My Godmother, Betty Roesler, had a hearing dog for many years and she worked tirelessly promoting and raising money for the charity. Now in her 90th year and in a residential home, I accompanied her on Saturday to a Hearing Dogs coffee morning in Botley, a village in southern England, where she was presented with a bouquet of flowers for all her hard work.

Once I knew Betty was happy and catching up with old friends, I nipped round the garden, snapping a few of the hard-working canines – some in training, some fully qualified.

At the top of the page is Teasel – one quarter King Charles, three-quarters Papillon – a 5 year old Hearing Dog with ears that, I think you’ll agree, befit the charity

Below is Bonzo, an 11 month old Cocker Poo, currently being socialised by Margaret Conrad.

Here is Yogi, another Hearing Dog in training, 7 months old and a King Charles Spaniel.

Damson, below, is a fully trained Hearing Dog – and a 5 year old Poodle.

The dogs are trained to respond to everyday sounds such as the doorbell, cooker timer or telephone. They alert their owners by touching them and leading them to the sound.

Danger and emergency signals such as a smoke or burglar alarm warrant a different response in the dog – they are trained to lie down in a special ‘alert signal’ way.

Many rescue dogs are used by the charity and finding young dogs with the right temperament is all important.

Find out more by visiting the Hearing Dogs for Deaf People website.

A special thank you to Jeanette, Chair of the South Hants branch, for making us feel so welcome on Saturday. Betty had a fantastic time!

Devil’s Dyke is a local beauty spot just outside Brighton, part of the South Down’s Way with far reaching views across the South Downs and The Weald in southern England.

It’s an amazing place and we haven’t been there for a while on account of the cows! No-one wants a dog who’s rolled in a cow pat, believe me!

But last night I took a chance and only having the one dog with me we parked up and enjoyed an incredible evening walk.

Georgie, our Golden Retriever, knows this place well as we used to come here quite a bit when she was a puppy. She was clearly delighted to be back!

There were cows – but they didn’t get in our way. Georgie did have a very quick roll in a cow pat and needed to have a shower when we got home but I was in a good mood and didn’t mind!

If you come here, parking is now £2.00 which was a bit of a shock. You can also come by bus, the 77, usually open top, and there’s usually an ice cream van in the car-park which is always a bonus

If you haven’t been here before then go! It’s  a very special place and you can walk right along the South Down’s Way marvelling at the stunning Sussex countryside below.

Visit Out And About With Your Dog for more Brighton Dog Walks and info for dog owners in Sussex.

But the bluebells were always there – bulbs hidden under the snow, under the sodden ground, under the hard frosts of 2009 -10.

And as always they keep surviving and keep putting on this fantastic show year after year. Nature is amazing.

Here are a few photos featuring Georgie and Jessie playing in the bluebells of our local Sussex wood.

And when the sun shines, everything in the world is perfect

Location: Stanmer Woods, Brighton, East Sussex
Photos taken on 28th April 2010

Georgie, our Golden Retriever, gets absolutely filthy in Stanmer woods – and we have to drive from our house to get there.

So going to the beach saves on petrol, muddy towels, a filthy house, and two very mucky dogs. It also gives them busy street practice on the lead since we have to walk through town to get to the beach itself.

We’re not talking about a sandy beach I’m afraid. No, Brighton beach is well known for its pebbles and it’s not everybody’s cup of tea. But on a sunny day, you can’t beat it – funky, lively, with great ice cream if you know where to go.

Anyway, these pics are from this morning. Our second wet walk of the week (and it’s only Tuesday) – clothes, leads, collars are drying out yet again – but no mud and that’s got to be a good thing

First of all here’s Jessie with the Palace Pier behind – the pier with all the scary rides!

Jessie in front of the West Pier, a former architectural masterpiece now destroyed due to fire.

Wherever we go, Georgie manages to find a plastic bottle.

Georgie and Jessie drying off at home.

And finally, both fast asleep a few minutes ago zzzzzzz

For the time being at least, we’re back to normal in Brighton and all the snow has disappeared.

The dogs loved the snow and had lots of fun rolling around in the white stuff making dramatic snow sprays like high speed skiers at the bottom of a piste, as they skidded to catch tennis balls.

A sadder consequence was the damage to our wonderful trees in Stanmer Woods where we walk. It was a scene of carnage in some areas as the weight of the snow caused many, many branches to collapse.

These ancient trees took a heavy hit and have had to be considerably cut back as a result. The dogs found the fresh sawdust very enticing, especially Georgie, the Retriever, who just had to have a roll!

Let’s hope there’s no more snow – or if there is that there’s no more damage to these stunning trees.

Our little part of Brighton is pretty treacherous when it snows and so it was a ‘local streets’ dog walk this morning. There was no way I was getting the car out. The roads turn into ice rinks and there are lots of steep hills so better safe than sorry. Let’s hope it clears soon and we can get back to the woods.

I noticed a few cars and vans had been abandoned on icy street corners as drivers had thought better of it -leaving their mobile numbers in the wind screen just in case their vehicles were in the way.

I took Georgie and Jessie out separately thus avoiding falling *** over **** if one of them saw something exciting on the other side of the road. As it was, they were pretty good and took it steady, leaving me to focus on keeping upright as we walked on some rather steep and icy pavements.

Jessie wore her red Cesar Millan backpack to give her something else to focus on and I took her out first to get rid of some of that energy.

Georgie came with me to our local churchyard and she LOVED it. She mostly rolled around in the snow and ever so often took off, running in large circles scooping up the snow in her mouth. Pure joy!

And I’ll finish with a few miscellaneous pics from this morning. First a gorgeous wire fox terrier we met who was enjoying the snow as much as Georgie. If her owner visits this page – I’ve forgotton your dog’s name – sorry!

I just liked this cool car!

And finally a little sparrow feeding on our patio – thank you to Joan for the ‘feeding platform’!

For more gorgeous pics of dogs in the snow visit our website. If you have a priceless dog photo of your own enter our December competition.

choba village children playing in school playground

children from Choba village, Tanzania

In January of this year I decided I wanted to do something for Canine Partners, the UK charity, training assistance dogs for disabled people.

So I committed to raising £2,500 for Canine Partners, plus £500 for Community Projects Africa, as well as travelling to Tanzania to lend my muscles (??) to a primary school build.

Well last week was the week of the build and I’m proud to say it all went amazingly well.

There were 9 UK volunteers all raising money for different charities and I hope we made a difference. The trip was organised by Charity Challenge.

We worked alongside local builders and villagers helping to build Choba Primary School. At present the older children and nursery children share one space, each using the room for part of the day. Creating this separate space will give the 7-11s a dedicated place to work.

Day 1 of the build

progress made over the week

sieving sand - hard work!

passing stones up the line

carrying concrete blocks with Patrick, the nursery teacher, on his day off

during a break in building we taught the local women the hokey kokey! - 'you put your right arm in'

and I was so pleased to find that the hotel where we were staying had a pet dog called Meg! My trip was complete!

To make a donation to Canine Partners please visit my Canine Partners Just Giving page. Thank You.

The sun was throwing strong shadows around and Jessie stood still obligingly, enabling me to catch these shots. Notice how autumnal the ground looks.

First her upper half:

Next the bottom half:

And finally a glimpse of the real thing:

It’s so beautiful here and it’s changing rapidly. The ground is providing Georgie with a damp bed of leaves to roll in at the beginning of each walk – the damper, the better!

Such a contrast to Tuesday which was wet, wet, wet – not many of us around that day but still a treat to be outside in the fresh air. We did get soaked though!

Well we’re all still here – out and about with the dogs – enjoying the summer and getting used to the idea of autumn.

This morning we’ve been scrumping for blackberries, Georgie and Jessie eating the ones on the lower branches while I’ve been keeping to those above dog height. And as any dog owner knows – dogs seem to love blackberries! Well ours do anyway.

It’s actually coming to the end of the blackberry season.

In Brighton – where it tends to be a little warmer than further north in the UK – we’ve been picking them throughout August. It seems to get earlier and earlier each year.

I read a few entries in a school log book of the 1870s in Norfolk, and the children were picking blackberries in October. So there’s proof if we ever needed it.

When I got home I saw that a couple of apples on our patio were ready for picking so I decided to make a blackberry and apple crumble.

8oz plain flour
3oz butter
3oz sugar
generous layer of stewed apples and fresh blackberries
35 minutes in the oven at 180 degrees

Assume it was delicious – we’ll be having it tonight with some vanilla ice-cream – YUMMY!!

Mark Bassey, Terry Seabrook, Alex Eberhard, Dan Sheppard

We were lucky to have two talented and hard-working Canine Partners in the hall – Yukon, owned by Pat and Graham Hewett, and Harley, owned by Moira and Pat Luck. In fact Harley showed a musical talent previously undiscovered and joined in on one of Mark’s solo trombone features! At first I couldn’t work out where the sound was coming from until I realised it was coming up from under Moira’s table!

The raffle was a great success with doggy toys (thank you to Anna) as well as a great selecton of wine, whisky, chocolates, and a host of other goodies.

I had great help from Sara, and her daughter Zoe, Andy and Chris, and Mark’s Mum, Joan. A big thank you to all of you for putting your heart and soul into the evening and helping me so much with the preparations. Also to Lianne and James at West Hill Hall for all you did.

Mark Bassey signing his CD for Jane Bryant, Community Fundraiser for Canine Partners.

I’ve already suggested to Mark that we do this again next year and he’s very keen to do a special duo with his new musical canine partner, Harley!

A big thank you to the band, Mark Bassey (trombone), Terry Seabrook (piano), Dan Sheppard (bass) and Alex Eberhard (drums) as well as everyone who made the effort to come and support us.

We had a brilliant and joyful evening and raised £510!