Isle of Avalon

We have had torrential rain, resulting in the little river up the road breaking its banks. I drove through several inches of water this morning, and a couple of minor waterfalls as it poured through onto the road. One of our fields has slightly flooded.

It's not exactly New Orleans. But you can see why they called it the Isle of Glass.

Fantasy vs SF

Sorry, folks - I won't be contributing to this one. I just don't have the time.

Our sign is back!

I've just come into the shop and found that the WITCHCRAFT sign has turned up. T had to go and get it (from the roof of the garage behind the Abbey) and it's in two halves but hey, at least we've got it back.

And if I find out who nicked it, never mind hexing - I'll break their fingers.

Local news

The battle over the derelict factory site of Morlands continues with news that the director of the company who want to take the site over has designated Morlands' management as 'a bunch of muppets who couldn't run a whelk stall.' I love local politics sometimes. People care so much less about the offensiveness of what they say...

And further north, virtually the entire Whitby trawler fishing fleet has had to make a single appearance in the dock, for falsifying their fishing quotas. Apparently they needed a bigger dock (courtroom sort, you understand) to fit everyone in.

A question about dogs

...or, do I need to be more of a bitch?

Readers of this LJ will know that although I am a cat person, I have two stepdogs, the result of a new relationship. One is an elderly Rottweiler, who is very little trouble. She's sort of an Essex Girl: she's cheerful, loud, thinks (wrongly) that everyone wants to be mates with her, and likes going to pubs. However, we also have a German Shepherd, who is, in temperament, more like the William-the-Bloody version of BUFFY's Spike: over-sensitive, hysterical, and cowardly. He is about 8 now, and he's a rescue dog: two families sent him back to the dogs' home because he's so pathetic in anything resembling an urban environment. He has no spacial awareness, e.g. of where cars are.

He's not aggressive, at all, but he is neurotic. If I try to get him to do something, he does it for about 30 seconds, and then stops doing it, if he does it at all. He is better with Pack Leader (T) but, it has to be said, not much. Does anyone know of a good site for canine behaviour? I think I am probably doing something wrong with this hound in terms of pack behaviour and it just isn't working. He follows me everywhere, doing that craven slinking eye-rolling thing that dogs do, and he drives me nuts. Or is he just more of a typical dog than the Rottweiler is, and I'm just used to cats? The only other German Shepherds that I've known at all well were seeing-eye dogs, and they're so highly trained that they're not very typical.

The cat simply beats him up but I can't really do this without involving visits from the RSPCA.

Any and all advice welcome.