Yesterday was a lovely day so mum and dad packed a picnic and we all went down to the Loire valley.

Mum and dad had a lovely picnic at Saumur,  you can park right on top of the hill next to the chateau http://www.saumur-tourisme.net/chateausaumur_uk.html There are picnic tables there, it’s a lovely spot and you can see the  river Loire wending its way down the valley in both directions.  I was too busy though exploring, to look at the river. There were plenty of people to say hello to and of course every so often I had to pop back and check if mum and dad were managing to have their lunch okay. It was quite handy too because, as a thank you for my supervision they managed to find a nice tidbit for me each time – it’s nice to be appreciated!

The Loire is called ‘the mighty Loire’ for a reason, it’s very wide [some cities like Saumur and Tours actually have islands with shops, houses and recreation/picnic spots in the middle of it.]  With all the rain we have had it’s extremely fast flowing at the moment and very spectacular. Mum and I had a lovely walk along its banks, but I wasn’t allowed in because it is tidal and has very dangerous undercurrents.

Mum decided that she could see the Chateau at Angers http://loire-valley.us/19-Chateaux/Chateau-Of-Angers.html from the picnic area and so dad set off to see if she was right, and of course she was

Dad had driven an enormous triangle by the time we arrived home, just in time to feed Timothy the goat and all his friends their night time hay and lock the chickens in safely.

All the riding around left me quite tired and I was very happy to cuddle up infront of the wood burner for snooze all evening.

My walks have changed at the moment, Mum has a new hobby.

Saturday, we went to see a French neighbour of ours and she had a basket on her doorstep. We peeped inside and it was full of mushrooms. Mum asked her how she knew which varieties were safe and she picked one out and showed Mum then explained to her that the sort in her basket were generally easy to recognise and good to eat.

You should never eat mushrooms without advice from an expert as they can be very dangerous and some varieties CAN KILL YOU. They can also look very similar so you may think you are safe but you are not!

Well, that set mum off, down to the wood we went. We wandered aimlessly or so it seemed to me on our walk, I don’t mind though, I’ve plenty of smells to explore.

Around us are thousands of acres of woodland but still at this time of the year the woods are full of people, just like Mum, it’s surprising how many we met, they pay no attention to each other, and only say bonjour [hello] if they actually make eye contact, which was rare, since they were all wandering around head down, hunting for their tea.

Eventually Mum was happy that’s she’d found enough and so we headed home, but, just to be sure popped in on our neighbour to check if Mum had picked the right ones, and she had.

That night Mum and Dad had the mushrooms for tea, they smelt iffy to me but apparently, they were delicious!

I look at it this way, it’s a win, win situation, mum gets her tea and I have a nice long sniff in the woods.

Toby x.

Hi again,

I just remembered that I forgot to give you an update on our rabbit.

Well, not only is he doing well, but he has a friend, a black rabbit.

Our French neighbours are quite concerned, they keep stopping and telling Mum that we have une lapin loose, they only seem to see the white one!

Mum just smiles.

The rabbits are quite tame, during the day, they are up on the field like in the photo, but at night  and when we are out, they come into the yard and eat the grass there. It’s probably to keep themselves safe from Mr. Fox – I suppose they don’t want to suffer the same fate as the chick in Mums new book The Chicken Patrol!

Anyway, they have made themselves two big warrens, one underneath the caravan and the other underneath the animal sheds, so they have plenty of places to hide if they need to.

The warren next to the animals sheds has a nice big bale of hay infront of it, so they’ll have plenty to eat and line their nest with if the weather’s cold.

They are also very clever because Casper and Pepper the cats are scared of the electric fencing – with good cause, so if the cats are near, they just jump into the goats or sheeps field and they’re safe.

I’ve [well Mum] has added another picture of the white rabbit, the black one is a bit shy but we hope to get a photo of her soon – because she’s quite pretty and VERY long when she’s sunbathing.

Bye for now

Toby x

When Michelle stayed, we all went to see my breeders Karen and John at https://www.facebook.com/Le-Chataignier-Chestnutreefarm/186746034697317 . I had a lovely reunion with my doggy family and even got to meet my brother Dougal. I hadn’t seen him since we were puppies because he went to live in England, but now he’s back in France, with his owner Adam.

The night before, I ‘helped’ mum dig up some of the tall plants with hairy leaves which grow everywhere in the water meadows. Mum says they are called Comfrey and that they are a very useful herb, apparently John wants some of them.

Then Mum and Michelle made profiteroles and covered them in lots of chocolate, just so I couldn’t have any – it’s not fair!

We all had a lovely day. Karen made everyone a delicious lunch with some of her deliciously marinated meat, it smelt sooo good and they dropped a piece by accident so I was allowed it and I can report it really was yummy. She also made a  beautiful big Apple Meringue for desert, which didn’t last long. The weather was so nice they had their lunch outside in the garden whilst I laid in the shade keeping an eye out incase anything else fell off the table:-)

Karen and John had some little chicks. They had heard that we’d lost five of our chickens to the fox and so they said we could have some of their lovely babies to take home.

It was a hard decision, but eventually Mum picked four and they were put gently into a box with plenty of straw in it.

When we arrived home Mum put them in their own little pen but now they are happily settled in with our remaining four big hens.

Anyway, must go!

Bye for now.. Toby x.

Well, this weekend was exciting.

It was Chris’ birthday and we went to England to see him.  I have been to the UK lots of times before so I tend to sleep along the autoroutes. It’s a good job they have tolls, you know, dad slowing the car warns me and I have a chance to sit up, have a stretch and see how far we’ve gone.

I don’t mind Eurotunnel, the people at Pet Passports know me and are always friendly and the train doesn’t bother me at all. I learn’t when I was a very young dog to take the lead from my mum and dad, so, when I went on the train under the ground and sea for the first time, I slinked into the foot well, it was small, dark and seemed safe. However, I quickly realised that dad had gone to sleep – big clue – his snores! Mum was reading a book as usual. It got me thinking, why am I crunched up here in the dark when I could be taking up the whole of the back seat and sleeping like dad. So, I crept out and dozed for the whole journey, no problem. Sometimes I meet other dogs at the tunnel and they are worried but I tell them “Don’t worry it’s nothing, just have a kip for half an hour and you’ll be there!”

Anyway Chris came round to nanny and granddads with Jade his fiancee. He had some presents then mum went into the kitchen, she had made him a chocolate birthday cake with chocolate icing and a Transformer on it in France just before we left. Granddad and mum put some sticks in the top and granddad lit them, they were sparklers and very bright. I kept an eye on them as you can see in the picture! I wasn’t allowed any cake, chocolate isn’t good for me they say, so I had some Markies instead.

Chris played with the Transformer all night, when he wasn’t playing with me of course

The next morning we went back home to France through the tunnel, it was a long way, but fun!

Bye for now.. Toby x

Some days you know, now it’s getting cooler, sunbathing is impossible and I have to resort to watching the world from the doorstep, autumn is coming mum says.

Also, I have to admit, I don’t really like getting wet, well unless I’m on a walk that is. But an advantage is that now it’s cooler I get to go for longer walk, something about it being too hot some days, I don’t know, mum might complain but she doesn’t have my thick coat on.

Before everyone thinks mum is a bad owner, I have to say that normally no walk days are when she has been moving all the goats and sheep’s electric fencing which can be pretty hot in 36 degrees, her face gets really red you know.

You see, I don’t go out, I stay by the yard gate. The sheep are fine and if needed I can round them up like I should, I understand my mums commands.

The goats are a different matter. Mum lets them out when she moves their fencing and they wander wherever they like. If you have read Toby’s Tails you will know that Timothy the very large cream coloured goat was unsure of me at the start and unfortunately I’m not sure that he likes me now, so, just in case [he has very big horns you know] I keep out of harms way. It is handy though that I can watch mum from the gate as it’s nicely in the shade, and if I get bored it’s a lovely cool spot for a doze.

The other day we went went exploring in the woods and whilst I was searching for deer trails, mum picked blackberries as another neighbour had given them some lovely apples and peaches. I have to take their word for that, I don’t like fruit!

Bye for now… Toby x

Hi everyone, I’ve just spent a lovely day at a comice [or agricultural show] there were quite a few dogs around to say hello to and plenty of animals to see. It took place in a small village called Villaines sous Luce, I went there with my mum and her daughter Michelle.

I have never seen so many different varieties of animals. Mum took plenty of pictures especially of the large French draft horses called Percherons.  There were quite a few different breeds of cows, some piglets and even a baby donkey and her monther, she looked sooo cute!

There was also a section of smaller farm animals including some mini goats [Pygmy], the mother was very pregnant and she also had her three babies which were about 8 weeks old with her. The children loved to see the baby ducklings, chicks and rabbits. There were also plenty of tractors on display both new and verey very old.  

Being France though there was one tent with lots of traps outside and on the wall behind the people hung the head of the biggest wild boar [sanglier in French], I was glad I haven’t come across any THAT big on my walks! 

It was a lovely family day out.

No doubt we’ll visit a lot of comice’s during September [which is when they’re on, I’ll tell you about them when we do.

Bye for now…

European Green Lizard

Those of you who’ve read my book will know all about the Common Lizards or Geko’s which abound around here, and will have discovered some interesting facts about them.

I have to tell you though, today, I watched Pepper the cat chasing something in the grass and I assumed it was a mouse. She’s a great mouser you see, well she is until she brings them into the house in the middle of the night, then mum is not impressed!

I trotted over to her and she gave me a dirty look and made her hiss off sound, which she uses at me when I want to see what she’s doing. Me being me though, I was just too nosey to take the hint and stayed.

Since she was getting no peace to torment whatever she had cornered, she stalked off unhappily and I went over to investigate.

Under the chair was a long bright green lizard with lots of bright yellow spots on it, it was very colourful and looked fine except that it had lost it’s tail.  

Mum came out to see what I was doing and she called to dad that I’d found a European Green Lizard and then took a picture of it for my blog [she's kind like that, she knows how small the camera buttons are for my paws ].

I poked it gently with my nose but it refused to move so mum picked it up carefully and let it go in the deep undergrowth next to the house.

Just incase you’re worried, it’s ok, it doesn’t matter that it had lost it’s tail because it’s a defence mechanism, the tail comes off if they get caught by it, and then grows back again.

I wanted to watch where it went, but mum made me come indoor and when she let me out again, it was gone so now I’ll never know.

Anyway, I’m off to search for it again now, so see you soon

Love Toby x

Chicken Patrol

The summer weather is all very nice, but it makes my life very busy.

The kitchen door is always open, which I like because the stone step is wonderfully cool to lie my head on, and the lips at just the right height to be comfy.  The trouble is, if I decide to kip on my favourite armchair the doorway is unguarded. What would you need to guard it against, I can hear you ask, well, it’s not cowboys and indians, I can tell you, its Bubba, the hen.

She has become the bain of my life! Not only does she continually wander in, she also brings in a friend or two, given the chance.

There I am, upside down, [don't ask, its a 'Collie' thing], relaxing and all of a sudden I am disturbed by the call “Chickens’ Toby,” I mean, what can a Collie do, but jump to it’s feet and get to work.

I could pretend to you that I strike fear into the chickens – but I don’t, I stand next to Bubba and she just looks at me. Now I’m not silly, I’m too sensible to poke her with my nose – I’ve seen them beaks at work when they pick on eachother, no way am I going there. My solution is, to stand next to her and shuffle forwards towards the door, she goes out then and any of her friends that were with her too.

The yard is another matter. With acres of land to wander in, and their poop hole on the other side, it is beyond me why the chickens have to come into MY yard. Ok, Bubba is the exception, I have given up long ago with her. The rest I chase out. They’re not worried about me really, but at the sight of me racing towards them they do have the presence of mind to gather up their skirts, run up the yard,and jump onto the gate out the way.

Mum has posted a picture of me helping them back to the otherside, you see, sometimes they are undecided where to go from there, so I have to poke my nose YOU KNOW WHERE to encourage them.

Anyway, must go some nose poking’s in order I think!

Bye…..

P.S. No chickens were hurt, upset or otherwise disgruntled by actions of this blogger.

How do they know?

I’ve decided that it’s confession time. I know it’s hard to believe but I am not infact perfect! Yes, you heard right, you see, I’ve conquered the no chasing animals, cars, joggers, bicycles etc. I do have lots of energy, but I’m not manic – well not too. But, I have to admit, yes here it comes… I dig holes. There its out.

In by defense I have to say, I’m not like a rabbit, just digging willy-nilly anywhere I please, mine are for a purpose. You see, its those mice and moles, they live inderground and with my, well lets face it – perfect hearing [no aplause needed] I can hear them, and they drive me wild!

Other people saunter along listening to bird song etc, but I, well I just can’t resist finding those critters skittering their tiny feet under my paws.Apparently its a breed thing [BIG sigh!] us Border Collies are just so sensitive.

So, given the chance i.e. as soon as mum and dad’s backs turned I’m nose first down any hole I can find, and IF there’s something down there, then, watch out Australia – here I come.

Now comes the awkward bit – I have to confess I haven’t ACTALLY caught anything yet – and to be honest I’m not sure what I would do with it if I did, certainly not what the cats do Yuk!

But the place is becoming a bit like a minefield at the moment – whatever that is, and they seem to know that I’ve been digging even if they haven’t seen me at work. I don’t know how, do you?