Oh dear! Apparently you are supposed to "yelp" when they nip, then they realise they have hurt you and don't do it again - well, that's the theory.

 

I love my ipad and am finding out new things every day. Youngest son is good at helping me with things when I get stuck, although he does tend to do this.

 

Son has just noticed that one of my front tyres is flat - I think I've had a slow puncture because I thought the other day that it needed some air (not that I put any in). Good job hubby has the day off tomorrow, fixing my tyre can be his job for the day.

 

I've realised that this post makes me sound like a right numpty a helpless female, and I'm really not!

Lol I'm the same yogi, I could sort it out of I had to but it's much easier to let the man of the house do it. I always feel out of place in garages Glad you're enjoying your iPad mr summer is attached to his lol Have you got any good apps? Bramble does understand "no bite" and "gentle" but every so often she gets excited & forgets, it probably didn't help that I kissed her head a few times

Oooh I just remembered something I wanted to show you! Brb

Here: This little guy came to visit me at work on Friday- he's a 9 week old puppy guide dog in training I don't actually get why he's out & about before he's had his jabs though

It's hard to resist when they are sooooo cute.

 

My favourite app atm is the ibooks. I've spent ages browsing through the free books and also the ones you can pay for. I need to keep track of how many I am buying, as I like to put the money away for things as I buy them. No shocking credit card bills that way.

I love iBooks! I've got a handy cesar Milan book on mine, it's been very helpful with adjusting to life with a puppy. It's a shame we can't take it in the bath though lol I love reading in the bath The night sky is worth a few pennies, mr summer bought it, put it on our iTunes and then I got it free I do buy a few things but like you, wouldn't want any surprises on the credit card bill

I'll need to look out for the Cesar Milan book. I loved his old dog, Daddy. I actually cried when I read that Daddy had passed away, he was such a good-natured dog.

I agree it's a shame we can take the ipad into the bath, but remembering how many books I've accidentally dropped into the bath, I'm not going to risk it.

I have the Star Walk app and I love it.

Aww, the labrador puppy is really gorgeous - I want one!

It is strange that they are taking him out and about before he's had his jabs though. I remember Keira's breeder telling me that Guide Dogs For The Blind also take the puppies away from their mums at 6 weeks, whereas she preferred to keep the puppies with their mums until they were 8 weeks old.

Guide dogs for the blind is where it's going  

Isn't he gorgeous, Velvet?

Yep.

 

My only charity.

 

They do some great work, and the dogs are brilliant.

The trainer told me that there is currently only 1 chocolate lab guide dog in the whole country , the puppies usually fail their preliminary tests! The work aid dogs do really does touch my heart, they're wonderful I've just washed my hair in the bath and created an accidental water fountain with the hose, what a mess!

Oh no! Have you mopped up the mess yet?

 

Re the chocolate labs, I remember someone told me that chocolate labs are bred for their colour and less for their temperament and intelligence. They said golden and black labs are much brighter. (But it could be a lot of rubbish)

My friend has a choccie lab and she's a superb dog, although I know no others to compare her to.. Someone else told me they can throw up hip problems in the blood line, but again, my friends dog is just fine Lol yes I've mopped up the mess, it rather helped me clean a few things

Reminds me of when Harvey comes to stay. Every time he takes a drink he floods the kitchen floor - I'm forever having to mop up, so the floor is always spotless.

Off for a long soak, goodnight Summer and Velvet.

Lol sloppy chops! bramble has a little beard, it gets soaked in the water bowl Is Harvey coming over again soon?

Sorry I just missed you yogi! Enjoy your soak and sweet dreams

night yogi

Good morning everyone

 

Cloudy at present but dry.

 

 

Good morning What a beautiful picture el!!! I think we should have it framed & hung on our wall It's sunny here today, but chilly in the wind. Bramble & I are relaxing on the sofa, mr summer is having a lay in. I'm so grateful for these few days off, I feel relaxed What is everyone doing today?

Summer, there's an American painter called Jim Killen:

http://www.killenoriginals.com/

 

And one of his paintings is this, but the price isn't given for this one:

 

Good morning everyone, a much brighter morning here with even some blue sky, no idea what the weather forecast is, I get disorientated if there's no local weather forecast on the TV.

 

Lovely picture of the pup, we used to have a Guide Dogs For The Blind training centre just around the corner from our house and so they used to walk the puppies past and then with their owners as they were finalising the training.

 

It has been a lovely relaxing weekend so far, nice to think there are still 2 days to go.  I have slept and slept so I must have been tired.  I hope everyone else is managing to relax and unwind too.

 

BB starts again tomorrow, I wonder whether we will agree on housemates, and whether we will change our minds once we get to know them more.

 

Have a good day everyone - I thought this might bring a smile - talking about Guide Dogs reminded me of it

 

         

 

Good morning everyone. The sun is shining today - the last sunny day for a while, I fear.

Keira is in the garden, soaking up the rays. I swear, if she were human, she'd be one of those tanarexics!

I love the pictures of the labradors (thanks to Harvey, I have a special place in my heart for labs). Summer, I usually have Harvey for two or three days each week - basically, whenever my son and DiL's work routines mean he would have to be alone for more than a few hours. Keira is always glad to see him, and so am I (even if he does flood my floor when he drinks). We think his escape route is now filled with mesh and the asiatic lilies, which grow like wildfire and fill in any gaps at the bottom of the garden. The good thing is they are so high now, Harvey shouldn't be able to see any cats in the next garden, so he shouldn't try to escape to chase them. I hope!

  @ the Guide Cats For The Blind video, Squiggle.

Hubby has the day off which is unusual as he normally has to work Bank Holidays. We may go out and about, or may just chill out in the garden. As long as Bouncing Billy isn't around.

 

El, those paintings are lovely, mr summer will love that link thank you. His sister has 2 German pointers, lovely creatures. The whole family are very outdoor country people. Squiggle I too have been sleeping lots, I think we just sometimes need it I hope you feel better for it yourself I too am looking forward to meeting this years new housemates, I hope the age range is more diverse this year! Yogi, I hope Harvey's Houdini days are over now lol I'll keep my fingers crossed it would be nice if bouncing billy has a day trip out somewhere

Hi all x

Was a nice sunny morning here, but getting a bit overcast now. Not so much of a holiday here, son at work, schools open etc.
Getting some odd jobs done around the house as on my own and can get on!  
Cleaning the grouting in the bathroom is my next job. My life is sooooo exciting  

Hope you are all enjoying the day and "Bouncing Billy" not giving you a headache Yogi! 

^^^^ I hate cleaning the grouting, it seems to take forever. It does look good when it's finished though.

Re Bouncing Billy, I found out recently that lots of the neighbours are fed up with the constant noise from the basketball - he bounces it half a dozen times before he shoots a hoop (or whatever the lingo is). You can't sit in the garden when he's out, the noise drives you mad. Of course, he isn't allowed to do it when his mum and dad are sitting out.

A couple of nights ago, his parents were obviously out, and there was a crowd of 16-17 year olds bouncing the blooming thing until midnight.

Summer, Mr Yogi would like to give him a one-way ticket to the moon, never mind a day trip.

Yogi I hope Bouncing Billy does not ruin your afternoon.

 

Summer I do feel more refreshed, I must have been tireder than I knew.  I hope you are too.

 

I find this great for discoloured grouting, it's results are quite astonishing, brings the grouting up like new.

 

         

I'll be looking for some of that squiggle, I hate the grouting getting dirty!

Here's some music for you. It's by Elena Kats-Chernin and is for a ballet called "Wild Swans".

The storyline is about a princess who has been made mute by her wicked stepmother. In a faraway kingdom, there lives a King with his twelve children: eleven princes and one princess. One day, he decides to remarry. He marries a wicked Queen who is actually a witch. Out of spite, the queen turns her eleven stepsons into swans and forces them to fly away. They carry their fifteen year old sister Elisa to safety in a foreign land where she is out of harms way of her stepmother. There, Elisa labors mutely day and night knitting magic shirts from nettles to help her brothers regain their human shapes, as this is the only way to break the spell their stepmother forced them under. The king of another faraway land happens to come across the mute Elisa and falls in love with her. He grants her a room in the castle where she continues her knitting and eventually crowns her as his Queen and wife. One night Elisa runs out of nettles and is forced to collect more in a graveyard. She is spotted by the evil Archbishop who is looking for an excuse to accuse her of witchcraft. He convinces the King that Elisa is a witch and sentences her to death by burning at the stake. At the place of execution, the swans descend and rescue Elisa. The magic shirts are donned and the brothers return to their human forms. Elisa regains her voice and explains the reason for her mysterious work to the king. Elisa's courage prevails and she is forever reunited with her brothers.

 

The clips are music only, though the photo changes for each piece of music.

 

In case you wonder why I've posted this, it's because you'll recognise the music which starts about 2 and a half minutes in the first clip.

 

Lol it's the bank advert music!!!! I enjoyed the story El, I'm sure it's a wonderful ballet performance

I shall look out for that one squiggle, i used the Mr Muscle one, not bad. 

Poor you, Yogi, that lad would drive me nuts ! 

Thanks El, will watch and listen to your clips later, my plugin crashed again, always the same on GC, will have to swap over to IE  

Hi Summer, you off work today?  

I thought you would recognise it I couldn't find a performance of the ballet itself though on Youtube.

I've just finished cutting the grass - it wasn't particularly long, but with the forecast I've seen, the grass may well not be able to be cut again for a couple of weeks. In the last hour the Met Office has changed the forecast for the latter part of June to be drier than it was - the previous forecast showed that the first week of Wimbledon was likely to be a washout, but that risk seems to have reduced. The first half of June isn't that great though.

 

Internet very slow for me today. Did a speedtest and got this..

Ping 42ms
Download speed 12.53 Mbps 
Upload speed      0.75 Mbps

Googled but cant make head nor tail of what it actually means. Help? x

 

Good clips, El. I recognised the bank ad music, too.

Dettol Mould and Mildew Remover is good stuff, Squiggle. It certainly makes grout cleaning a bit easier.

Sorry Skylark, I can't help with your last post - it's all Double Dutch to me too.

 

It's faster than mine Skylark, if that helps, mine was upload 1.9 Mb/s download .368 Mb/s ping 37 ms, and that's on my laptop which is in another room to my router.

Skylark, the download result is the rate that data is downloaded from the internet on to your computer and should compare with the rate you expect your broadband internet service provider says you should get.

I've just done a speed test on mine with a result of 9.59 mb/s which compares to the 10 mb rate advertised for me by Virgin. Your rate of 12.53 is faster than mine.

 

The upload rate is how fast data is uploaded from your computer on to the internet (so when you are sending files and emails to people). This is always a lot slower than the download speed. For me I got a result of 0.931 mb/s compared to yours of 0.75 so mine is slightly faster.

 

The ping result is more complicated to understand. What it trys to do is to measure the quality of the data being transmitted and to check if any is lost. A lot depends on the quality of the servers used in the transmission of the data. The lower the result, the better the quality. I've just tried it on my computer. I've never tried this before so I had no idea what to expect. I got a result of 25 ms which they said was an excellent result. Your rate of 42 ms is a bit slower but should not be causing you any problems re internet use.

 

The ping test I used does look for the fastest server available so the result would not be what I would normally get. There is a way of doing the ping test yourself and selecting which website you want to check, effectvely testing that website's servers. It's a bit technical and is one for tech guys to use. But for fun I've been doing some experiments. You can only do i with some sites though. I'll just put the average results:

For Google.co.uk  28 ms

For the BBC site (not iPlayer)  8 ms

For the Virgin Media site 5 ms (probably the best result as I'm with Virgin)

For the Met Office weather 42 ms

Let's try some US sites as these will have to cross the Atlantic

Try the Seattle Times 14 ms

And the Chicaho Tribune 12 ms

No real difference there

Hoop.la 166 ms

And this site, I did it a few times and this averages out at 160 ms which is consistent with the Hoop.la one.

 

And there we have it. It looks as if the Hoop.la/Gagajoyjoy servers show noticeably poorer results than some other websites. Still adequate but it may explain why there's hiccups with postings from time to time.

 

 

 

 

Well it may sound fast, but i wish the computer knew that! Somewhere along the line it slows down to a peep! It did speed up tho, after 6pm 
Anyway, signing off, have a good evening all