitable photo of Shannon to show on here. In the meantime, this little chap will have to do.
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| Sylvia |
Hi Admin, I found this on the Website and I thought you would appreciate them. The little black Dandie Dinmot looks very much like your Shannon |
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| Sandie Seward |
Thank you Sylvia, they're lovely, and except for the brown paws that little dog could be the spitting image of my Shannon.
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| Dee |
UPDATE
Today I watched 4 baby wrens take their first flight from the nest, they were very fluffy little things, flapped their wings and came out of the nest one after the other landing partly on our shed and partly on to the honeysuckle, they sat a short while then one by one they set off on their maiden voyage. I felt happy and tearful at the same time. While this was going on a squirrel was clung to our peanuts feeding and unconcerned but Mummy Wren attacked him flying over his head and fluttering her wings, one of the babies had landed a bit too near the squirrel for her liking. I feel really honoured to have been allowed to witness this special day. |
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| marieann |
Hello Dee how are you? The baby wrens must be tiny. Can you manage a photo please? | ||
| Dee |
Wish I could have managed a photo, it would have been great but I would have had to disturb all that was going on at the time and probably would have also caused danger to their lives, I was fortunate to have my binoculars and saw all through my kitchen window. I am just hoping that they are now free flying and safe, the nest is now empty and I have not seen any wrens at all now for a day or two. | ||
| marieann |
I wonder if they will come back to that nest another time. What other birds do you have visiting your garden? | ||
| Dee |
Do not think they will be back in the same place next year because we have just pulled the ivy off the wall due to the fact it was getting out of hand. That is the trouble with Ivy. 
This is a photo of the nest though, hope this is clear enough they are really intricate. |
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| marieann |
That entrance is tiny, you are right about the intricacy Dee.
I can't grow ivy I tried at the side wall and it refuses to fill out. After about six years it's still a straggly single stem.
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| Ken R |
[quote="marieann"]That entrance is tiny, you are right about the intricacy Dee.
I can't grow ivy I tried at the side wall and it refuses to fill out. After about six years it's still a straggly single stem. [/quote]
Come and take mine please Marie I've tried everything to get rid of it short of dynamiting it !!! I didn't plant it, it just appeared and is now intent on taking over my humble abode I just spent all of Saturday and half of Sunday, on a borrowed "cherry picker", trying to lever the stuff off my walls, it had grown up under the barge boards and was threatening to invade the bedroom via the window !!!
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| Dee |
Yes! thats the trouble with Ivy once it gets a strong hold it goes mad and can do much damage. Will willingly send you a bit. Have to clear the shed yet, think there is nests still active. Ivy is in the shed decorating the roof it has to go! | ||
| marieann |
That sounds very painful Ken and Dee only I'm never going to have first hand knowledge apparently.
So I've got no problem taking your words for it. I hope you get it sorted out.
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| Dee |
Ivy is usually so easy to grow, especially when you dont want it.
Have you got any of these pinching your nuts!!? |
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| Sylvia |
Good Morning Dee, what a lovely picture that is and in your own back garden too. I bet you had to move sharpish in order to catch this cheeky little chappie pinching the nuts, it's great to have natural wild life right there on your doorstep.
I live on a private housing estate and we are surrounded by woodland. Our back gardens are only small, but it's my little oasis of calm, when I want to escape the chores in the latter part of the day. When I've been out with Alan during the evening, as we drive down my road which is initially flanked by trees and shrubs, in the car headlights we have caught sight of a fox running for the safety of the dense thicket. You will probably think I'm nuts Dee, but when I've got left over meat scraps, I take them to the edge of the woodland and leave it there for the foxes to eat. Alan says that the scraps are more likely to get eaten by the greedy domestic cats, but my hearts in the right place. How the aristocrats can hunt down these beautiful creatures and kill them with their hunting dogs, is beyond me. Thank god this practice has become illegal, it was so barbaric.
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| Sandie Seward |
Oh no! Not the dreaded Hunting Debate again!!!
Sylvia wrote;"How the aristocrats can hunt down these beautiful creatures and kill them with their hunting dogs, is beyond me. Thank god this practice has become illegal, it was so barbaric. " Sylvia, it wasn't just the 'aristos' who hunted you know. Admittedly it was them that started it, that was only because they had plenty of time on their hands when they weren't off fighting wars somewhere or other, and needed to keep their hand in, so to speak. The peasent HAD no choice. If he and his family wanted to eat they HAD to go hunting. But for them it wasn't a 'sport', it was quite literally a matter of life or death. No hunting equated no food. Period. Now, as we all know, you can't eat fox, so the purpose of hunting these lovely animals was purely and simply for 'pleasure' and to pass the time until the next battle commenced. In the past, there were at least, plausible excuses for it, today there is no valid reason for hunting anything, lest of all foxes or badgers. |
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| Ken R |
I think it was good old Oscar Wilde, who described fox hunting thus " The pursuit of the in-edible, by the un-speakable !"
Subtle and straight to the point
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| marieann |
The ban hasn't helped the foxes Sylvia.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4724028.stm |
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| marieann |
What a lovely picture Dee. We don't have anything like that eating our nuts.
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| Dee |
This was the squirrel the mother wren attacked and happened just after the photo was taken, do wish I could have caught that on camera too. Afraid my sense of humour sometimes gets the better of me
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| marieann |
The size of a mother wren.......... did the squirrel take any notice? | ||
| Dee |
Yes! she kept flying at its head, the squirrel shot off. Was not long before it came back though. The wren was panicking because her baby was very near the squirrel and was protecting it. | ||
| Sylvia |
Hi Dee, Seems I sent you a message re: the squirrel eating the nuts and I sent it via private messaging. This was an error, I meant to post it on the Forum. I think the sun has got to me a bit over the last few days. Anyway Dee, very pleased you received the message because you posted this reply - thank you!!
From: Dee To: Sylvia Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2006 5:06 pm Subject: Re: Wild Life Hi! Sylvia, pleased you like the photo, we have Mam, Dad and two young ones, thankfully not too many. We live in a one street Hamlet, just 43 houses. The village was built in the early 1900's for workers in the ore mine which supplied the local steelworks, we moved here in the early 70's at that time noone wanted to live here because of the location. The Steelworks sold off all the houses and closed the mine, they decided it was cheaper to buy from abroad. Although we live only a couple of miles from town we are isolated and completely surrounded by countryside. Even the squirrels are chilled out here and birds are reluctant to move off their nests. We have foxes but they are very quick and although they have taken the occasional chicken spend most of their time in the woods, there is plenty of hares to see boxing early mornings and the small deer can be glimpsed from time to time. You sound to be living in a a lovely area natural woodland is hard to find now-a-days. |
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| Sylvia |
Hi Sandie, I found out what happened to that message that I wrote to Dee and couldn't find again afterwards. I accidentally sent it through the PM instead of the forum posts. I realised what happened when Dee answered my message.
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| Sandie Seward |
Ooops!!!!
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| Dee |
Dont worry, it was nice to receive anyway. Been a little too hot for the old brain cells, I have been getting up at 5am in the morning and falling asleep after tea. Bet I am not on my own. | ||
| Sandie Seward |
 Yes, I've also been getting up early, (around 6am or 7am.) The problem is I don't go to bed much before 2or3am, so, consequently I've not been getting too much sleep as a result of the hot weather.
When I awoke this morning, (about 7am) it was tipping down with rain, at the time of writing this post, (8.50am), it's still raining! That certainly wasn't forecast last evening! 
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| Guest |
Me too, Dee. It's so hot that I'm tossing and turning all through the night. Get out of bed several times, go donwstairs and make a cup of tea and sit on the back door step drinking it. So calm and quiet at 4 am and nice cool air too, even the birds are not stirring. Such a lovely time of the morning, peaceful and tranquil, I love it. | ||
| Sylvia |
Me again, I wrote the above post but since I never log out of Silver Surfers, I usually get straight onto the system when I click on the link. Something very strange going on lately, I get logged off even though I haven't logged off, then I find my new entry coming up as a Guest.
Hmmmm!!
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| Sandie Seward |
Sylvia, I think the reason for this is because all 'Log In's' have a 'time limit'.
Otherwise it would completely distort the stats, and make us appear a lot busier than we are. It also frees up bandwidth for other users on other Forums. Just imagine, if evry user of every Forum did the same! It would probably end in 'gridlock'!
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| Sylvia |
Log On - Log OffYes, I can appreciate your reasoning Admin, but why then is there a section with a small square, which you tick, to ALWAYS REMEMBER MY PASSWORD AND LOGIN. Surely, this is to eliminate the need to keep logging on and off!There's one of these small square boxes on almost every site you visit regularly.
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| marieann |
My Internet Explorer, which is dodgy at the best of times, froze a few days ago and cancelled all of my 'always log me in automatically' ticks Sylvia. It was rather anoying because I couldn't remember all of the passwords.
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| Sylvia |
Same goes for me Marieann, I forget my login and password too. Thanks for that info. | ||
| Dee |
Suddenly got cooler, must say it is more comfortable but it is also raining. Have noticed how lethargic my little dog has been the last few days, she has now perked up. | ||
| Guest |
It was sticky heat here today, but this afternoon we had quite a bad thunderstorm and it rained heavily. It's cooled it down rather, it's much better - will hopefully sleep tonight.
On the TV this evening, they showed you areas of London that was under water with the heavy rainfall. Crazy weather, all or nothing!! |
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