Wolvercote an Olde English Village

A last minute booking brought us to Wolvercote near Oxford. This is a new area for us and we were pleasantly surprised to find a little village tucked away from the busy main roads that surrounded it. The village is on the edge of Port Meadow, a large piece of common land, which stretches for miles, and has the Oxford canal running through it. This was very handy as the dog we were looking after had so much energy.

Tracy getting her daily exercise. This dog had endless energy.

He was only a young pup and so sweet, although we were only with him for a few days, he really stole our hearts, and we had great fun throwing the ball for him. We also helped harvest the owners' allotment whilst they were away which was laden with produce.

Sitting in Scotland

June saw us travel from the South Eastern tip of the UK to the North Eastern tip, to Aberdeen for our next sit. We travelled the whole distance in one day, feeling the temperature drop the further north we went.

We do not know Scotland very well, Della only having been there once before, and Tracy never having been. We were looking forward to exploring this part of our country.

Aberdeen is by the seaside, and we were lucky to pick two lovely weeks of calm, sunny weather, although a tad cold for us Southerners. The North Sea was like a mill pond, and the scenery was breathtaking. We loved the beaches which were vast, empty spaces of clean white sand, with colonies of seals and Eider ducks. Very unspoilt and pristine countryside and coastline for miles around.
Slains Castle Cruden bay

We were looking after two very low maintenance cats, who enabled us to go out on walks and explore the local area. We found a small general stores in Auchnagatt, the only store in the small village, as we wanted some matches. The shop was something out of 'The league of Gentlemen' very Local. There were a few items on the shelves, such as the odd tin of beans and a bottle of sauce. The window display was ancient, with bars of soap with 'sell by dates' from 1999!

The old part of Aberdeen was interesting. It is called Footdee There are a number of fisherman's cottages which are built into the harbour walls. They face inwards with their gardens in quadrangles so that the people are sheltered from the weather coming in from the sea.

When this sit finished we had a few days before we had to be at our next sit in Oxford, so we took advantage of the lovely weather and made our way back down South via Inverness and the Highlands. We called in on Nessy on the way passed and enjoyed the scenery of the mountains and lochs. We had lunch in a lovely loch-side restaurant in Fort Augustus called The Boathouse which gave us views back up the loch where we had driven down.

Cheap Pet Insurance

The cost of taking a beloved pet to the vets is never cheap and as we are all finding the pinch in our purses in all aspects of our lives, we were interested to read an article in Martin Lewis's Money Expert.com.

This is an online magazine highlighting ways to save money in all aspects of our lives. This month features an article on pet insurance and ways to keep the costs down.

Check it out to make sure you are not paying out more than you should and to see if there are ways in which you can get more for your hard earned money.


Link to Martin Lewis' Money Saving Expert.com

Dog Friendly Britain

Dog Friendly Britain in an online magazine helping people find places to stay with their dogs when they go on holiday.

It is a good source of information covering all aspects of a dog owner's life.

We were recently featured in the magazine, click on the link below to see what they said.

Dog Friendly Britain Feature

Lungworm Awareness Campaign

What is this lungworm?

The lungworm Angiostrongylus vasorum (also known as French Heartworm) is a parasite that infects dogs. The adult of this particular lungworm lives in the heart and major blood vessels supplying the lungs, where it can cause a host of problems. Left untreated, the infection can often be fatal.

The lungworm parasite is carried by slugs and snails. The problem arises when dogs purposefully or accidentally eat these common garden pests when rummaging through undergrowth, eating grass, drinking from puddles or outdoor water bowls, or pick them up from their toys.

There is a national campaign highlighting this issue more information can be found on the two sites below.

www.vetclick.com/news/bayer-animal-health-launches-lungworm-consumer-awareness-campaign-p918.php

http://www.lungworm.co.uk/scripts/pages/en/home.php

Chickens - More than meets the eye

We tend to sit for clients with a variety of pets which we are familiar with and have owned in the past.

Until we started pet sitting we had not looked after chickens. Our parents' generation are used to them in their gardens, but it was not commonplace in the towns when we were growing up.

We have really grown to love these birds and learn a lot about them. They are very easy to look after, just needing a secure shelter at night, to stop predators getting at them, food and water.

We have come across a number of different chicken houses, some just a small coop, which could be moved around to a different spot in the garden, to garden sheds and out buildings.

They are so curious, watching everything that is going on around them. They turn over the earth looking for grubs etc.

The best thing about them though is the fact that they will put themselves to bed just before it gets dark. They just have to be locked in to be secure.

The eggs have the most yellow of yolks making any cooking a gorgeous colour.


British Hen Welfare Trust

We feel the chicken is a very overlooked bird, and it is worth giving it a bit of attention the next time you come across one.

Discovering i Portal

As we travel around quite a bit, in the UK and Europe we rely on our lap tops a great deal. They become a portable telephone, a way of actually seeing our friends and family via web cam and an easy way to visit the bank as well as keeping in touch with clients.


We like to dip in and out of tv programmes whilst we are travelling around, and with most tv channels we are able to use the iplayers provided with each channel. This is most useful whilst we are abroad as the time difference sometimes makes it inconvenient to watch live tv. However you are only able to access UK channels via the internet whilst in the UK, so when abroad we use a service called i Portal.


By signing into this service you effectively use a UK based server. The service is also useful when emailing from outside the UK, for using tools like spellcheck. If you are in France, for example, and using spellcheck the tool will automatically spellcheck in french, unless you are connected to i portal.


The service makes our life so much easier and for a small subscription either annually or monthly we would not be without it.

To find out more about i Portal go to our 'Links Page' on our website.