Up and about and the sun comes out !

A week has passed since I last blogged and the weather is searingly hot, luckily there is a breeze which helps. Must not complain but not being a sun worshipper I find this heat a little trying especially when milking as the parlour becomes more like a sauna, great though if your looking to lose a few pounds but really draws your energy. On a positive, with the breeze its brilliant laundry drying weather though.
The dogs suffer a bit with this weather and unlike us mad English, know to lie down and sleep through the worst heat of the day in the shade. Yesterday my husband at work, spent most of it in between milkings on top of a cow shed on a corrugated tin roof, trying to remove the roof, madness. He looked like he had been slow cooked in an oven when he got home. As they say, "mad dogs and English men go out in the midday sun."
This last week has seen Dolly's Cavapoo pups become fully mobile and they have had the whelping box taken away and replaced with a large dog bed. The lamp is now off them and they happily can negogiate getting on and off the bed. A couple days ago we started them on food, which is Royal Canin starter, a food specifically made for weaning pups onto up until eight weeks old. They will be four weeks old on Friday and because a large litter, rather than start offering food around four weeks, we start a little earlier to reduce the stress on Mum, although I think you will see from the photo's below Mum is doing very well and carrying very good condition.
Pups can hear and focus their sight now, last night I thought I heard a dog barking and got out of bed and on entering the living room,  I must of startled one pup as it let out a series of barks at me and I leant in over the pen and spoke to her and she then wagged her tail looking up at me.
The children love this stage with the pups and its now home from school , get changed and play with puppies. If the weather stays good we will hope in the next week to let them adventure outside and if it stays this hot the patio may be a little to hot for them, as a sun trap, so we might get the run out to put under the willow tree. The last time I put pups in a run under the willow tree in the daytime, was three years ago when Smudge was born , we have not used this run for sometime due to having such unsettled summers. The picture on my Home page with Millie and her 2010 litter of Cavaliers (which Smudge was one of that litter) is the last time the weather warranted using the run.
Photo's below taken over the last seven days.

Keeping the camera based near the pups I have not got many photo's of the rest of the pack over the last few weeks. Ysobel is now around five weeks pregnant and although not yet obviously showing in photo's of her, in the flesh you can see and easily feel she is. She is looking well and has just decided that she can't quite make jumping out over the patio wall, so now when I jump up over it to go and check the chicken she ambles around it up and up over the lawn to be with me.
Henry our Brittany pup is growing well and had his second vaccination last Saturday morning, so look out this weekend our oldest son can get him out for a walk. He is a very chilled chap which I hope will stay part of him as he enters into his juvenile stage. He sits on verbal and whistle command and will he sit, bolt upright really engaged with you. Walking to heal I think will be an easy one for him, as he happily already walks at heal if you are carrying any treats or chews. Like most spaniels he likes his food, which really helps when training. He has also been displaying the nature of his breed to point. Very interesting to watch him and compare him with the other working spaniels, the Cocker and Springer which I already have experience of. He does seem at this age more relaxed and not so high energy as those two working spaniel breeds but time will tell, he certainly has that very amiable spaniel temperament and the ability to give you that daft spaniel head to the side look.
Beware the photo's below of me looking a bit demented, our youngest daughter had the camera and wanted to take photo's of Jessica and me and she asked me to, " Look mad Mummy", I think I nailed it. Lol