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Travels with Martha/It’s a Girl thing

2nd January 2020 by Leigh Walton Leave a Comment

For possibly the first time ever Martha and I are blogging together! To avoid confusion we will begin each paragraph with the name of which of us is narrating.
Leigh: We have had a terribly sad New Year’s Day. I have shed many tears: those of you who haven’t had a pet may not understand. Those who have lost a much-loved pet will. I had a message this morning to say that Lily (one of my late dog’s pups, was more seriously ill than we had realised). That was my first cry of the day. Lily was not quite 13 years old and had been poorly over the last couple of weeks. Her wonderful human’s had told us she was ill, but she was a feisty girl and we all hoped she would recover. It wasn’t to be. Our darling Lily (who was, of course, Martha’s sister) went to sleep around 1pm – never to wake again. Tom, Martha and I hope, if there is a Rainbow Bridge, that she is over there playing with her mum Rosie.

Martha: For those of you who don’t know Lily’s background here you are. In February 2007 our beautiful mum, Rosie, gave birth to three gorgeous pups in the very cottage that Leigh, Tom and I live in; Leigh named us Ruby {Tuesday} – she was renamed Lily on adoption, Martha {Monday} and BigBoy – renamed Parsley on adoption. Lily was Rosie’s firstborn, she was followed by the gi-normous BigBoy then I was born last. From the beginning it was obvious that Lily was the brightest of us three. She learned very quickly how to clamber over our little fence (Leigh and Tom erected this in the dining room to give us a safe place to play). She drove our humans to distraction because she would often get her back leg stuck and squeal, causing them to race to her rescue. I didn’t attempt to try and escape; I have always been a bit of a coward but Lily was a born leader and escape artist for sure.

Leigh: Back in 2006 we decided to find a suitable male and mate Rosie as we had fallen in love with her breed (Parson Russell Terriers are full of character) and wanted a second dog. We took her to Wales where she was mated with a Crufts champion; we were super happy when we found out she was pregnant. The day Rosie went into labour I was due to be working away but I rang one of my colleagues saying, ‘Rosie’s in labour and I can’t possibly leave her’. ‘V’ offered to do the training session for me – I was so relieved. Lily was born fairly quickly and the other two followed. The second pup was huge but the third (Martha) just plopped out – she was so tiny. I fell in love with all three immediately and spent that night sleeping on the floor in the hall with Rosie and her pups. I just couldn’t leave them. Note: I would never advise that people breed dogs for money or ‘just because’ – it is really hard work – but having these three pups was one of the most wonderful experiences ever. I dreading saying goodbye to two of them so we interviewed several families before ‘allowing’ their new humans to adopt Lily and Parsley. Tom and I made excellent choices of adoptive ‘parents’ and both pups went to fabulous, loving homes. We’ve kept in touch with Lily’s family more than Parsley’s to be honest, and they are the most wonderful people who have loved Lily as much as anyway could ever love her.

Martha: Lily’s female human and Leigh have been in close communication most of the day. It’s obvious that they have the utmost respect and empathy for each other. Leigh sobbed several times when reading the incoming messages, explaining how devastated the whole family are; their younger dog ‘F’ is also going to really miss Lily and, unlike humans, you can’t always explain to a dog what has happened to their companion. For Leigh, I guess it is like losing one of her own – she was there when Lily was born and when Lily went to her new home part of Leigh’s heart went with her. Leigh remembers the family saying when they played a recording of Leigh’s voice Lily would put her head on one side, clearly recognising and responding to the voice. I guess that changed with time as she adapted to her loving new family and their voices.

Both: So here we are at 11pm, sending our love (and licks) to Lily’s family. We are so very sad for them, and for Lily. We are also very, very, thankful for the few walks we shared, for the way they brought Lily to our joint first birthday party where Leigh made Liver Cake and all the humans (Parsley’s family included) sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to us pups. More than anything we are grateful that they made the hard decision to let our darling girl go to sleep peacefully – some humans may have been tempted to ‘try and keep her going’ for a few more days for their own sake – as we couldn’t bear to think of Lily being in pain.

Oh no – Leigh is crying again so I (Martha) best go jump on her and give her a growl to shut her up.
Bless you Lily – bless your humans who told Leigh, ‘Thank you for giving us such a great dog – we will always love her’.
So will we.
Martha and Leigh xx

Travels with Martha

20th November 2019 by Leigh Walton Leave a Comment

I am not travelling right now, so this isn’t exactly a good fit for my blog but I did feel inspired to write today so here goes…
Last evening Leigh and about 14 of her running buddies got together for a ‘Gin and Canapés’ evening; as a mere canine I had no idea exactly what this would entail.

As the ladies began to arrive Tom did a quick exit (went to his club with his usual Tuesday evening crew) so I decided to move to my bedinthediningroom in order stay close to Leigh.
I guess I expected a sophisticated, sipping Gin couple of hours. Boy, was I wrong.
The volume shot up with the arrival of even the first few guests. By the time they had all arrived even my goingdeafears were being penetrated by…noise, just noise. Honestly, it was cacophonous.

Unable to decipher any of the conversation apart from ‘Which gin do you want?’, and, ‘What flavour of tonic do you prefer?’, or ‘Sarah’s in charge of ice…over there’, I decided to pootle out of my bed and have a mooch around just in case a little bit of Parma ham or feta cheese had been dropped on the floor!

I do love to steal food – much more fun than being fed my usual ‘intestine friendly’ food.
As you’ll know if you read me regularly I am getting grumpier as I age – I’m greyhounding towards 13 now. In fairness, Leigh had told her guests not to worry about fussing me; I will take fuss on my terms only. To my credit I did allow all ladies to fuss me a little before giving a warning growl. I am not being vain when I tell you all of them found me cute (I was going to say charming, but that may be a step too far according to Leigh).
All evening ‘SM’ had threatened to steal me; she’s admired me since first seeing me on FB – in fact she has a cunning plan to set me up on a blind-walk-date with her lovely pooch (Barney). I did spend a good amount of time with her, and was tempted to sneak home with her to take a look at Mr Barney.

Another lady ‘SS’ was competing with ‘SM’ for my attention – honestly, you humans are funny – so, feeling a little sorry for ‘SS’ as she is dog-less, I let her take a selfie with me.

To cut the tail short (misspelt purposely folks) when ‘SS’ wanted me to hang out with her after the selfie, I showed her my teeth and bit the air very close to her: I do this when humans don’t take notice of my growling, ‘That’s enough now’.
SS jumped back, (don’t worry, I didn’t bite her) and ‘SM’ ‘N’ ‘G’ and Leigh fell about laughing.

SM, G and N before they all fell about laughing!

In truth ‘G’ did more cackling and falling about than laughing – which made all the other guests come to see what was going on. The room erupted in laughter.
Leigh did tell me off for giving ‘SS’ a scare but come on folks, if a girl doesn’t want fuss, she doesn’t want fuss.
I have since sent my apologies to ‘SS’.
The moral of this short story is – if {canine or human} growls at you, leave them be or take the consequences.
Anyway, by the constant chatter, laughter, hugging and general camaraderie I would say a good evening was had by all: Gin, growls, and girl-talk – what’s not to love if you’re a human?
As for me I’m quite looking froward to meeting ‘SM’s’ Barney and will keep you posted when we meet!
Woofs,
Martha
PS Hoping to be off adventuring from February 2020 so keep your eyes peeled for more blog posts then!

Travels with Martha

2nd November 2018 by Leigh Walton Leave a Comment

Friday 2 November
Étaples-Calais-Boulogne.

The last day of this adventure has been jam-packed with activity. Firstly, we popped into Étaples so that my passport could be updated (I had to have tape-worm medication too, as is the norm for canines entering the U.K.). We then strolled through the town which, unlike yesterday, was superbusy; it really was a totally different experience to yesterday’s visit where the absence of people gave it a ghost-town feel.

Maybe because today was a normal day (not a bank holiday like yesterday) where people were going about their everyday business, plus the shops and a buzzing street market were operational, we were seeing Étaples at it really is? I was disappointed in the place yesterday but today I enjoyed visiting; I would describe it as, ‘French-France, typically shabby-chic and traditional. Ooh-la-la’. Yelp!

Calais was a surprise too. We have driven past and through this town many times but never bothered to visit. I’ll do my best to describe Calais – especially as it appears to attract bad press in the main. The Town Hall is very, very impressive from the outside. It is far bigger and far more ornate than most Town Hall’s I have seen – with gleaming-gold decorations on the pretty clock tower. The surrounding garden is neatly planted out with (mostly) winter pansies and the lawns are very well maintained, as are the trees.

We did struggle to find what you would call the ‘heart of the town’. There appear to be two ‘Town Centre’s’; neither of which would draw any of us back but who are we to tell anyone what to do, really. Yelp! The area around the wonderfully ornate theatre houses a few pretty buildings, a huge modern shopping complex and perhaps one or two traditional eating places.

The area to the north of the Town Hall offers a lovely park – which was dedicated to Chinese Festival of Lights and full of allsortsofwonderfulthings – and many restaurants and street cafes.

We found a lovely place for lunch. Leigh’s fish dish was amazing.

From Calais we drove to ‘Majestic Wines’ so that my humans could stock up on Christmas drinks. I won’t tell you how many bottles they purchased. Yelp!

Then we decided to drive through Boulogne-sur-Mer on the way home. Time was getting on so we didn’t have time to really explore this town but it’s on my list for another year. It is apparently Frances largest fishing port and specialises in herring. Tom took the coast road back from Boulogne and seeing a sign for some sand-dunes decided to stop the car so that we could take a walk.

Oh my. The dunes were wonderful; grassy, hilly and wild. The beach beyond them was huge – broad and wide and sandy. There were several canines – all off-lead – so I managed to socialise with a rather bigboy which was fun.

The sea air was good for all of us. After about a thirty minute walk – Leigh and I did some running too – we wound our way back to the car. Before doing so I cleverly managed to write a message in the sand.
Approaching our campsite we realised our neighbours were heroes. We are situated next to a huge Commonwealth Military Cemetery where over 11,500.00 soldiers, cut down in the prime of life during both World Wars, lie sleeping. It is, indeed, humbling.

I am left with nothing else to tell you apart from this is the last adventure in ‘Travels with Martha’. I have decided to retire and rest my pounding paws. So, I leave you with a final photo and a huge woofy-thank-you for coming along on my European Adventures.

Woofs, Martha xx

Travels with Martha

2nd November 2018 by Leigh Walton Leave a Comment

Thursday 1 November
Le Crotoy –Étaples.

We had a supershorthop from Le Crotoy to Étaples this morning…the drive took all of just over an hour. The main reason for moving such a short distance was because the site in Le Crotoy had zero WiFi and hardly any phone signal. It also meant that we could visit the town of Le Touquet – home of the French Concorde!
Le Touquet is about a ten-minute drive from Étaples yet the two towns really are chalk and cheese. Étaples was an old fishing port where most of the houses would have been two up, two down houses at the most. Sadly the old fishing community has disappeared (progress, they tell us) as the town has grown but fishing is still a big part of the town; a wonderful fish market and some tempting fish restaurants can be found down by the port.
After the first world war Étaples was recognised by the state for accommodating up to 80,000 men at a time over the four years (1914-18) and for the damage done to the town. During the second world war the town was occupied by the German troops and about a third of its houses were damaged. We passed a small public garden which was dedicated to the French Resistance; I couldn’t help but think what brave people they must have been. In addition, there was a picture of Charles de Gaulle painted on the wall of the garden!

As we wandered down one of the side streets I could see some of the old houses had been, or were in the process of being, renovated – which I love to see. It’s a town which I think could be upandcoming albeit some of it feels a bit uncared for. I did smile at an unusual drain-pipe with rather grotesque fish-heads at the top and bottom of it.

In contrast, Le Touquet is smart and affluent. The outskirts felt and looked like an estate in Hollywood in the USA (my humans told me this as I’ve not been there, but they have). Huge houses (mainly painted white), some thatched, many different styles of architecture, large tree-edged gardens – which don’t need to be fenced off – and neat wooded areas where the trees appear to have been planted at regular intervals in pokerstraight lines. Once into the actual town the houses are more flamboyantly decorated, reminding my humans of up-market houses in the USA again; one row of houses were similar to the ‘Painted Ladies’ in San Francisco to Leigh’s eye.

We arrived back at the campsite just in time to miss a downpour of rain! Leigh cooked dinner – a vegetarian special because she is raising fund for Cancer Research by going ‘Vegetarian in November’ – Tom looked up the prices of alcohol as he wants to take advantage of the lowerthanBlighty prices and stock up for Christmas, and I had a snooze.
Woofs, Martha xx