Pans' Tales

Hi, my name is Pan, I'm fourteen years old, I have a touch of arthritis and sometimes I can't hold my bladder through the night.(Ha ha.) I'm named after the Pagan God of Woodlands.
This is my life! I was born in Dorset, as I remember it, I was smaller than all my brothers and sisters so I was a bit dog eared and general picked on, my mum didn't help me once, what a bitch.(Ha ha, been wanting to say that for years.) Anyway, I was having a pretty normal day when a strange human came to the house, big bloke with a big beard and big dreds, said he lived in a bus and was looking for a mutt. I always fancied travelling, well for the last six weeks anyway.

So I jumped up and shouted "Pick me, pick me, pick me!" I ran all around the humans legs jumping up and down and showing off while the others just lay half asleep on our bed. Result, things are looking good!Wow, what a pad the human had, uh! Oh yeah the humans name is Sketts, Sgetti or Yeti, call him what you like he's pretty laid back, so anyway this pad right, a nineteen sixty six Ford Duple Viceroy coach, converted into a comfy home.

Duple had a fitted kitchen, loads of space for all my food. A large sitting room with an old range which burnt so hot and made me loads of tasty toast, yummy, four comfy sofas which were well nice to lay on after a hard days walking and climbing. Then there was a shower room, then the bedroom, wow, an eight foot bed was in there....Heaven.

In my younger days we spent quite a lot of time in Cornwall. What a beautiful place, rolling countryside, festivals.. "Stone circles" I hear you say, stone circles? I can show you stone circles that aren't even on any maps. Standing stones and sacred places, Crop circles and Ley lines. What a fantastic place to be. We lived deep in the countryside, driving Duple down horse paths, far out of sight from other humans, on cliff edges watching the sun melt into the sea, at festivals and traveller sites.

We have lived in caves, a burial chamber and on countless beaches all around the UK. Sketts would study his maps in the evening, i remember it well. There would be a fire in the range, a dozen candles burning for light, joss sticks and incense filling the bus with incredible smells. He would eventually decide where we would go to next and what we would go to see whether it was by driving or walking or climbing or a combination of all three. In the past, we have climbed a mountain just to visit a sacred place. Living the life of a traveller gives you an incredible feeling of wholeness, it makes you so conscious of your surroundings, it makes you feel at peace in your soul.

From Cornwall we travelled all around the south west of England, meeting loads of friendly humans, mind you if I wasn't too sure about anyone of them, I sure let them know about it. Sketts was quite active for only having two legs, we did a lot of walking, we would walk all day through woods and streams and over hills, not going anywhere in particular, just enjoying the view and the odd chase when I saw a rabbit but I never did mess with goats, they have short tempers and horns you know! I never could understand Sketti's strange addiction for old stones though.

After the Westcountry we travelled up to Wales, got a real taste for mountain climbing in Wales. The south is superb. The north is breathtaking. We spent some time in Snowdonia, if you haven't been before, go for a visit. I could rabbit (mmm dinner) on about Snowdonia for hours, it's my favorite part of Wales. From the valleys to the mountain ranges to the lush greenery all around. Waterfalls tumbling from one to a dozen different streams, it's like being in another country. Oops, it is ha ha :) From Wales we travelled straight up the middle of the country, heading towards the Lake District, stopping off here and there along the way. Another festival, a hill fort, a burial chamber (They always give me the heebie jeebies), monoliths and ancient graveyards.

The Lake District is unbelievable, the land is littered with historic and ancient sites. I have travelled all over the area, swam in many of its gorgeous lakes, drank from hidden underground streams seeping through a rock face and as ever, we followed Sketts passion of ancient stones and circles, I am sure we must of found most if not all of them. Northern England, wow wow wow. On to Scotland, wow wow wow wow. Mind you, Scotland was a bit of a surprise at first. I would lay by the open door as we drove around. From what I could see it looked like we was back in London, (He he, just remembered a party we went to with a load of travellers in the old Batersea power station. What a night, but that's another story.) It took some hours to get away from built up areas. Towns and cities do absolutely nothing for me, I will always be a country lad at heart. The more north we went the more beautiful everywhere was. Loch Ness was stunning, we sat for ages listening to a piper playing as he marched along the walls of the castle. Sketts and me even climbed three of the Munros. (Mountains over 3500 feet.) We went to........ Yes, you guessed it, every stone circle Sketts could find, (I'm sure he must have been a Druid in a past life.)

We found lots of ancient burial sites too and they were totally different to those in England, here, they seemed to be large stones which were once covered in earth instead of being underground. Scotland also had something totally new to us, they had the Picts, an ancient people who left nothing to remember them by but carvings in stone, from small stones to a huge, sixty foot plus, monster of a relic that is now encased in glass to preserve it. You could easily see the Picts were a violent race, their carvings show many violent acts and wars. Battle scenes show many decapitated bodies laid out in rows, we found ourselves travelling all over Scotland to find dozens of them. Now, i know I have told you how breathtaking or gorgeous or superb all the places are that I have visited, but Scotland, ah Scotland. It is the best of all I have seen, then multiplied by one hundred. I could tell you tales of Scotland until you are sick of them, so instead I will tell you about just one day. Sketts parked up Duple in the middle of nowhere, we walked along a narrow path, went through a gate and then into the wilderness. We followed a stream for a few miles, the sun was burning down on us, clouds of midges buzzed all around us and seemed to fill the air. We found trickles of cold fresh water oozing out of rocks to quench our thirst which was well handy as the stream had now dried up. It didn't take long for the unpredictable Scottish weather to take a turn for the worse. Rain lashed down, it seemed to come from nowhere.
There was no shelter, so we carried on. One good thing about the rain was there was no midges annoying us anymore, as we progressed the ground got steeper and steeper. The pathway twisted this way and that. We would have good ground for a while then loose shingle then a
steep drop on one side then a steep drop on both sides. The rain stopped, out came the sun again, Sketts was sweating buckets, he was like a walking fountain. Up up, up we climbed, now we could see what we was after, a prehistoric cave system high up a mountain. We had
walked and climbed for a whole day, we had seen no one else (other than a few goats.) As we reached the cave mouth Sketts turned around to look at where we had come from, so did I.

Wow, words will never justify what we could see, looking out of the cave mouth was a backdrop of another mountain, larger than ours. To the right, between mountain peaks, sprang a rainbow as if it had appeared just for us. Down below, we could see the stream and path we had followed, they looked like someone had laid out a single length of cotton as far as the eye could see. The view was so beautiful it took my breath away. Sketts turned to me and said "Pan, this is our day boy. This day was made for us. I feel so damned lucky to be alive." You know what? I agreed with him. That was our day and I loved every second of it. From there we went to the Isle of Sky followed by the west coast and travelled all the way down the country following the coast until we was back in southern England again. On to London, ugh, the place still gives me a chill, but as Sketts says, its where his family is at, so its where we always end up for some hard work to finance the next big tour.
The beginning...

So much for 'busy doing nothing!'

So much for busy doing nothing! I was rudely awakened by Pan and Tilly shouting at the front door this morning, "Hurry, could be the postman. I'm expecting heat bulbs for the torts," was all I could hear from Debby as I pulled on some clothes while trying to get the mutleys to be quiet and get down the stairs.
Our postman was waiting at the door with......No, not heat bulbs but a Hawthorn heights 'hoody' for Bess. (Aka Amy) she will be well chuffed. Amy is going to their concert soon and has been waiting for her new top.
First thing to do this morning is to phone our vet. Both Pan and Tilly have been biting themselves, well, what I think has happened is Tilly might have nipped Pan on the neck while pulling him around or playfighting then he's been rubbing it, she's been licking at it and twenty four hours later it looks bloody horrible. Tilly has also been licking her leg, she now has a pink patch on it so she's going in for a checkup too.
Yes, i know it sounds like I'm totally blaming Tilly for this, but it's true. Got an appointment for four twenty.
Meanwhile I have decided to give the garden a tidy so out into the fresh air I go....It didn't take long (About two and a half minutes in fact,) before Debby had me for the next two hours in her tortoise garden fixing and stapling fifty feet of log roll back on its wires. (How she does it I just don't know. I only have to blink and I've been whisked away from raking what's left of the lawn and plonked somewhere else doing a totally different job. LOL)
Log roll mended and the gardens well tidy, have to rush now to get to the vets on time, but I made it......And then had to wait half hour, ho hum. Pan went in first, he hates going to see Richard the vet. Pan's not interested in letting Richard have a look at his neck, after a bit of a kuffufal Richard has managed to see and decided the area needs shaving to see the whole wound and be able to clean it properly....Pan has other ideas, he just wont have it. After summoning all his strength struggling to avoid the clippers, Richard thinks its best if he sedates Pan, I agree, it will save him from being so distressed. A quick needle in his leg then wow, seconds later Pan was laying on the floor oblivious to the world.
With Pan now on the table, Richard shaved his neck, ouch it looks so sore. On with an oxygen mask then Helen (nice nurse) gave Pans wound a good clean up, another injection, applied some cream and gave Pans nails a trim. Now for the next seven days Pan has to have two antibiotic tablets twice a day, fuciderm cream applied twice a day and has the honor of wearing a buster collar for a while to stop his scratching. Pan was enjoying his relaxed sleep so much he wasn't in a hurry to wake up so out the back he went so I could go and get Tilly from the Landy.
In trots Tilly, she just loves the attention she gets from Richard and Helen, tail waging, in fact whole body waging....She is just so blonde :)
A quick leg shave, clean up and inspection. Tilly has a small bump on her leg that has been irritating her. A weeks worth of tablets, some fuciderm cream and yes you guessed it.....A buster collar, now we have two cone heads, oh what fun that will be!
" Thankyou Mr Sketti that will be three hundred and three pounds and thirty one pence please". Cough cough"sorry, how much was that?" "Three hundred and three pounds and thirty one of your hard earned pennies please". Ouch, that was sore too, then I walked out with a limp.....No, I wasn't hurt just a bit unbalanced from having a much lighter wallet.

Night time ramblings

It's late in the evening. I find myself laying on my bed after spending all day keeping myself incredibly busy doing absolultly nothing.....Yet again!
After the mad rush of Christmas and preparing for our holiday, (two weeks of sun and fun in Lanzerote. Hooray for holidays) now that its all done and gone, slowly drifting into happy memories. I prepare myself for the new year......And that's why I haven't done anything yet. If I do anything then that would be the start to being incredibly busy and doing everything. I can think of a million and one things that need doing in and around the house. The garden needs a tidy, the decking wants a scrub. The lawn needs reseeding. The ponds need checking, furniture needs to be oiled. The fish tank is due a water change,this needs a fuse, that needs to be mended, this needs to be replaced. Then there's big things that need doing like we need to fit a new bathroom. The kitchen needs to be redesigned because all of a sudden, we need a dish washer and a bigger fridge freezer, preferably one with a secondary fridge to hibernate Milo, a sixtyfive year old iberan tortoise in.(Yes my wife really does hibernate her tortoise in a fridge.) Then there's the really big things that need doing like we need to replace the house roof, restack the wonky chimney, pointing blah blah blah blah blah. ENOUGH, now you can see why I am busy doing nothing....If I do something then that is a the start of it all! While me....All I want to do is go to the woods and play

Hi, this is my blog...lets see what we can talk about.

For starters, this is my life...I am a very happily married gemini man. My wife Debby and i live and work in london, We live with Amy, our teenage gothic daughter,(Life can be all hormones and hairbands at times.) Pan who is an ageing staffy border collie cross (Fourteen years old at last count) . Tilly who is a two year old hypo retriever and for now i'll just say "The rest of the zoo."