This is Bertie – a much loved cockerpoo who is not as young as he used to be – I know the feeling.

I love the way he uses soft furnishings to keep his chin propped up – it’s a trick both I and my now nearly 10yr old Jeffy also employ. It’s good for hiding saggy necks, obvs, though I’m not sure that’s why Jeffy does it. Actually, Jeffy, though he loves a soft prop, will also rest his chin on the hard table, as he stares down the business end of a loaf of Challah, but that’s more about telekinesis. One day, Jeffy, one day.

It’s been a while. When everyone jumped off the blogging bandwagon, I slipped off too, without altogether meaning to. I do love Instagram, obvs, but there is always the lurking fear that the infamous Algorithms might mess up, and someone might actually see what I’ve posted. There is even some interaction at times, some of it, possibly, with real people. No, I much prefer it here, a blank page, curating a few favourite pictures and wittering on, safe in the knowledge that no one but myself will ever read this. Eminently self-indulgent, but hey, it’s that or lying curled up under a home-made blanket on the sofa with my chin resting whimsically on a cushion.

And so back to Bertie.

This all happened back in 1BC (Before Covid), so I can’t remember anything whatsoever about it, but from the photos I took, it looks like it all went smoothly

The middle shot gives a little insight into how I work – hoop, thread and reference photo (on my iPad), all jostling for space on the little table space left next to my sturdy old Singer. And the thimbles in the third shot are there for forcing the needle through the densely packed stitches of the eye, to put in the highlights by hand. I normally forget to turf one out, and make do without (and swear if I need to).

And here is an unintentional beauty. I love these ghostly images. Could I do these on purpose, I wonder? Imagine a whole wall of them ….

but back to Bertie:

Just the background to choose and he’s all done:

Beautiful boy.