Scotland and work and playing with dogs

 Hi everybody. hope everyone is well. Well this is where i am working . Ardwell House . A beautiful house set in a very scenic area . This estate that my lovely bosses own and run is set in the South Rhinns of Galloway .
It has been in their family for more than 200 years . For many years its gardens were open to the public but sadly due to everybody being so strapped for cash and not being able to spend money on plants etc , has had to close its gates .
My main jobs since coming up have been getting houses clean and tidy for new tenants, And raking of leaves. Endless millions of the wee  blighters.
We mix alot of the leaves with grass cutting s from the summer. These are then allowed to rot down and later used as mulch on flower beds. It is great for keeping the weeds down and putting nutrition back in to the soil.
I have known these gardens since i was 11, and have spent many happy days as a kid running round them.
It was a dream come true to get to work in them and i did for ten years till we planned our wee adventure.. It has been great to come back for the winter and i am also grateful to my bosses. They have eased alot of financial worries for Mark and i and means we will have money for France in April.

 I love his house , it is so different from the usual country houses in Scotland. I have always thought of it as a giant dolls house , ready for the front to open and play with the rooms.. I am staying in a ground floor flat with in the Big house.

And these are my girlies/ I have known them since they were both pups .Dotty is the black and white springer and is the oldest at 11 i think,. Scally is around about 4.
I shall have the pleasure of looking after them till i leave in April.
When we used to live in our own house on the estate they would stay with me at home . along with our 4 dogs. It was lovely to have a house load of dog and they all got on really well.
I was expecting a big welcome of them when i came back , but i dont think they realised i had been away. Now normally Scally , short for Scallywag has been the naughty one, always running off .Finding something long dead to suck and chew. Dissappears the minute your backs turned only to come back hours later looking tired but non remorseful. Well no longer she has turned in to the angel of the duo.
Old Dotty has or is having some sort of mid life crisis , Twice now i have let her out in to the back garden for her 11pm pee, Only for her to bolt into the woodland , heedless of my shouting.
In the peeing rain running through the dark without a torch in ones slippers is not nice . And to have a little madam jumping about like a lamb going chase me is really not nice.
She was always the calm stable one. She would return to the house by herself while i hunted for the escapee Scally. Not anymore , now i have to have eyes on both sides of my face .
There is going to be some one to one training going on through the winter till i have the pair back to top form. Mark is doing well on the boat and Lal is getting plenty of improvements made . Insulation has been applyed to the inner deck above the bed, We are having major problems with condensation.
He has reconfigured one of the berths into an area for the cooker sink and worktop to sit side by side instead of being crammed into a corner. And the berth will be reinstated where the kitchen was with the foot of the berth going through the boat into the sail locker .
well i shall speak again all the best to everyone

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