Blogtober 2023 : Day 31

It’s Hallowe’en and both my girls are out.

For the first time in probably about twenty years, there has been no pumpkin carving in our house.  Ah, it’s a bit sad, especially after the conversation I had with the girls last year and how they were so sure that they were going to continue the tradition.  Well, big daughter is busy at her house and not so small daughter has gone to watch Psycho with her boyfriend at the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool with the orchestra providing the music (suitably spooky for Hallowe’en!), and I probably can’t blame either of them for not wanting to be up to their elbows in pumpkin guts here! 🙂

I did think that I would set to with this pumpkin myself, but not so small daughter said she’ll do it when she gets home … I’m not sure that will be happening but I’ve left the pumpkin as it is just in case.  Ah, poor forlorn, neglected pumpkin!  Perhaps we could pretend that it’s intentionally faceless this year!

Earlier today, the dog and I were out at the vet’s – he needed a blood test and I asked the vet about his sometimes stiff legs whilst I was there.  She said that it’s quite likely that he’s developing arthritis, perhaps slowed a little by the joint supplements he’s been taking for years, but it seems that it’s caught up with him.  She told me about medication that he could have, and also suggested considering hydrotherapy to help rebuild his muscles.  It turns out that it’s quite common these days for dogs to have hydrotherapy for arthritis and it’s even covered on the pet insurance so I’m going to look into it.

We went for a walk straight after seeing the vet and the dog decided he’d sort out his own hydrotherapy, thank you very much …

He was in there so fast he was a blur! 🙂  He must have known I would have tried to stop him as yesterday, after we’d squelched over the muddy field, I managed to wrestle him into the shower to give him a bath so that he wouldn’t stink the vet’s surgery out.  Oh my life, the pair of us and the bathroom were drenched.  There was water up the walls and all over the floor.  He’s not a fan of any kind of bath involving clean water and shampoo, although he does quite like the hairdryer afterwards (or rather, he likes to bark at it) and he’s lovely and fluffy when he’s finally dried off.

He was not lovely and fluffy when he got out of that water.

You might also, if you look very closely, see a patch of blue on his leg.

The vet gave him a bandage which I think is the doggy equivalent of an “I’ve been very brave at the doctor’s” sticker, although he didn’t seem too impressed by it.

He’s got it on in this photo (look at that face – “Come on, Mum, what are you waiting for?!) …

but by this one, it’s gone.

I’m not sure where and I do apologise to whoever is out walking and may find it (although I think it might be at the bottom of one of these streams).  We’ll be back there soon enough so if I see it, I’ll pick it up myself.

Look at the way the water is rushing in from the right!  That’s coming off the fields up above the path, and it was coming off at quite some speed.  There are run-off pipes and channels all the way down this path and they were all flowing fast today.  In fact, by this point in our walk, it was raining again so there’s not going to be any sign of the water going down any time soon, I don’t think.

They’re all a bit soggy but don’t the leaves look fabulous?  That carpet of reds and oranges looks stunning when you’re standing right next to it, and perhaps because of all the rain, it smells fabulous too.

I can’t quite believe that we’re at the end of October!  It’s been a crazy month – in some ways, it seems to have gone so fast but in other ways, it’s been the longest month ever 🙂  I’ve looked back at last year’s Blogtober posts and I really enjoyed reading the round-up post that I wrote on 1 November, so I’ll write one of those tomorrow too if I can – you haven’t quite got rid of me yet!

Thank you so much for being with me this month, I have so enjoyed our conversations and finding out a little more about you too!  It’s been fun – shall we do it again next year? 🙂