Isn’t that gorgeous?  So elegant and perfect. So colourful, and yet in no way gaudy. Those glass shelves do a great job of showing off the goods without getting in the way, don’t they?

This week, for ABC Wednesday (the letter ‘G’), I’m going to give you some real contrasts in the world of shops and shopping.  I found that wonderful display of gloves in a Venice backstreet, which just goes to show that those Italians are so much more sophisticated than us English folk, don’t you think?  Of course, I haven’t had the chance to show you what they do to cakes, yet, but we’ll save that for another week.

So, from graceful and understated gloves in the gorgeous city of Venice, we go to …

George’s Fish Bar, in Bourne, Lincolnshire.  Now, George’s Fish Bar (so I’m told) has an excellent reputation and has been awarded four stars for hygiene, so it’s not in the least bit grimy, but elegant and understated?  I don’t think so, do you?  Love that shark’s head, George!   He has a great gaping grin!

After that, where shall we go?  Well, how about Dewey Beach, where the greyhound folk held a silent auction back in 2007, where this gigantic carved wood greyhound was the star attraction?

Not exactly a shop, but certainly a way of selling something.  Isn’t that grand? – and just look at that grain!

Talking of greyhounds, here’s a picture from a Meet and Greet I did with Sid last year.

It’s a little mini-shop, you see.  Just a table top with a few greyhound goodies for sale to help the hounds.  And it was held at the Rainbow supermarket in Bourne, where – despite the greyness of the day) the good people dropped quite a nice amount of money in our tins.

Another Meet and Greet we did was at a garden centre just before Christmas.   And here is a sweet girl greyhound doing a little shopping among all the glittery decorations and gift items.

Her name is Naughty Nellie, but she was being very good that day.

If you look at the bottom left hand corner of that photo, you’ll see a sign for a G Tech sweeper.  We have one of those little electric carpet sweepers and they are excellent!

Amazing what they have for sale at these Garden Centres.  I mean, they even have displays of garden furniture, and I love the St George flags hanging in garlands from roof to roof!

Can you imagine yourself gently swinging to and fro in this double swing seat?    I would imagine that many of you are also imagining yourself with a nice cool drink in your hand.  Just remember, never mix the grape and the grain if you want to avoid those hangovers!

Talking of which -

Have you ever noticed how many of our whiskies have names beginning with ‘G‘?  Look at that: Glenfiddich, Famous Grouse, Glenmorangie, Grants, Glenlivet … and further along the shelf are the gins.  They might even have some grappa.  Quite a few glugs there, for those that like a tipple!

To start us off this week, for ABC Wednesday, I have a picture for you which was taken on my very first trip to the US to meet my Depp friends. I had been invited over to the Dewey Beach Greyhound Gathering where a whole group of women – most of them Johnny Depp fans – were renting a house for the weekend, and it was to be the first of many trips to meet these lovely ladies and their beautiful dogs. If I remember correctly, the house had no means to play the Depp movies which we all felt were an essential part of the vacation, so TJ had brought a DVD player along with about twenty movies. We watched most of them in a Depp marathon lasting till about 5.30am the next day, with Depp friend after Depp friend dropping out until there was just me and TJ, and one other ‘lady’, who was snoring non-too-delicately on the floor.

Anyway. One of the many pictures I took on the first day was that one. I had never heard of Dogfish Head beer, but I thought it made the window rather decorative. Things went downhill rapidly from there, and included drunkenness, dubious lighting displays (you don’t want to know), a lot of discussion about Johnny Depp, a very poor diet (mostly junk food), but not (as far as I was aware), drugs.

You can tell how our sense of humour deteriorated by this next picture

Yes, I’m afraid that middle book does say ‘Walter the Farting Dog‘, which, when you are staying in a house along with six or seven large greyhounds, seems amazingly apt, if not downright funny. It’s a wonder those dogs weren’t immediately renamed ‘Walter’.

While I was taking pictures, I heard a squeal (I think it came from TJ) and I turned to see my friends gathered around a shop window. What could they have seen? Well, that weekend it could have been anything from dog collars to doughnuts, but in fact it was Mr Depp.

Captain Jack Sparrow himself! That’s Cincinnati Sandy, by the way, with her delightful dog, Roady – and her booty; a poster delineating .. well, guess who! Yes, Roady does look a lot like my Princess Renie, doesn’t she? Sadly, like The Princess, Roady is no longer with us. A very great loss.

The Depp Ladies have met up again nearly every year since, sometimes more of us, sometimes less, at Dewey, mostly, but also in other places, such as California, where we visited Venice Beach. And, would you know it? We found another poster shop.

And there he is, Johnny Depp takes centre stage again .. well, actually, right of centre, but he is the focus of attention. And who is that, demonstrating that ancient insult, the digitus impudicus, otherwise known as ‘the bird’ or ‘the finger’? Why, it’s my dear friend Tennessee Jenn! She hates having her photo taken, you know. Tee hee.

So how do I finish after such delights? Well, how about an image of a crowded London square, complete with shops?

Okay, okay. It does have Johnny Depp in it. He’s the dapper guy in white and dove grey, with a dashing fedora atop his distinguished self. See the trademark dangly things at his waist?

But there are shops. If you can drag your eyes away long enough to look for them.

Yes, I agree, it’s difficult, isn’t it. Why bother? To quote from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, you could say:

‘I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request’!

In case you don’t remember, I’m using the theme ’shops’ for Round 7 of ABC Wednesday, but this week, I’m afraid it’s interpreted just a little loosely.  I’m going to tell you about what I did at the weekend, which was to take Sid to a Meet & Greet at a shopping centre – but hey!  At least there’s a Cotton Traders in the picture, as well as an adoptable greyhound* wearing his ‘I need a home’ coat!

Now, dogs aren’t actually allowed in the Springfields centre itself, but the Lincolnshire Greyhound Trust were granted permission to set up their table just outside the gates, which was very convenient because it was between the car parks and the shops!  Everybody had to come past us, unless they’d arrived by the water taxi which conveys customers from the town out to this particular shopping centre along the River Welland and the Coronation Channel.

And guess what we found when we arrived?  The cutest little greyhound PUPPIES!

And look!  They let me have one to cuddle for a while.  Luckily, there was a chair, because even though little Grace was only fifteen weeks old, she was still quite heavy.  I was glad enough to put her down in the end, sweet as she was, because those puppies are constantly in motion, climbing all over the place and chewing everything!

Sid, of course, took everything in his stride.  Puppies?  No problem.  He shared his cushion quite companionably with Grace’s sister Lucie.

Last time Sid and I did a Meet & Greet at Springfields, it was for a different greyhound adoption group, Kama’s Cave.  We had the same spot, just outside the gates.

And the same chairs!  Lots of children came to see the dogs that day.

Of course, they were different dogs.  Two of them were white and black, which is a colour combination that many people refer to as ‘Cow Dog’.   Here are two pretty Cow Dogs curled up with an equally pretty fawn on the comfy cushions.

And I’m happy to report that a good many coins were collected in the coffers on both days to care for our canine friends!

* This greyhound is the lovely Dibble, who is dog of the month on the Lincolnshire Greyhound Trust home page.

Poor Sid.

He’s been unwell for some weeks, as some of you know, with an upset gut following a course of strong antibiotics. This means that he’s on a very restricted menu at the moment, while we gradually re-introduce a more normal diet. For the first couple of weeks, he could only have tinned or dry prescription diet and no treats at all! So every time we turned around, this is what we’d see – his little face gazing at us hopefully. He was clearly thinking ‘Any minute now. Any minute now, they’ll remember the treats. Any minute. Now? Hmm. Any minute … now’

As soon as someone goes into the kitchen his head whips round.

‘Did you remember?? Did you?’

But poor Sid was only offered another plate of dry kibble. And yes, he’s lost weight, but only about a kilo, don’t let him fool you. He isn’t actually starving to death.

(’I am, you know!’)

It’s OK. He’s been having fresh, pressure cooked chicken and broth added to his meals for the last week, and all is going well. Yesterday, I added dried chicken meat strips for treats, and you should have seen the joy with which he ’spoke’ for a piece, and the speed with which he shot to his bed for some!

Next week, I’ll be cooking him lamb so see how that goes down.

Spoiled? You think?

Nah.