A walks not a walk without squirrels

 A dog related tale or possibly tail (woof woof).  

Since George’s death Barney has been an only dog.  While he has missed George, he hasn't been pining.  In fact, he seems to be a more 'cheerful' dog as he gets longer walks now that we don't have to take George's arthritis into account.  He gets a long walk to the local park every day and is able to have a good run, off his lead, while there.  The real bonus is that he isn't barking at other dogs as George is no longer there to start him off.  Even better he has been playing with a few of them which wouldn't have been possible with George along.

Now that Barney can be allowed to roam free he has discovered the joy (and frustration) of squirrels!  It is a very mild autumn up here in Humberside and the squirrels in the park are still very active even in December.  Barney has taken to stalking them and then making a final mad dash over the last ten yards to try to catch the little grey devils.  To date he has been unsuccessful because of trees.  Squirrels climb them you know, and Barney considers this unsporting rodent behaviour.  This does not stop him trying though and he does seem to be considering tree climbing lessons as an option.

So, life goes on without George.  We miss his cheeky behaviour and the way he always came to greet us if we had been out, clutching something in his jaws with his little stumpy tail wagging ten to the dozen.  We don't miss his choice of things to bring to greet us with quite so much, I actually liked some of those cushions.  The local hedgehogs are sleeping more soundly as well, now that he isn't getting up in the wee small hours to chase them around the garden.  So to finish here are a few pictures of George in his last year, cheeky until the end 😛.

George (like Snoopy) considered the saddest sight in the world to be an empty dog dish

Faster my good women I must be at the park before 2.00pm

George hoping that there is food on the table

I have tagged this post under 'George and Barney' at some future point I suppose I will have to change that to something like 'Our dogs', but not just yet.

 

The Painting Table - November 2022

The suspicion will have been growing amongst you that the late delivery of the November update must mean that little or no painting progress has been made since the last update.  Even worse is the fact that this month’s photo shows a painting table without any spare space upon it.

The table of shame.  Now with added 2mm figures

Sadly your suspicions are correct. The Huns have not left the table! Neither have any Wild West shootists. I have, however, been buying so there is a real danger that 2022 may end with an increase in the size of the lead pile for the first time in years. I don’t know if I should be ashamed or proud! I’m going to go with proud on this occasion though. That’s because I have moved closer towards completing the 2mm ACW project. Just before the end of November I ordered the figures and tents needed to complete the Federal, and Confederate cavalry, commanders and HQ bases. Or so I thought. I miscalculated the tents needed to make up the required number of HQ’s. As Generals tend to object to sleeping in ditches I suppose I will order more when I order the artillery.

The good news is that the Huns did get some brush time and only need flesh and bows doing now to be done.  I also finished the painting of a couple of shootists bar the varnish and shader.  I also cleaned up the bases of the 2mm order and got them primed.  Lastly the Livery Stable had the straw added to the floors of the horse stalls and straw bales made as scatter terrain.  So not a total loss then.

Yes it's a scale model of a pile of straw!

The plan is to get the 2mm figures done in December just to have the ability to say that the lead pile has shrunk.  At least a couple of shootists are going to be finished too.  Last but not least I’m going to finish the Huns.  Really, I am…definitely gonna finish them…this time, for certain, probably.

Ukrainian guests - moving on

Although they obtained visas for the Canadian equivalent to the Homes for the Ukraine scheme our guests have actually decided to stay in the U.K. and have found a rental property in our town.  Mum had visited a few larger British towns and cities, but didn’t like them.  I think she found them too crowded and a bit frantic compared with home in the Ukraine.  London which she had expected to like was far bigger than the cities in Ukraine and I think she felt a bit lost amongst all the other nationalities living and working there!

She has been lucky in finding a small property in the town centre closer to her work and her son’s school, at a reasonable rent.  While living with us she found work in a local restaurant’s kitchen (albeit at minimum wage on a zero hours contract) so she was able to save a deposit and the initial rent.  The local council has been really supportive giving a grant to help with costs of furnishing the place and acting as guarantor.  So as of yesterday she has her own home.

The last six months have had their ups and downs but overall Mrs E and I have been pretty lucky with our guests compared to some other hosts.  Mum has been great about cleaning up after she has cooked and has kept their room clean and tidy.  Others have not been so lucky with their guests and FB forums for hosts have numbers of posts asking for advice about guests who are traumatised, unable or plain unwilling to work towards becoming independent.

This is a refugee situation involving a first world nation in the 21st century which has made it different to past crises. Like other modern conflicts it is a ‘televised’ war so our guests are more in touch with events at home but unable to influence them.  What we have really noticed is the impact of the internet for our guests.   The son can take lessons from Ukraine remotely and although dad had to stay in Ukraine thanks to the wonders of internet telephony mum could speak to him every day via video calls.  The connection hasn’t always been great and over the last few days there have been times when calls didn’t go through, probably due to Russian attacks on infrastructure, but it is far better than say the situation of refugees from the Bosnian war in the 1990’s.

I honestly don’t know what her next steps are going to be.  Her husband is not liable to conscription due to his age and job but can’t legally leave Ukraine.  She doesn’t want to go back as there is no end to the war in sight and attacks on civilian infrastructure look set to continue.  Yet it is unclear whether she can stay in the U.K. after her three year initial residence visa ends.  As things currently stand any time accrued in the U.K. under the homes for Ukraine visa do not count towards residency consideration.  So after three years she could be told to leave!

Mrs E and I have by turns been perplexed, annoyed and confused by the differences between Ukrainian ways of doing things and our own.  We have torn our hair out trying to navigate the various systems and procedures put in place by central government while being really impressed by the time effort and commitment put in by of our local government and various charities such as the Red Cross.  Yet overall it has worked far more smoothly than might have been the case.  There have been issues mostly around parenting techniques but it could have been far worse.  The house is our own again while at the same time it seems very quiet without our guests.  

Whether we would do it again is currently a matter of discussion.  We are pretty clear that if we did host again it wouldn’t be for a parent and child. While we meet the accommodation requirements for a mother with a child under 12 we are not happy not to be able to give them a room each. At the moment it’s nice having our house back and not worrying about mum going out to work or to language classes and leaving her son alone without checking if we are available to keep an eye on him.  On the other hand we feel as if we have been selfish about about wanting things done our way in our home, which if you think about it is odd.  Cognitive dissonance for the win eh?