STACK NEWS ISSUE TWELVE December 2008
Welcome to the TWELTH edition of Stack News!
We suggested that the rather grey image on the cover of Stack News 11 was a reflection on the year 2007. This year’s photo is of a grey dog doing his best to look festive – more on him later.
Our thoughts this year have been dominated by the cover star of five editions of Stack News – our greyhound Blue. He was diagnosed as having a nasal tumour back in October 2007 and was not expected to see last Christmas. The swelling in his nose eventually grew to such an extent that he had great difficulty breathing and, after much heart searching, we made the final trip to his vet on April 30th. We miss him!
Blue – not the vet!
For Jayne, still working freelance, June saw her complete her first tax return as a self employed person – all ‘done & dusted’ well ahead of the official deadline – with a little help from her financial adviser - Roger. Stack News readers wanting any website work done might even get a discount off her already very reasonable rates – see www.jayne-herbert.co.uk for more info!
The preceding events prescribed a holiday, and we flew off from Newquay airport on June 28th for our first trip abroad since 1995 (when the decision to emigrate to Cornwall was made during our time in Egypt and Kenya). Not so far this time. Just a week in Catalonia, Spain staying at a remote hotel on a rocky outcrop – they even had a moth trap that Jayne was able to use to have a closer look at some of the locals. Their website www.casaguilla.com describes Casa Guilla as “a rural guesthouse situated in the prime position of the Catalonian mountain village of Santa Engracia which itself nestles on a rocky outcrop over 1000 metres up and overlooking the regional capital of Tremp. The views are breathtaking. The scenery is truly splendid.”
All true – you can see our pictures of the area, and some of the moths at: http://tinyurl.com/6qsgv4
We had an enjoyable and interesting week away, but it was good to get back to The Stack.
But the house felt very empty.
It was either a new TV, or another dog – not that Blue could ever be replaced.
Early August saw the arrival of both - a plasma telly and Casey (KC). Casey is a three-year-old dog now retired from racing at Peterborough where he was known as Hestheregis – He’s the Regis! He had a short stay with a family in Weston-super-Mare before coming to Cornwall via the Retired Greyhound Trust. He shares an ancestor with Blue but is quite a different personality and would love to chase anything small and furry so we can’t let him off the lead just yet. He does love his beds though. More info and a free downloadable 2009 Casey calendar at: www.jayne-herbert.co.uk
Last time we promised to update you on the family fleet following Meaf’s decision to retire. (All our cars have names – Meaf, Jayne’s Astra; Frenchie, Roger’s mum’s Renault 5; and Eric, Roger’s Landrover). The garage owner where Meaf was to end her days as a practice for the fire brigade rescue service decided to get his apprentice to fix her up as a training exercise. He did a good job but spent a lot of his boss’s money in the process, so she was sold to recoup some of those costs. Jayne bought her back!
Frenchie has gone to a new home to help save another similar old girl, and Eric is now back with the garage he came from doing good service for the owner as the biggest wheelbarrow in Cornwall. Dave (the Discovery) now completes our fleet having made the journey to Cornwall from the Solihull Landrover factory via Japan, and thence back to Bradford where Roger collected him in January.
Running out of space but there’s just room to report ‘no progress’ on the front porch yet - so you’ll just have to watch your letterbox in twelve months time for the next edition of Stack News!
Best wishes for the festive season from:
Roger and Jayne
PS from Roger
The government decided not to go ahead with a cull of badgers as a means of controlling bovine TB in England. But some farmers are known to be killing badgers illegally, and in Wales and Northern Ireland government backed badger culls are still a possibility. Latest info at: www.badger.org.uk
