4 months and loving water!

This Friday Drama turned 4 months. She is getting, our baby girl =)
Yesterday we went for the dog beach in Lidköping and you can almost believe she is half dog/ half seal when looking at the photos. She really loves water!

The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince

Ever since I was 13-14 and read the Farseer-trilogy for the first time I've been hooked on Robin Hobb. It's been a while since then and I have read better fantasy, but Hobb will always be my favourite and close to heart. I was at a friends house, who's all time favourite also seems to be Hobb, and she got hand on a special signed edition of The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince. Of course I had to borrow it!

So...what did I think?

Hobb has always, in my eyes, used a "simple" language when she's writing but her words are spellbinding. In her earlier trilogies connected to The Realm of the Elderlings she's writing in first person, and so does she in this book. The book contains two short stories; The Willful princess & The Piebald Prince. Hard to guess, huh?

 We are following Felicity who is the close friend and companion to the willful princess Caution and later on also wet-nurse and caretaker of the bastard prince Charger, also known as The Piebald Prince. It is the last will of Felicitys own son, who's a minstrel, to write the truth about the events that has occurred. The simple, sometimes ugly, truth and not euphemestic in any way. The truth is dark and twisted. Jealousy, envy, love, hate, ambition, sorrow is taking place in both stories.

The stories are by themself interesting, but I don't think the book is something for the first-time-Hobb-reader. I do understand that some people, who hasn't read the Farseer- and The Tawny Man-trilogies, are disappointed of the book since the stories doesn't contain any depth in the telling. But for the hardcore-Hobb-reader it will give some answers and facts about the Piebald Prince, who is an important character in how the Six kingdoms-people view the Witted ones. Why is one kind of magic appropiate but not the other? Why is the Wit banned?

I give it 4 out of 5.

Catching up: 23-30th of June

Drama is greeting Uncle Qwerro.

At the club of Working Dogs, playing and training obedience. 

Taking a rest. 

I sure can go nicely!

Taking a walk in the trail at the mountain. 

Something got my attention!

Soon 4 months old. 

Catching up: 5-7th of June

I've been neglecting the blog a little and will now catch up with a lot of photos instead in different posts. Enjoy! =)

Drama is 11 weeks and still fits in the balconychair.

Drama's favourite palce on the balcony - in between at the table.

We were visiting the folks in Vinninga. Uncle Qwerro is
enjoying the day. 

Qwerro is a really handsome fellow!

Borrowing Grandmother Nira for some days and spends
the evening in the dogpark. 

Nira is the Queen of the balcony-sofa. 

Drama is taking a nap in the sofa with
grandmother Nira. 

More coziness on the balcony. 

A walk in the park

Drama in the dog park yesterday, 13 weeks old.

13 weeks

The weeks are flying and Drama is already 13 weeks old. She grows like weeds. Yesterday we took a walk on the Billingen (a "mountain") and ended up at one of the small lakes that exists up there. Guess who wanted to go nuts in the water?

A dog is part of the family, not a toy.

I get so angry, frustrated, sad and many other feelings when I see all these Pet Rescue-pages on Facebook (mostly dogs). So many cute individuals get abandoned for several reason of which almost everyone is stupid and the owners own fault. It can be allergy (I can understand that one), "aggressivity", the dog is just "too much" to handle, it doesn't obey, there's no time etc...

So many people doesn't think before they go buy an animal. The pups or kittens are really cute, the children are nagging for one, you feel alone. But then what? For me a dog is equal to a child in every way.

• If you're not parenting your children they may be nasty against other children, destroying toys, furniture or other things and they will not respect you. 
• If you doesn't rise your dog it may be aggressive to other dogs and humans, will destroy toys, furniture and it will not see you as it's leader. 
• If you feed your children fast food all the time they might get a lack of nutrients. That leads to sickness and diseases as allergy, obesity, osteoporosis etcetera.  Give them healthy food with a lot of minerals and vitamins in it. 
• If you feed your dog cheap fodder it might happen that your dog will get sick. Fodder-related allergy is very common, and hairloss. The most expensive is not always the best but the important thing is the nutrients. 
• Your kids need school and activities to learn and to be happy. To be "good" citisens and grown ups and be prepared for work. 
• Dogs need obedience-training (school) and playtime to be happy pets. If they don't get these two you may have a dog that disobey and go rioting in your home and everywhere else. 

The list can be longer but I think I've made my point here. A dog is a family member and should be cared of as one. It is not a toy. 

Sorry. It's not me, it's you...

After some weeks I have finally finished The Magicians and The Magician King. The last half of the second book was a struggle. The Guardian reviewed it  as a Harry Potter for grown-ups. I cannot agree. Without saying too much these novels are a mix up of Narnia, Harry Potter and some religion with associated existential questions, and not in a good way.

Ingredients:

• Very intelligent teenagers
• A magical college
• Another world called Fillory
• 7 keys
• A plot to erase all magic

 

Grossmans characters doesn't convince me that this is a grown-up story. It's not his fault, the characters are after all teenagers but the praising from The Guardian and other reviewers made me disappointed in the end. The story could have been really good but it's like Grossman tries too hard to make something "new" by using every successful part of other stories which makes it all  messy and non-unique. 

The characters are sometimes hard to read, and it's because there's no steady flow in describing them. Sometimes you have a clear picture in your head about the character you're currently reading about and sometimes it is blurry and  I didn't get to know them enough. 

Evil characters is combated, some people die and some people get going. In the second book one character, Julia, gets a lot of pages with her own story. In the end I don't understand why. Of course something special is happening but it doesn't make that much sense. The last half book happened too fast, as if Grossman discovered he didn't have that much space left to tell the story and I was really disappointed by the end.

So...In summary this is a too big story for only two books, with too much happening and all the story feels truncated.


I am not quite satisfied with my first bookreview in a lot of years, but it will be better. I promise ;)

Family meeting

Yesterday we went to Vinninga, Lidköping to give grandmother Nira back to her owner. This event became a family meeting since both daddy Cairo and big sister Dilaila was there too. 2,5 hours of playtime resulted in a knocked out puppy at home later in the evening.

It is really nice to see how much Drama grows mentally when she gets the opportunities to play with the dogs of Kennel Eranthis. In 2,5 hours she became tougher, more curious, more respectful and she went home with a bigger self-confidence.

When we first arrived Drama was greeted by her Father, Eranthis Cairo. 

More "getting-to-know-each-other"-sniffing.

Old Uncle Mischaland's Qwerro.

Big halfsister Dilaila, 2 months older. 

Daddy Cairo wants me to throw the stick. 

This is the "stick" Cairo put down at my feets for throwing...

"Come on, Throw it already!"

Taking a walk on the road. 

All the dogs: Drama and daddy Cairo in the back, uncle Qwerro
in the front left, grandmother Nira to the back right and sister
Dilaila at front. 

A lot of playing is tiring. Here she got company with our
bedpet; Harry the Hippo.

<3