We picked up a copy of Towpath Talk this morning, and were very pleased with the review our two ebooks have been given. Thanks, TT!
Elanor dropped Sally off with us at midday, and I've taken her for a short exercise already, so as to reduce the "Where's my Mummy gone?" whine. I couldn't exercise her very hard, since it's still very warm, not good weather for a black dog. As it was, she lay flat out on the floor* on her return and panted for a while.
The big news is that the parliamentary stuff setting up the Canal and River Trust finally went through over the past two days, and the big launch will go ahead on 12th July. However, "vesting day" is this Sunday, so for the first time since the end of 1947, the canals will no longer be nationalised after this weekend.
The new website will go live on Tuesday, and replace both the BW and Waterscape sites.
I think, despite all the naysayers and doom merchants, that this is the best chance that the navigations of England and Wales have for survival in the current economic climate. It's a bold gamble, no doubt, but the Treasury has been steadily reducing funding for BW for years, and since they came under Defra, it's been one panic after another.
A National Conservancy for the waterways was the original vision of the founders of the IWA, and it looks as if we might at last be getting there.
The first big test of whether this will actually be a new regime will be the treatment of the current directors. In the short term, their expertise is needed, though not at the salaries some of them are being paid, but in the future, I look forward to the Trustees taking full responsibility for the management of the charity and the current crop of directors being allowed to retire gracefully.
Or not, as the case may be.
*I didn't know Sally was a Dr Hook fan until today. Maybe I can get her to blog tomorrow, but don't hold your breath.
/wahaha
Meanwhile, here's few pics of her in agility action the other week:
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| UP! |
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| … concentrate... |
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| …and down |
4 comments:
I'm sure that Greygal will agree that having a cat jump into one's mouth and then having to wash the taste out of one's mouth with a bit of water off the worktop is barely a misdemeanour - let alone a sin!!!
Sally, you owe me a fiver - I'll settle for a 1 minute cuddle when we meet!
Sue, nb Indigo Dream
Nice try, but the two events were about a week apart…
She's just had an alarming experience in one of the big dog running fields here at Mercia. She'd gone bunny hunting behind a long bund down the side of the field; meanwhile, I walked away to the far corner. When she finally emerged from the top end of the bund, she was the full diagonal of the field away from me, and couldn't see me against the hedge.
Ran into the middle of the field and then stood there, a picture of canine consternation: "Where's Grandpa? I'm all alone in this scary field, help!"
Ears at full stretch, uncertain trotting one way and then another, until I finally called her, and she fairly laid her lugs back, put the afterburner on and hurtled up to me, stopping in a perfect sit.
She was more careful not to lose track of me for a bit after that…
Cheers
Bruce
You're a tease, Bruce Napier. Not saying? Don't think that's playing fair - it could be a bluff. Or double-bluff. Sally, was grandpa reading a paper today and/or cutting the odd slice?
Re CART. Was impressed to see that by Sunday Lunchtime, the L&L in Skipton already had stickers over the old signs converting them from BW ones to CART..... Now if they can fix the maintenance backlog as quick as doing the rebranding that will be impressive!
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