A Grand Day Out to Stowe Gardens

2021 has been a very lean time for photography: partly because of the Covid lockdown, but mainly because I've spent almost every waking hour since Christmas working on the Cambridge Camera Club website.  Lockdown has been partially lifted and the website is all but complete, so a week ago we went on a Grand Day Out to Stowe Gardens to meet up with the Bristol side of the family.  We last saw Joe in September, and he's grown up a huge amount in six months.  We were only with him for the day, unfortunately, but it won't be long before he's allowed to visit Harston with Frances and Christopher.

Birthday Girl

Happy Birthday Flora, who is a year old today.  She has been a constant joy during a very strange 2020, and is now very much part of the family.  As well as being yellow rather than black, she shares many of the same characteristics of the late and much lamented Amber (AKA "The Dumb Blonde").  So much so that Flora has now acquired the epithet "DB2".

To jog your memory, this is what she looked like when eight weeks old at the end of February.

Another week and it will be Isla's birthday (in lockdown, presumably).

Flora at 18 weeks

More catch-up pictures of our ever growing pup, taken at the beginning of May.  Being a true labrador, Flora is obsessed with anything vaguely food related.  She also likes chewing on things, so was in seventh heaven when given a yogurt pot to lick out.

The weather was lovely and warm at the beginning of the month, and the two dogs spent lots of time outside sunbathing.

[Pictures of Isla at a similar stage can be found here]

Flora at 16 weeks

For those who have been waiting several weeks for their puppy fix, I can only apologise for the delay.  I've been really busy with other things (in this case, the Cambridge Camera Club website), meaning that I haven't had much time for photography.  I've kept up with pictures of Flora, though, so here are a few of her aged 16 weeks towards the end of April.

Flora isn't quite as obsessed with balls as Isla, but she knows that it's a good way to get her sister to play with her.

Sometimes the games can be quite scary...

...although not as scary as "Fat Jimmy", our lard-arse of a cat.

After all that excitement it's time for a lie-down.  Sisters really do make excellent chin rests.

[Pictures of Isla at roughly the same stage can be found here and here.]