Five Things I Like About Summer

1. We have two little Summer visitors who have taken up residence outside our front door. They are such beautiful creatures I can almost forgive having to clean their poo off the bell every five minutes or so.

2. Gotta love wearing crocs. Even though mine are a size too big as they don't seem to make them for little feet (and mine are that weird cross over size in no man's land between childrens and adults) they are still the most comfortable things in the world. My goal is to get a pair in every colour. Haven't worn these girlie ones in public yet but I'm building up to it. Maybe next step will be crocs with socks.


3. We inherited a couple of mature oak trees when we bought this place and they really look their best over Summer. A great spot to relax and read a book when it' s hot and the kelpies like their pool under there as well. Best place to be on an unbearably hot day.
4. Which brings me to not having to go to work for most of January and actually being able to spend time under the oak trees and even in the pool with the dogs if I feel like it.

5. The garden looks its best over Summer. Even though I like gardening I am pretty crap at it and don't really know what I am doing but over Summer I actually have flowers to look at, even if they are mainly agapanthus and succulents and plants from a 'gardening for dummies' list.

And now for a ton of things that I HATE about Summer.

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Firstly it's hot ! Yes I know that's the whole point of it but I hate the heat. And any time we get money put aside for air con. we seem to end up spending it on dog related things instead.

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I hate the fact that we're in bushfire season - especially after last year. Way too close for comfort. I hate that it makes me on edge and constantly looking outside for any signs of smoke and keeping the computer on the CFA website when I'm at work.

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I hate going back to work - okay a point each way on that one. But I still spend more Summer at work than at home.

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I hate having no agility training to go to. And no trials on the horizon for me until March, and even then only one before April.

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I hate the way the paddocks brown off so quickly once we get a couple of hot days. It looks so pretty around here for most of the year but it's not so nice around this time.

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Dust, dust, dust and more dust. No more words necessary really.

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I hate being too hot to work outside with the dogs most of the time and only being able to sneak in a few minutes in the early mornings or late evenings.

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I hate snakes and the thought of them coming out around this time and going anywhere near my dogs.

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I hate the way I always decide I'm going to retrain something when I have some time on my hands over Summer - my brain just seems to be wired this way and I can't help it. Retraining sucks and is to avoided if at all possible but for me it doesn't seem to be genetically possible.

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I hate the way even blogger seems to have gone mental and for some reason won't let me put spaces between what I write, which is why these stupid asterisk thingys are here.

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I could go on but I'm sure you get the point - I just hate Summer really and wish it would go far away.

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On another note, Cruz's running A Frame is coming along very nicely and I have been pleasantly surprised at how he seems to have taken to it. I have some video but for some reason I couldn't get it to load on here - maybe something to do with being out in the sticks and having very slow dial up - so you will have to make do with a photo instead - the blue crosses show approximately where he is hitting every time on the down side.

After I complained about him not 'getting it' last time and giving me three strides coming down he suddenly seemed to gain confidence which took care of the problem. He is now consistently giving me 2 hits both up and down and his speed has increased heaps.

I am going to try something different to fade the box and instead of taking off a piece at a time I am now working on doing 3 or 4 reps a training session where I take the box away totally for one of them and then put it back, so he never knows if the box will be there or not.
So far this has been successful - L. has watched a few times and doesn't believe he is even noticing the box any more but I'm not so sure.

Going back to training and running a different A Frame will be the next test.