On morning Tweedles

I make no apologies for the use of the word "Tweedles" I inherited it from Whispas" breeder. Its the euphemism for attempting to induce our little dog to urinate on the lawn. We have developed quite a morning ritual now. It starts about 6 AM when, from force of habit & a full bladder, I get out of bed. I try to sneak to the toilet so that I can have the morning pee in peace & quiet, but invariably halfway through, there is a dab on the back of my leg from a cold wet little nose. Just one dab is all. Just a "Hi dad, I heard ya & here I am." dab. From there its the bathroom for the morning round of tablets. Then the fun begins...

It starts when I get down on my hands & knees & lasts about 10 minutes, with a little dog careering madly round the house in absolute bliss that we have both made it through another night. When we have both settled down the phrase, C'mon, time for tweedles starts the next phase in the ritual. We head for the back door, where Fattums, one of the Ginger Ninja's is waiting. She leads, we follow. Out through the courtyard pausing only long enough to destroy the nights work of our resident spider. He/she patiently spins a web in the trellis archway leading to the back lawn every night. I very carefully wipe it away with my hand every morning. Either that, or if I am forgetful, wear it draped artistically round my face like some form of arachnid veil. I don't enjoy that so I try to remember to use my hand.

WE have a lovely ten minutes or so on the back lawn. The Starlings resident in the Birch tree make themselves known & express their disapproval at the presence of a cat. Especially the cat that has been responsible for dispatching a significant proportion of their fledglings over the years. But hey, thats nature I guess. Fattums & I then have an in depth conversation about the state of the union, whats on the agenda for the day, a purring demonstration &, most importantly, what I intend to serve her for breakfast.

Whispas meanwhile , has her usual aimless little wander round the lawn. Sometimes she goes "tweedles," sometimes she doesn't. I'm not too stressed these days if she doesn't. She seems to have the whole house thing sorted out now & generally saves it till we go on one of our frequent strolls. Once everything is sorted to Fattums' satisfaction we head off back inside. I put the jug on for the first coffee of the day, put down a variety of tasty morsels for their Ladyships approval, finish making the coffee, then go through & open the lounge curtains.

By then, her houndliness has finished her breakfast & is waiting at the office door for me. I have to wait a few seconds before I can turn my 'puter on. You see, I get preempted by a dog who does her best to push the button that turns the 'puter on. I then settle in for my morning browse, Whispas settles at my feet for her morning nap & who knows what the cat does.

Christopher, Jude's youngest son, is coming down for the weekend. We are both looking forward to it. He & his wife Melanie are going to overnight. The idea is that we are going to go fishing on Sunday morning. Melanie isn't a fishing person though. What I am hoping is that all 4 of us might go for a cruise. Mel has never seen the beautiful islands that we have dotted about the coastline up Coromandel way, so it would be nice to take her. I think Jude would enjoy it as well, but we will see what the weather is like. If the sea is at all lumpy, Chris & I will just go fishing. There are a few things he & I need to chat about & a boat at sea is as good a place as any that I can think of to do it.