And We're Off!

It was bittersweet leaving Tilly and Gracie, the Labrador Retrievers, that we were so fortunate to walk and love for a month.  We also had a wonderful time with their parents, Janet and Michael.  

They made us feel welcome and we enjoyed the time we spent together but Jerry Springer, the Springer Spaniel, was waitng for us to spend the weekend with him while his parents attended a wedding.  Jerry lives in a beautiful area called Rusper.  He has an absolutely beautiful back garden for his playground.  There is even exotic wildlife in the back garden. He graciously shared it with Chuck and me.  I spent several hours in the gazebo reading while Jerry patrolled the grounds.  Jerry took Chuck and me on long walks through the countryside.  We saw deer, rabbits, and even a fox.

While Jerry kept watch over the house, Chuck and I enjoyed several meals at Holmbush Inn.  Martin, Anna, Mum, and and the staff serve traditional home cooked food (all cooked by Mum) in a friendly setting. We had our first Sunday Roast there (a tradition here in the UK). Sunday roast is a main meal that consists of roasted meat, roast potato, Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, vegetables and gravy.  It was delicious.  I had beef roast while Chuck had the lamb.

We had a lovely weekend with Jerry.  He's a sweet dog who loves to play ball and have his ears scratched.  Many thanks to Jeanette and Colin for selecting us through the website Trusted Housesitters.

Sunday night we had planned to stay at a Bed & Breakfast closer to our next housesit in Walton-on-Thames but somehow our reservation fell through. We ended up at Premier Inn near Gatwick Airport.  The room was large and since there is no air conditioning in most places, there was a nice big fan 😅. We had tea and dessert at the Gatwick Manor Inn before retiring for the night.

The next morning we made our way to Walton-on-Thames for our next pet/housesit with Lola, a beautiful chocolate brown German Shorthaired Retriever. Her humans, Caron and Roy made us feel very welcome with a long walk along the Thames, drinks at The Swan (a pub on the river), and a delicious steak dinner.  Lola loves her swims in the Thames when the weather is hot, like it was yesterday and again today.  I really hate to complain, but it is REALLY HOT!!!. Yesterday the mercury rose to 34 degrees C which is 93 degrees F.  Since the majority of residences in the UK have no air conditioning, we were miserable.  It reminded me of tent camping in July and August when I was much younger. Enough whining.  How can I whine when we get to take walks with Lola along the Thames?