Holly & Doris

Hi everyone, welcome back to another blog post! I hope you’re all still tethered to the ground and recovering from Doris - I know I am! More on that later, however. I've had an extremely busy week, consisting of dog sitting, Doris and deliveries!

I spent a long weekend looking after my Nana and Pops’ (Pops is my grandfather, but we all call him Pops!) beautiful dog Holly, an adorable cockapoo (cocker spaniel x poodle) with a bigger personality than most people I've met. Twice a year, my grandparents and Mum go away buying for the next year’s season of clothing for their two ladies clothes shops (www.soniaofbeaumaris.co.uk and www.leisurelinesofbeaumaris.co.uk for those nosy folks I know are reading - make sure you come back to read the rest of my blog after you're done perusing though!) and as such I get to go and spend some time with my lovely baby Holly!

As a little tradition, in order to maintain my status as ‘cool babysitter,’ in Holly’s eyes, I made sure to bring a new toy for her to enjoy. This time, it was a carefully selected pink toy (Holly’s favourite colour), rather aptly named Porky! (by me, a vegetarian, so don't be looking at me like that.)

Holly is bright and bubbly and loving, and if you're looking at me like I'm mad, because she's ‘just a dog,’ then I'm afraid you've come to the wrong blog post, because she's quite literally a member of the family, and she has more character and is more mischievous and fun than me. Now, her breed is renowned for being very excitable and having lots of energy to burn, and so Holly has two walks a day. (Well, I walk, Holly runs after a ball, and then back to me, and then after the ball, and then into the sea, and then back to me, and then after the ball, oh, wait, that's a leaf blowing in the wind, Holly, wait, Holly, come back, Holl-!! … you get the idea.) Now, I'm one of those annoying people that lives in one of the most beautiful places in the country, or even the world, actually, but I'm usually so busy or have my nose buried into a sketchbook or laptop to notice it. That's not to say I don't appreciate it, I am utterly flabbergasted by how lucky I am every time I park on the green in Beaumaris and stare out at the sea and the mountains- but then I remember I'm late for something and slam my car door, turn my back to the view and jog-walk into town.

So, looking after Holly meant we were to go on adventures around Anglesey twice a day, meaning I got to visit some of my favourite beaches and old haunts that I hadn't in a long time. It was great fun, and it made me really appreciate where I live, and how truly beautiful it is. Now, now, stay with me, I'm not getting soppy and emotional, I'm just trying to emphasise how lovely it was to actually take some time out and get back to what made me want to do this whole thing in the first place! I really love being surrounded by nature and animals and the sea and the sand, and anyone living on Anglesey is never more than 15 minutes away from the coast or a woodland area, and so really, I have no excuse other than not making time for it.

We tended to stay in the same area in Anglesey, as although she's an angel in the car, I was a little nervous about driving with Holly in the car on my own, in case for any reason she wasn't happy. So we stuck with Lleiniog beach, Llangoed castle and the surrounding woodland walk, Llangoed beach and the Beaumaris coastal walks for our adventures. Sometimes we went adventuring just the two of us, and a few times I invited some chums to come along and adventure with us. It was great, and I look forward to looking after Holly again to relive the experience.

During my mini-weekend-break with Holly, although I was taking time out to go on long, romantic walks on the beach, I was also using the time to work on commissions and some new designs (coming soon, stay tuned…) during the time in which Holly was meant to be napping. However, Holly, being the wild and ferocious beast that she is, took it upon herself to take these naps directly on top of… me. More specifically, lying (I think intentionally) on my drawing arm. She's far too cute to move, though, and so this meant that over the weekend I have developed super human wrist strength, in drawing with the weight of a pup on my arm!

After regrettably handing Holly back to her rightful parents, I then had to prep for a very busy day on Thursday, and so by Wednesday evening, I had a To-Do list longer than any number of cups of teas could solve, and so I was stressing (it's a verb now, trust me) around the house like a very annoying and busy bee. I went to bed that evening with reluctance and foreboding, feeling I was not adequately prepared for all the things I had to accomplish on Thursday.

However. I woke up to the sound of a strange beeping, sort of on and off and on and off, and I wasn't entirely sure what was going on. To my utter dismay, when I ventured downstairs to turn the kettle on, I discovered with the dread of a caffeine-less-early-morning-er that we had no power. (The sound had been the power flickering on and off and on and...off.) This meant no cuppa, no shower, no porridge, no phone line and worst of all, no wifi! I found out that the Britannia Bridge had been closed and that there were trees down every which way, and upon opening the curtains (and then fearfully closing them again) that Doris had well and truly arrived, and with gusto! Seeing as all the things I had to do that day were in Conwy or further away still, I realised I had very little chance of getting to any of my plans that day on time. So for all my stress and for the tossing and turning I did all night, I had to stay put with no power! Thanks Doris. After 7 hours, we finally got power back and that was that, but it does go to show that your plans are always susceptible to change, whether you'd like to think so or not.

Anyhoo, I still have a lot of work to do before tomorrow (it's currently quite late on Thursday evening) and so i had best be on my merry way. Thanks for reading, and i’ll catch you next week (and I'll hopefully be a bit more relaxed by then!)

Rachel x