Good bye september

September has come to an end and so have many other things. The end of an era. Our lives as we knew them, got turned upside down, but knowing that, staying playful and cheerful is something which cannot change. Last weekend of september we had grapepicking, like every year, lots of people come by to help and eat and feed us dogs under the table hihi. However sunday was horrible rain so we had to postpone it to tuesday. And as they say, after every rain comes the sun, this again proved to be the case.
The end of my owners came as a shock to many including Maja and I was very nervous and had a lot of bad energy and sadness, dogs even growled at me as they passed me by. I didn't eat much and I didn't want to be myself for a few days, but I was and am being taken care of and played with by everyone so changes aren't so horrible. I am sad and my ears are problematic again and I fear we'll need to go see the vet again, but I am resting more, getting my ears cleaned and enjoying the extra comfort food people seem to be giving me, like today, I got non salted soup with noodles and a bit of meat bits in it. No complaints for comfort food hehe. Us animals feel the energy of people even if they want to pretend we don't, I know when people are hurting and my tail is the proof, it just won't wiggle hehe.
Maja was worried, since she didn't sleep or eat for days that she was being weak and irresponsible and us two could end up being hit by a car with her slow reflexes haha, but I know she is doing her best, so she went and got me a yellow vest to have on if its rainy or dark outside. With that there is no way drivers don't see us. It costed around 5 euros and I don't mind wearing it at all, so amazing in every way possible.

But I am much cuter then this guy haha. Pic to prove it soon!:)

On tuesday we went up to pick the grapes again and as people spoke of my owners breakup, us dogs were playing, not often do those two lazy girls chase me or Spot not hump me haha. But we ran around like crazy untill I had to lay down and nap a bit haha, those tiny dogs are way too fast for my oversized body haha. But the energy was great, it was another end of an era moment, the first time in our families history the grapes were sold of and not turned into vine. It was a magical moment for many and sad for others. We were a little sad, since the weather prevented us from showing the new forest paths and pretty winter flowers we planted, since noone walked at the project. In fact, noone even saw it, but it's not going anywhere hehe. Next year it will be more colorful as the baby plants my owners planted have grown. The vines look empty and lonely now, as if the finally gave us the good bye symphony we all needed to hear from them, but Maja's parents earned quite a lot by selling it all with a fair price, which made it fun again to put in all that hard work. They ofcourse wanted to lovingly reward Nina (Maja's sister) and Maja and paid "rent" simbolically for their vineyards haha, the first 100 euros they ever made from their land. As a token of motivation and appretiation. It was a cute way of saying thank you and showing their gratitude for all the efforts in the past (which is adorable since they already gifted them with the land haha). And a little  thank you to us two who can not stop being as we are, like "quick silver" hehe.

Maja decided she needs to spend it wisely on something she doesn't have, since it was her gift to him  while he studied in Sydney and we have been borrowing it. This way it will always be a reminder of the day she lost her love but gained an end to horrible memories from the vine and the troubles that came with them, so she decided to get herself a camera, to documents our little advantures from now. I don't mind, I know I' pretty hihi.

Tuesday was a huge stepping stone in our family's history, however devostated by the separation of my owners everyone was and they still are, we instead celebrated the separation from the cruel and unfortunate problem which haunted the family for decades, we won the battle after 30 years. All us dogs who couldn't voice ourselfs and all the people who didn't want to listen, all of us, we finally got to the point where the fight was worth it. And I got so many sausages hihi. Poor Lyra still hasn't recovered from it and is now banned from christmas dinner haha.  And let me tell you! Comfort food and happy food...haha can it get any better for us dogs? No. It just cannot haha.

Tuesday the 1st of october, will forever be marked as the day of our personal loss and combined achievement.

Our new little camera for capturing new memories

On friday my owners family took her shopping, while I was being watched and cuddled at Klemens (our ex roommate) place. He took me playing in the park which is now a contruction zone, since they are making a new bridge and paths all around, so me jumping and digging in the soil piles is just something that makes me happy haha. And we did some research why, why we get so happy while we are getting our paws dirty and as it turns out, studies show, that ph in the soil produces acid which when it comes in contact with skin, it increases production of Dopamine in the body. Dopamine is a very sensitive thing and having lots is...well it's amazing haha. And now we have an excuse why we get our paws dirty hehe.

Once she came to pick me up I felt the energy change, she was hopeful, so she decided to do something, we both needed to do. She got dressed in pretty clothes, not being able to eat all week made her lose weight and she was finally able to wear the pants she bought last year and has never been able to put on, which made her confident and superficially happy haha and I got many kisses as a thank you hehe. She put on those annoyingly sounding heels and told me to stay home alone, I wonder why I never chewed on her shoes hmmm.
She looked me in the eye and told me she WILL be back, but that we both need this everlasting sadness to stop before she gets ill and cannot take care of me. I slept on the bed, didn't follow her like I always do, and she was kind enough to put on a movie on her computer so I didn't feel alone. She was feeling horrible since it was the only night I was ever left alone and she turned around so many times to see if I was upset, but I was strangely calm.
And then she left at 20:55, came back at 3 am with friends and gave me lots of kisses and hugs, then changed her shoes and they took me for a walk. I was happy and people were finally laughing.
It was the hardest night of our new life, but we got thru it and it only gets easier from now on. And then we both, well all 4 of us, let's not forget the cats haha, we all slept. Finally slept.

Neighbours told her I wanted to break the door down at 1 am tho haha, busted! Ups. Hihi. I didn't do any damage anywhere but I guess when I barked the old people woke up haha. I know she hoped the movie player would play the next movie on the list, but it didn't so we know for the next time. When she cheered up, I cheered up, today, no dog growled at me anymore and I kissed and sniffed so many, oh yes. We decided to spend the day outside playing, and then in the evening we decided to watch Cesar Millans biographical show on TV, not in our living room, as it happens once we were ready to, we noticed we do not have that specific overpaid chanel package haha. So instead of being sad, we went for a really long walk in the dark with friends and met many new puppies and dogs. Oh yes, I forgot to mention how absolutely in love I am with my silly little squeeky ball, it's purple like the camera and it has a smiley face hehe. And learnt I really do not like the taste of raw coconut.

They might seem like small steps, but they are in the right direction.

Good bye sad september

Special dedication to Magnus' family: 

Thank you for accepting us into your lives and welcoming us with open arms into your homes. You made us both feel very loved and special. We are priviledged to have met you and we are lucky to once being a part of your beautiful family. You will always be a part of ours and nothing can ever change that, not even this horrible september. Please know we love you and we are not far away.

Which ever part of Norway you reside in, there will always be a piece of our hearts.

kysser, klemmer og tusen takk for alt !!! 

/Pascal & Maja :)

Bulb craziness, Eurobasket and test results

I have to apologize for not writing in such a long time, we were very much under stress waiting for the test results so we tried to keep busy as well as we could and one thing that always cheers us up, is planting! Hehe.

To get to the important stuff first. Test results are back, they are not drastic, but they are not unworrying either. I am allergic to quite a few things, basically in human terms I have Hay fever, meaning I am allergic to all sorts of grasses and grains which are blooming and a few sorts of trees. People who have this allergy are aware of how horrible it is to have your eyes swallen, sneezing and such, but for me...it has to get out somewhere, so my ears and lipfolds are the places to hurt. Since the levels of my allergy are not alarming, we don't need to create serums just yet, but we will try and medicate me before it starts and prevent the allergy from creating damage anywhere and if that doesnt work, we will try serums and other possibilities. Steroids and other medication should do the job. Hopefully. Mites are worrying Maja, those are everywhere, so she is doing research on how to reduce that before she calls the vets with questions. But it's not as bad as we feared. As I mentioned, the leves are only orange and not red, so it's really not drastic.

Test values

I am aware my owners are worried and trying to make it better for me and I am really happy with them for taking extra care of me, they always make sure my health comes first. A very soothing fact. Maja spoils me with very yummy food when we go to the vet, always something a little extra and if I am not feeling well, she will cook me human food to bring back my apetite. Hihi. Poor Magnus is sometimes worried sick and being away I cannot run to him and kiss him untill we fall alseep together, so all I can do is bark when he talks to Maja hehe. We are taking it as good news, the low levels of my allergy and my owners won't let me notice when it's "dangerous" for me to run wild in nature. We will be able to avoid some plants, but not many. Problem with the amount of variesties I am allergic to, I woudn't be able to leave the house, so let's hope the anti histemins for dogs work and we can play with toys outside. There are always other solutions, other tests we can take and find a more agressive approach. But for now, we are going to continue being the way we are, try and avoid the plants and medicate to prevent any reactions.

The worst thing from last week was the loudness of the town, don't get us wrong, we are very happy with celebrations and nice music in the evenings, but this european championship, which was held also in our town, was extreme. It started at 8 in the morning and didn't finish till 4 sometimes 5 am, and we live right in the center, 100 meters away from the main fan base, which had a concerts stage and live bands playing between the games. For almost a week! If you can imagine some man yelling into a microphone on maximum volume before breakfast and not stopping till 4 am haha.But the worst was drunk people yelling after it all ended, right under out window, while the town was filed with people, food stands and picnic tables. We didn't really sleep much those days and our boys were winning so it was really happy in our area. There was so many people we could barely walk in town and Maja avoided taking me out during game time so I wouldn't get scared from yelling. We are glad people had so much fun and we were glad we could run away to the project and hide form the noise haha. But there was no violence or bad energy, not even many broken bottles I could hurt my paws on, so it passed nicely and then moved the main base to our capitol, lucky for us haha.

Ok... now to the fun parts haha. The project is taking on a lovely shape, we are grooming it and preparing for winter. Maja has been taking out her frustration out on the land, she plants spring bulbs religiously hehe. She keeps joking to Magnus that it's great she is addicted to cheap flowers and not shoes or jewelery haha. But lucky for us, the spring bulbs for planting are in season now, so we are getting as many as possible, to prepare the project for spring. So this month my owners put aside some money and bought large amount of bulbs. As many as it seems, it's funny how one can buy 400 bulbs for 20 euros haha. We didn't even spend a 100 euros on all of it. Which makes it fantastic! But when spring comes, and all is wet, cold and depressing, the first plants will rise up and show color and then a whole army of tulips, narcissus and others will join them. I believe the place will be even more magical. And the best part was when Maja told me, if I break a tulip, we will just have more in the vases hihi. So yaaay for me. I am the true assistant, I have to keep track of everything and everything is fun. So a bunch of pictures for the color hihi.

First batch of bulbs:

Second batch of bulbs:

One just has to love Lidl. So much for so little!

Third batch of bulbs:

Notice the 2,5kg of narcissus? Haha

Today we went and got a few more big packs of tulips and narciss, since we ran out in the garden beds. In such a big area (the upper project part is approx 360m2) this huge ammount of bulbs gets lost really fast if you don't have enough. And the beautiful part is, if the cute hungry mice, hamsters and other adorable rodents don't eat them, which they shouldn't since we planted Hyacinthus and Alliums between the rest, this spring bulbs will bloom for a very long time every spring. We just want to skip winter and see what comes out in the spring hehe, so excited!

Maja and I made so many pretty areas for these flowers, we dug and took out the roots, fertilized it and put amazing new soil so the little bulbies will grow big and create a magical spring for us. Hard work, we really have to carry everything down and the bags are really heavy. But so worth it! So what if we had to walk uphill 50 times haha. You know what they say, you sleep better if tired - well it's true! Haha.

Imagine the shelf covered with blooms, yay can't wait!

Haha Emma isn't really much help! Tail is more important

I am the nose tester of soil quality! Hihi

And I don't know why I cannot turn the picture the way it's supposed to be haha.

Two hours later, she still didn't move haha

So I have to help twice as much :)

Upper project after the rain, good time to plant grass seeds

Just magical

I really make the flowers look good! Hihi

Beautiful tobacco plants, even prettier dogs *wink*

The tobacco was planted for Maja's parents mostly as a test if it will grow, but they are now bigger then 175 cm, and such a beautiful plant, one could use it for borders or fences, really looks like a palm tree. And now a few more pictures from our hard work hehe. We are quite proud of it this year, wish Magnus was here to taste his veggies.

Our own little produce, look at those colors!

Our only "Saturn" peach, it tasted devine!

Magnus' peppers...to heavy for their plant

Yum, yum and extra yummy smell of yum;)

Yesterday we helped make "filled paprikas", it's a popular (ex) yugoslavian dish, which one preparesby opening and cleaning a pepper, then stuff it with already prepared mass made of cooked rice and meat. No need to mention the floor was covered with saliva spots from us dogs drooling hihi. But me, as usual, I was the main asistant, Not a single spoon went anywhere without me knowing haha. But it's very respectful from my part, I was a few centimeters away, but not once tried to steal or lick them, it made Maja proud! Trust, I tell you, hihi. Only once I ever stole food up there and that was boiled eggs of a salad hahaha, what can I say, eggs I cannot resist! Hehe.

Maja's mom filling a paprika

5 paprikas later. Yup! The focus is still there haha

And after so much work everyday, and me being so good and obidient, I get home, eat my dinner, greet the cats (yes in that order haha) and then shortly remove myself into a more comfortable position, such as this:

I just love pillows!

or this:

But sometimes I need to rearrange them

And sometimes I am just too tired to care haha

The past few weeks have been busy and we catsitted Mao for two weeks, which went great. Apart from him stealing my food. But I have learnt my lesson when I was a puppy, so I didn't even bother letting him know it bothers me haha. I just looked at Maja and cried. She moved him to his foodbowl and gave him some yummy stuff to keep him away from mine.

It will be a few very busy days ahead and the grape picking is coming up soon, but we will keep the blog updated more often so it's not such a long post hehe. We are helping with painting and doing improvements in the wine cellar, which hasn't seen a fresh coat of paint in quite a few decades haha and we are sorting some other stuff on top of the project. Being busy makes us happy and distracted from missing Magnus so very much. Hope everyone is enjoying the change in season, and enjoys the last sunny days before the cold starts. We just wish this year wasn't the worst in mushroom growth, it's been so dry and horrible for nature. Maybe soon, I miss those long walks in that far away forest and the car ride nap I take after haha. How can a dog not be as a happy as me after such fantastic days, look at me on the bottom picture, I am so tired I cannot even sit properly and I look like I have triple the weight that I do haha. Mushrooms are awesome!

Mushrooms aren't growing, not edible ones atleast

Have an amazing tuesday everyone! Hihi. More pictures coming soon!

Hornet hazard

Past few weeks have been quite calm and relaxing, we enjoyed the temperatures going down, but they didn't really go down a lot, it was still summer weather and too hot for us to continue digging at the project. The drought has been destroying the countries crops and flowers whole summer, and we only had a few drops f rain in a few weeks. Not enough to even consider the plants being watered. With all this heat and no rain, the hornets and wasps became dangerous. There were warnings in the news how it could be leathal if one stung a person in their lips or tongue, even if they weren't allergic.

Hornets

Maja got really scared of them this year, since we have so many fruit trees, which is where they start to feed once fruits are ripe. All of the sudden there were so many of them everywhere. Problem with hornets is, if they want to attack you, they will and if you try and get rid of them and you fail, they will gather their troops and come at you in huge numbers. They started attacking the bees and bumblebees, killing so many tiny insects also, horrible. So we built traps, plastic bottles with sugar water. They work! A day after we planted those traps and caught many in them, the bumble bees and other furry cute insects returned to gather pollen safely. We could never hurt animals, but these hornets really multiplied and present a real danger for both Maja and me. Their poison is so extreme since it's so hot, we could die from being stung by one. And that, that is just not something we want to play with. So traps it is, sadly.

We have our allergy testing on monday, which we are a little nervous about. Hopefully we will find out what I am allergic to, or atleast what I am not allergic too, since my problems need to be sorted, my poor ears every year suffer due to something. We will update with the results ofcourse hihi.

Heat record has been broken!

Slovenia has managed to break the 1950's record of 40,6 celsium. It was measured 40,8 today. Almost all cities were above 40 degrees and lets just say it like this, everyone knows one is not to put air conditioning in the car more or less then 8 degrees diffirence, but air conditioning doesn't go above 25 degrees haha. Icecreams melt really fast, everyone is feeling really unwell and me...well I am not warm while we are the vineyards at all, I swim and bathe and enjoy the water. So I am really grateful to my owner for bringing me up every evening so I can run and cool of.

Maja and I had fun today, we were driven up by a friend and once we got up there it was 40 celsium outside so we hid inside a bit, but I was so excited to swim that I barked at Maja's mom to take me to the water haha and then Maja and I went down to the garden, where it is shade and windy. So much fun down there, I am all wet and all I want to do is play wih apples that have fallen from the neighbours tree, those that I haven't eaten yet haha. The neighbour is really old and doesn't manage to cut the grass and trees in his orchard anymore, so the border with us is very weedy and wild trees have created a green curtain, which is perfect for our plants, those which we planted in the shade.

At the border, under the entrance pergola in the shade

"Shade" under our only flat peach hihi

40 degrees and bumblebees are still working hard, cuties

The damage from sun in the project, poor plants

Maja's favorite rose of them all

The scorching sun has done a lot of damage, the ground is so extremely dry that even with us watering the project everyday, we cannot prevent the drying of some plants, so far none had died yet but, it's bad. Tomorrow is supposed to be "judgement day", the weather will be extreme, hale, rain and winds are supposed to do a lot of damage, but cool the air as they pass us. So we are going up and protecting as much as we can. Atleast the heatwave is over. We made it thru the hottest day in the history of temperature measument of our country and we had fun. It's weird when it gets dark and the temperatures drop to 30 celsium and we think it's nice and cool haha. Emma and Tara don't even go outside during the day, mornings and evenings only, poor girls. Never in Maja's history has she ever seen that young trees needed to be watered, but this year, the heat took it's toll. But the tree that Mags planted when the previous doggy was alive, the pear which was his first tree, and will always remain his pear tree, is loving this watering and warmth.

Mags' first planted tree in May 2008

Third heatwave...

...and this time, slovenian towns are breaking their records. 5 records have already been raised from the early 1950s when the country was in such extreme heat waves as we are now. We almost broke the countrys 40,6 degrees celsium record but only managed to get to 40,3. That is all good and fun, apart from, the temperatures are so extreme we cannot breathe properly due to high levels of ozone in the air. Tonight as we are typing this it is only 23 degrees, making it a bit easier to exsist. Sleeping however is very problematic. They say thursday will be the hottest day of them all so far. It is announced to be 39 degrees, which makes it really easy to go over 40 degrees in a few hours. Days are pretty borring, we are hiding inside untill evening due to the health warnings from the goverment. So what do we do you might ask.

Our days look like this, we sleep if we can, then rest, then curse at the temperatures, then drink a lot, then at around 5pm, when the temperatures are supposed to go down, we order a cab and go to our project. Where we hide inside untill 7 pm and then go water the garden. Once its 8:30 pm we walk down to get home before it's dark. Then we finally eat something, before it's just too hot to even consider it. And begging for food is out of the question since humans in this heat only eat fruits and such. Maja makes me this cool dinners with probiotic yogurt, that was in the fridge, making it amazingly refreshing after such a day. I love yogurt. And then we wash me and we start the night with a fan turned on to the fullest haha. Not much happening.

The protective tent we built was amazing, untill the firday storms came which destroyed so many things, they bypassed us luckily, but towns in this country were damaged by hale and the crop fields...there is no more crop anymore. We only got extreme winds, hurricane winds!

We went outside and the entired town became white from the dust, we couldn't see 50 meters ahead and things were flying around. Parasol stands slamming down into the ground. Bags, trash and resturant signs falling and flying everywhere. While waiting fot the taxi we had to walk forward to stand still. Trees were falling and once we got up to the vineyards, even more crazy winds. Me, I am an adrenaline addict hehe, I loved it! Flower pots falling and trees bending down, I loved it. So much fun! All I wanted to do was play in the wind hehe.

But luckily not many of our plants got detroyed. A few sunflowers were bent to the ground, but surprisingly none broken or unrooted. We are protected by the forest down there, but seing those huge 30 meter trees getting blown with such force that they bend to the neighbour tree, that was scary.

It is august already and we are still waiting for a drop of rain after a really long - too long - dry season. We really need rain. The rest of the crops in this country, which wasn't destroyed by the hale is now dying due to scorch and drought. But we have a smaller garden to take care of and we flood it with water every evening. So our grass is green, but some flowers are dying due to the overheating. They say this friday the temperatures are supposed to fall for about 10 degrees and if it stays under 30, we are happy! All I do is throw myself into any water I can find and be wet as long as possible. Yesterday I had the medical shampoo bath and today, I managed to stay clean for 10 minutes before getting all wet and dirty once outside haha. Was to be expected my owner says hihi.

But some parts of our project is happy with this heat, our sunflower road is just breathtaking. The birds will have so much food this winter and our bumblebee, well they are not in any danger of being exstinct in our garden hehe.

Sunflower road

Our wild bumblebees yay

Rare moment of complete calmness

Too hot to play!

Apples....better then tennis balls!

Even fetching a stick in this heat is hard hehe.

But the animal kingdom is alive in this heat, hiding in shades and comming out at night. We were walking home the other night and we got stopped by one of the neighbours, who joked he had a new domestic animal. We wondered where the puppy or the kitten was. And he said it will come around the car any moment. And there she was. A peacock! A cute, huge, tail-less peacock girl was walking around and eating the bread he gave her. I never saw a bird that huge before, I wanted to get to it, to sniff it and to see what it was, but there was a gate. Even when I barked at her, she didn't run or move. I was told not to bark so I just observed. She was pretty! Never saw a peacock before in my life and apperently it belongs to one of the neighbours from far ahead the road haha, she just came thru the forest for a visit. We snapped a picture but it was almost dark and the flash didn't really reach her, but you'll get the idea of how big she was.

Bad picture of a really pretty peacock

But today, today I made my owner really proud of me. We were walking home, thru the forest and down the long road where pup Timi lives. And I am always off leash there, my owners clip me once we get down that road since two way traffic starts. But right below Timi's house I saw something. Maja didn't notice it until I ran after it. When she ran to me and got close, she saw it was a bird. Keep in mind I was bred to hunt birds, well my breed was, so it wouldn't be weird if I had grabbed the bird and killed it, but me being me...I ran close to her, she wasn't able to fly for some reason, might have been to young or hurt. I pressed my nose respectfully to her beak and she sang to me. Maja ran to us and I stepped back from the bird when she said to leave her alone. She was pretty, when she spoke her "mouth" became pink and huge! I was curious and playful but I didn't make her panicky. She turned around and ran away. While I watched! She sounded like my toys and I could have easily attacked her, most dogs would, you can't blame us for it, but me, I actually listened to my owner when she said in a calm voice "leave the bird to be". The fact Maja using the word "bird" could have been a trigger, since I really get annoyed by them some times when they are provoking me with their flying hehe. But no, I watched the cute toy like bird run away from me, I hope she is okay, but my owner, she was proud. I wouldn't harm anyone, and I proved it today and to my owner that means everything. She can now trust me even more with diffirent creatures in the nature. Don't get me wrong, I will still run after them and chase them if I see them, but hurt or kill. No. Which makes me really safe around other pets and creatures. Maja kept telling me she was proud and how loved I was, but me..hehe I was too focused on the pee dogs left before me to stop for those kisses. Untill we came to the crosswalk, there I sit and smooch my owner hihi.

And now, Liza is sleeping next to my face and she is enjoying the warmth while I hate this heat, hehe crazy cats! All I want is normal temperatures and the grass in the park to stop being brown and dry from the sun. Though sometimes I get icecream bits from my owner and that makes it worth having sunny days hehe.

We also celebrated a new edition to the family, a baby boy born to Mags sister, I haven't met him yet but I bet I will want to give him a kiss when I do. I am very good around babies, I always respect the baby strollers and when I am around them I never jump or disturb them. I was the only dog that Lucy (the black cocker spaniel from the park) allowed to be close to the stroller when her owners daughter was born, Lucy would let me even sleep next to it. Other dogs she chased off and barked at them, protecting the baby, but me, being such a loveball as I am, I never seemed like a threat, which I am not once you get to know me hehe. Such a lovely week! A babyboy, a peacock and a bird!