Camping on the Isle of Wight

Last August, I went on a camping holiday with my daughter, Sharon and four grandchildren. We had a marvellous holiday and the weather was good. Most of the time was spent on the beach and exploring the Island.

 

Our tent

 

My four grandchildren having a great time.

 

Needles Lighthouse. We decided to go on a boat trip so that we could have a closer look at the lighthouse.

 

Sharon and the children standing in front of the coloured sand.

 

The campsite where we stayed.

 

Big brother looking after the youngest one.

'Go Walkies': Rufford Abbey Country Park

Earlier this year, Sharon, the children and I went on a 'Go Walkies' to Rufford Abbey Country Park. Here are some photos that we took.

 

When we arrived there were already some people there. As we did not have a dog, Ethan had decided to take his cuddley toy dog with him so he went along to register his dog.

 

 

Time to set off!

 

 

It seems as if we have a problem!

 

 

What do we do now?

 

 

I know what....I will wave my arms!   Did not work!

 

 

Is he begging the swan to move?

 

 

We have another problem, some people have arrived at the other end of the bridge, now which way will the swan go! The other people disappeared and the swan must have had enough of the man in the yellow jacket waving to him so decided to move off too.

 

 

Now we can continue our walk

 

 

It was an enjoyable walk. Hope to see you again soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



More photos of the Mary Hare School 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

More photos of the Mary Hare

After our camping holiday in the I.O.W. we moved on to spend a night in Didcot so that we could meet up with Margaret, an old school friend from the Mary Hare days. I wanted to show my daughter, Sharon and my grandchildren the school as well. We had a marvellous time and it was great to see Margaret again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our last day

This was the day when we had the ‘free run’ in a small enclosed field and it was great to watch the dogs chasing each other around the field as we walked slowly round with the trainer. This was an opportunity for us to test the ‘recall’ by blowing three times on our whistle. The dogs came back running towards us as they knew that they were going to get a treat.

Following this, we all got in the van and our trainer took us all home, dropping Simon off first, then Kevin and finally me. I was happy to be back home but knew that there was still a lot of hard work ahead for me and Ishka. We qualified on the 26^th June 2012 and Ishka is brilliant, she has settled down well.   

Day Eleven

The night walk with Ishka was last night, something that I was not looking forward to! The thought of walking around in unfamiliar surroundings in the dark made me feel nervous as being in the dark is when I can see the least.  Having a dual disability is not easy ─ I know that I am unable to collect all the important clues from my surroundings with my remaining vision and that it is not possible for me to rely entirely on my hearing even though I wear hearing aids ─ this in the day-time. I know, you must trust the guide dog, Ishka but that was not the case, it was simply a fear of being in the dark, I have not been out in the dark on my own for at least forty years. To be honest I rarely went out at night unless I was with someone.

 Kevin went out first and as I sat in the van, I admitted to Simon that I was nervous but I was  going to do the night walk as I hoped that it would conquer my fears of going out in the dark.  Simon went next and then it was my turn. The trainer came round to my door and asked if I was ready and I replied that I was. We went round to the back of the van to get Ishka out ─ that was the first hurdle for I could not see her but she came up to me when I called her name. I put her harness on and then it was time to go. We did the walk with the trainer talking to me as we went along and me trying to praise Ishka who walked slowly en route and then it was all over. Ishka was brilliant and I cannot thank the trainer enough for her encouragement but I was pleased that it was all over. Will I do a night walk on my own ─ I plan to in the near future in familiar surroundings, it should be interesting!

Day Ten

I am not likely to forget these traffic sessions! The idea was to get Ishka to move off a kerb while a car is approaching. I had to give Ishka the command to set off which I was not exactly happy with for what if anything went wrong ─ I would never forgive myself.  This was how it was done; it was done in a controlled condition with another trainer driving a car while my trainer worked with Ishka and me.  Imagine the main road being on the right and a car waiting to travel down the side road to join the main road. Ishka and I are waiting to cross the side street so the car will be on the far side and so we could be in the middle of the side street by the time the car arrived.

My trainer walked to the middle of the road and gave the driver of the car the signal to proceed and then came over to Ishka and me and when appropriate tapped on my shoulder for me to give Ishka the forward command ─ we did this several times and Ishka hardly moved. We were just going to start the second stage when the car would be on the nearside of the road and very close to us when it started raining, thundering and lightening ─ Ishka made a dash but I held tightly on to her lead. We returned to the car wet but laughing! I was very impressed with how Ishka reacted with the traffic work.