New Years Resolutions

The new year is upon us. For many the start of January manifesting resolutions aimed at improving physical and/or mental wellbeing. People’s declarations of existential advancement coming in various ways. For instance, gym memberships increase, sales of workout gear surge skywards like new years fireworks, and I purge all thoughts of taking up lion taming.... Continue Reading →

What To Do?

Zella, my partner Sarah's adorable German Shepherd, looks back forlornly at me as I crank up todays creative literary engine. I've gotta say, I'm unsure why the sable haired beauty looks so despondent. After all, she's had a walk, during which she enjoyed herself chasing and retrieving sticks; the furry canine's also had her morning... Continue Reading →

A Surprising Upside

It's the bane of any dog owners life, but like it or not is a task they've to grin and bear on a daily basis... Well, it is the down side for the one's who have the decency to pick up after their canine. Gathering up a pooches poop won't sit within even the most... Continue Reading →

Eulogy To Deano

I wrote a significant amount of the attached narrative last week as a tribute to a pooch with who I'd forged a strong bond since arriving into my life on his mother's shirttails around a year ago. Due to an amalgam of time restraints, other more pressing issues and author uncertainty around the prose, I've... Continue Reading →

Life Without The Scamps

Despite being very happy with life in the Wakefield apartment whose occupancy I've just undertaken, my brio levels are somewhat impaired by tenancy edicts barring me from looking after canine buddies Deano and Zella. Consequently the furry duo, who've lived with me for a couple months at my late mother's home, have returned to reside... Continue Reading →

They Seek It Here…..

"They seek him here, they seek him thereThose Frenchies seek him everywhereIs he in heaven or is he in hell?That damned elusive Pimpernel." This morning, following a mystifying episode while walking the dogs (who I affectionately dub the Avashight twins), the above words from Dame Emma Orczy's novel The Scarlet Pimpernel made an unscheduled visit... Continue Reading →

Reflections

As alluded to in my last missive Hot Under The Collar, in a few short weeks I'll be moving from my late parents home into a Wakefield flat. After thirty three years the familial castle, four to six weeks away from sale completion, will soon have the Strachan coat of arms flag metaphorically lowered..... Its... Continue Reading →

Taking Flight

Sitting at the dining table seeking inspiration for today's literary bonhomie, I've my two canine buddies Zella and Deano hovering close-by; their mission to secure scraps from the lunch table. Their pitiful sad eyed look bringing to mind a bowl in hand Oliver Twist when seeking a second scrape of gruel from Mr Bumble. As... Continue Reading →

Two Lefts Don’t Make A Right

Walking the dogs this morning set me thinking about what part, if any, the cosmos bears in how our capricious lives pan out. This pondering ignited by something as unremarkable as seeking to understand why my strolling buddies always walk on the opposite side of an obstruction (eg lamp post or park gate) to my... Continue Reading →

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