Life goes on

On the morning of 23rd May 2013, my life was turned upside down. 

Our Springer Spaniel Jac had been ill for some time, but the vets had been amazing in all they did for him. 

On that morning my husband and I, with guidance from the vets, decided enough was enough and it was time to give Jac peace. We sat with him, on the floor of the vet surgery, as they administered the drugs to put him to sleep. 

Jac was in no more pain. 

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We didn't know what would happen after that. How long it would be till we felt ready for another dog. 

This came about sooner than we thought. 

We started looking at rescue home sites and on the internet pages, just to see what was around at first. If we could help a rescue dog, all the better, to do some good. Jac had been a rescue dog.

The point I realised I wanted another dog was when we were due to see some puppies, but the owner hadn't told us they had another viewing, and sold them before we even got to see them. I was gutted. 

The following day, I looked on the web and came across Sandy. His family had been given some bad news regarding a family member which meant they could no longer look after Sandy. 

We went to see him on the Wednesday evening, and came back with him!

This is a picture of him when we had just brought him home.

Things weren't that straight forward after that for a few days though. Suddenly I was hit with panic. Was I ready for this? Could I cope? Had we done the right thing? I felt so guilty for feeling like this and didn't know why I was. But, after talking it through with hubby, I managed to work through my worries. 

And next Friday, Sandy will have been with us for a month already! And I wouldn't have it any other way! 

Sandy out in the sunshine. Another sun loving dog!

Sandy is very inquisitive! He likes to know what's going on and be around us ALLLL the time!

Sandy taking a bit of time out on his bed.

Play time with the flying dog!


Welcome to the family Sandy Taylor! 

Thanks for reading!

Bird Blue Tit

I'm loving this time of year for photography! So many things changing and so many new things. 

Around us we've had lot of birds nesting. And now they're starting to fly the nest. 

A couple of days ago this is what I saw on my bird feeder. Cute or what!

I had seen him the previous day but didn't have my camera available. It was so lucky that he came back again!

He didn't seem bothered by the seed feeder.

But he LOVED the fat balls! :)

It can't be the most comfortable position to eat your lunch - hanging upside down lol!

I'm so glad we got our bird feeder, it brings a lot of birds into our garden. I can spend ages just sitting watching them. 

Thanks for reading!

The Wonderful Waffler

Garden Visitors

One of the things I love about living where I do is the wildlife we get. 

We have a bird feeder (albeit an old one that now is in need of replacement), but it gets a fair few visiting birds. 

Every now and then, at this time of year we get a robin that visits us. 

He was feeling a bit camera shy yesterday.

On rare occasions I see a blackbird or two. 

This one decided to stop by in a neighbour's garden, so I took a quick shot through the window, hence the blurryness.

The most common is house sparrows. 

Getting decent photos of animals is hard, I'm finding. They don't stay still long enough to get all set up,  positioned and lighting etc. 

It makes it a good challenge though. 

And I'm pretty pleased with these shots, especially as they were through my lounge window. 

I know they can be improved on, but for where I'm at, they're not bad. 

Now and then we get other birds including Jackdaws and Seagulls who make fleeting dashes onto the feeding post and are gone in the blink of an eye. Maybe one day I'll get a picture of those too. 

Thanks for reading.

Oakdale Visit

The other day I went to Oakdale, not far from where I live. 

The central area is like a roundabout around a small memorial garden area. 

Luckily I'd taken my camera along 'just in case'. Here's the photos that I took...

This is the Miner's Memorial. 

This is the view down the valley, from the park.

It was a bitterly cold day, and the wind chill made it even colder! It was hard holding the camera still enough to take the photos.

These were a couple of sky shots...

I don't feel 100% happy with the sky photos, as I struggled to take them with the weather conditions. I'll keep trying, and maybe next time they'll be better.

More photos available on my Flickr. And keep up to date on Wonderful Waffler Sees Facebook

Thanks for reading.

Snow Shower

The other week, we had a fleeting snow shower. It only lasted an hour or two and then it was gone. 

Here's some photos I managed to capture in that time.

This first one, I was trying actually photograph the falling snow. At first it seemed a really easy thing to do. Well there was so much of it falling, how could I not get it right? Wrong! Trying to get the camera to actually focus on such small flakes was a big challenge, and this was the best I could get on this occasion.

This next photo reminds me of Narnia, from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, where they entered by the lamppost. :)

Next to the road where I live is an old manor. It's a pub & restaurant now, and our house is in what used to be it's grounds. 

I hope to get some close up shots of the manor later this year.

Our back garden is surrounded on two sides by a big unattractive concrete wall. We decided to grow ivy on it to mask it a little. Ivy would be great we thought, it grows everywhere. Everywhere it would seem, apart from where you actually want it to grow!

All of the houses in our Cul-de-Sac have these garden walls. They look so pretty when it snows.

The trees by the manor. 

When it next snows heavily, I plan to take a lot more different shots. 

Don't forget my FLICKR and FACEBOOK PAGE. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

I Spied A Squirrel!

So yesterday morning, I was sitting at my computer minding my own business, when out of the corner of my eye something got my attention. 

I looked out of the window and at the corner of the road by the path, I could see something very small moving. It was a squirrel!

We see them now and then, but not that often. 

I grabbed my camera, in case it decided to head in my direction. Next thing I know, it's coming down the steps and onto the pavement of my road! Woohoo!

I didn't have time to set up my tripod, and had to make do with taking shots through the window pane. 

Here's the little creature in action...

With his colouring, he's quite camouflaged amongst the leaves, moss and pavement. 

Check out my FLICKR where you'll find my other photos. 

There's also a Facebook page HERE.

Thanks for reading.

Raindrops On Branches

I'm noticing that this time of year is great for photography (as I'm sure I'll find the other seasons are too, in their different ways).

What I love is the openness of the branches on the trees and plants, which in summer can be hidden from sight. 

The other evening it had rained. When it had stopped, I noticed from my window that the raindrops had settled and remained on the branches of a bush in my garden. 

I went out with my camera and took many shots, some seemed like they were ok. But when I got back in and had a proper look on my computer, they weren't. My illness makes me shaky, so I found it very hard to hold the camera still enough to get the close up shots and be in total focus. (This was prior to getting a tripod.) 

So the blurry photos were discarded.

One shot however, which was actually by accident was this one...

I like the movement in it, reminds me of sparklers. 

Another day when I wasn't so shaky, I went out again and managed to get these shots...

Since I took these photos, I now have a tripod, so when it rains next, I'm hoping to get out and take some more. 

I'm still finding it challenging, learning how to use my camera with all the different settings, to get the best photos I can. One frustration is that the auto focus can't be turned off, but for now I'll just have to live with that. 

Thanks for reading.