corgis

Introducing Jethro

~ Elizabeth Hurd ~ 4 Comments

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For a few months well-intentioned, kindly people have been asking me when they can expect to read my next blog. These people do wonders for my morale. They foster a naïve belief that somewhere out there a bevy of avid blog followers are pining to read my latest drivel, rather than just my family who have to read it or risk me telling all, like the time my brother…

But I digress.

There is a simple reason why I have not written for a few months. There is a simple reason for my messy house, my inability to have a normal conversation, my untrimmed hair, my aching back and my recently acquired stoop. That reason has a name, and his name is Jethro. Continue reading →

So, We’ll No More Go a Roaming

~ Elizabeth Hurd ~ 8 Comments

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This morning I took myself off on one of our favourite walks in the neighbourhood, down the road through a nearby hamlet, then back around across the rolling farm fields. It is a walk we’ve done countless times since moving here, one we’ve enjoyed in all seasons except when the mud is at its worst. Today, for the first time, I had to take the walk on my own, without my faithful little companion at my side. Our sweet little corgi died on the 20th of April this year after a sudden, heart-breaking decline. A scan revealed a mass throughout his liver and we had to make the decision to give him a gentle, pain free end. Continue reading →

It’s a Dog’s Life

~ Elizabeth Hurd ~ 9 Comments

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“If you eliminate smoking and gambling, you will be amazed to find that almost all an Englishman’s pleasures can be, and mostly are, shared by his dog.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

From time to time my friends and acquaintances have emailed me to ask questions about some of the differences I have found between life in the UK and life in the US. Since much of my blog-writing time is often spent dithering around trying to choose a topic to write about, I’ve decided to make life easier this time and address one of those questions, one which is near and dear to my heart.

Are there any differences in how pets are treated, and what species are treated as pets? Continue reading →

All Hail the “Conkering” Hero

~ Elizabeth Hurd ~ 4 Comments

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Keats is famous for calling autumn the season of “mists and mellow fruitfulness”, and that certainly is an apt description of autumn in the UK. The days grow shorter, the nights colder, and each morning it seems to take just a little bit longer for the rising sun to warm the countryside and burn off the morning fog that weaves its way like a ribbon along the base of the nearby hills. The trees are beginning to glow with their glorious gold and russet, and the old stone houses that are covered with ivy flame with scarlet. Continue reading →