Saturday 15 March 2008

Watching the tide come in





(or - if one's a dog - waiting expectantly for a chip)

22 comments:

monix said...

I hope he got as many chips as those sad eyes deserved! I bet you fall for it every time, I would.

Juliet said...

It's a she - Libby - and she has used those eyes to good effect so many times that she's now on a VERY strict diet. But . . . yes, I confess, she did get a chip or two from the portion I was sharing with my son. After an hour's swimming in the icy sea a girl needs something to keep out the cold!

monix said...

And boy and dog spectators enjoy chips too, no doubt. You brave thing, swimming for an hour in March!

Juliet said...

M - ho ho ho, I'm pleased to discover that grandmotherhood has not dulled your razor-sharp SOH!!!

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, an archetypal labrador moment. I bet that she's partial to an ice cream cornet in the summer.

Juliet said...

Oh D, she's dreadful. She has two tiny meals of prescription diet food a day and plenty of exercise, but she grew up foraging under the high-chair (she even eats banana and cucumber) and now scavenges crabs and discarded sandwiches etc on the beach and I fear we will never see her ribs again. The way things are going, I'll probably be arrested by the dog-weight police one of these days.

Greg Dunn said...

Juliet, I have the same problem with Connie the Cobrador, as the present Mrs D will keep feeding her chocolate (only very small amounts, in case the DP are watching). I go out for a couple of runs a week with her, and she's starting to flag a bit on the 10k jaunts along the Humber bank. She can't seem to shift the lard, even though she's a high mileage 8-year-old.

Cath said...

I keep saying this don't I? But your photos are so lovely. They're reminding me of something I've read but I can't for the life of me think what...

And your dog is gorgeous.

Stephen said...

Is there any chance you could reduce the number of posts you display? It's a really massive download (particularly with all the pictures) to view you. I scarcely think how many hours it would take on dial-up!

In hope, thanks.

Juliet said...

Greg - This one's 8 as well and runs and swims for hours every week but to no effect (other than working up a jolly big appetite!)

Cath - thanks for kind comments and please feel free to keep on repeating yourself - esp on a Monday morning when I need a bit of a boost (and have run out of coffee)!! Gosh, I wonder what it is you've read that the pics remind you of, though - I hope it's something nice! Do let me know if you suddenly remember.

Juliet said...

Stephen - oh, I didn't realise this might be a problem. It loads in an in instant on my broadband connection, and faster than a lot of the Typepad and Wordpress blogs, too.

I chose to display lots of posts because my subject matter is so varied that I wanted to allow a long scroll-down so that new visitors get a flavour of the whole thing, rather than just the last two or three posts.

Is anyone else finding this a problem?? Please let me know.

Anonymous said...

Out here in the land that time forgot, the broadband connection is hardly the fastest but your blog loads a good deal quicker than many. And the nearer I get to civilisation (ie on the laptop) the quicker it loads.

I visit Muddy Island for the photos and the text and I much prefer a blog where you have more rather than fewer posts on the home page - for precisely the reason you give, Juliet.

I know everyone wants everything done at the drop of at hat (or at the click of a key?) in these days of instant communications but it would be a great pity if you were to compromise the intention and substance of your blog because of variations in connection speeds.

monix said...

Just tested, J, and it took <3 seconds to load and my broadband connection isn't fantastic - certainly not as fast as it says on the tin! Don't tell D but 60goingon16 takes much longer to load. You're both worth it!

Stephen said...

It's not a question of 'wanting everything at the drop of a hat', rather that I have to make a full page download to view your blog, unlike your other regular visitors. I have posted on my own blog about this http://stevescomputingblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/difficulty-downloading-blog.html as the explanation is rather long to put here as a comment.

Stephen said...

Juliet
I felt very mean-spirited in how I expressed my self in my computing blog. The post has been entirely re-written; it is shorter and far clearer now, with all direct content from 'Muddy Island' removed. Sorry

Juliet said...

Hi Stephen - don't worry about it. I'm sorry that Musings causes you (and other non-broadband-connected readers) problems. It was something that I hadn't considered because nobody had mentioned it before. On the other hand, people HAVE mentioned that they like to be able to enlarge the pics, and that it's good to be able to see a longer range of posts on a first visit, to get the flavour of the whole, and I must admit I feel the same when I visit other blogs. I fear that unless I were to remove all widgets and make all my photos smaller or post fewer of them (which I really don't wish to do) then I am always going to annoy (or indeed lose) some of my readers, for which I apologise.

Stephen said...

Juliet, I wish we were sitting next to each other at that dinner party because we'd be able to discuss this over a glass of wine or two. I'm certainly not suggesting you post less photos, they're an absolutely essential part of your blog. But I would be surprised if many visitors actually work their way through 50 posts at one go; I don't think I've visited any other blog that displays so many.
Actually I am broadband connected here, and using a reasonably powerful computer; it is in the afternoon when North America wakes and competes for bandwidth on the Blogger / Picasa servers that the download slows out to 10 - 15 minutes.

Juliet said...

what dinner party?!?

Stephen said...

I'm afraid I have you confused with another blogger - it was Lizzie (http://lizzieshomeworld.blogspot.com/) who left a comment in my guestbook saying she'd like to sit next to me at a dinner party!
I'm sure you'd be interesting to be next to at a dinner party, nevertheless.

Juliet said...

Just checked and I have the blog set up to show 30 days' worth of posts - ie one month. Why they currently go back to Jan on the homem page is anyone's guess. Blogger warns, re choosing number of days, as opposed to number of posts to be displayed: 'If Days is selected, a limit of up to 500 posts will be enforced.' So they clearly see 500 posts as entirely feasible.

Anyway, sorry, but I think I'd like to end this thread at this point. I don't think we're ever going to agree! If I get a huge surge of complaints I might reopen discussions, but right now neither my stat counter nor my other readers indicate an urgent need to change the way this blog operates. Sincerely apologies again to those who feel thus excluded or aggrieved.

Anonymous said...

I bet that beautiful face full of everlasting food hope lets go with big booming bark.

Thanks for the link to Medieval Scriptorium. I've added a link to you on script.

Mercy St.G

Juliet said...

Hi Mercy - yes, she has a big booming bark as well, but doesn't use it very much. A vet once said to me: 'if you want to burgle a house where the guard-dog is a Labrador, just take along some sausages and you'll not be disturbed'!

I love the Medieval Scriptorium - a fantastic resource. Good to see you've added some new posts recently. Please don't stop!