Day 9

My new ear muffs. After buying them, I wore them out walkng with Minty. Came home, put them on a chair in the hall and went upstairs. Next thing I hear my Mum shout "Noooooooo!" Minty had found them and started chewing away. Luckily I salvaged them just in time. Anything fluffy and he wants it. Well I guess he is bred to chase bunny tales!

Day 8

He's seen something moving in the distance. Is it a hare? Is it a fox? Whatever it is, he wants to chase it!

Day 7

A pretty orchid to brighten up these dark January days

Day 6

Rain rain go away!  It poured all last night and all of today. I have to drag Minty outside in this weather, he hates getting wet. Roll on spring . . .

Day 5

A gruesome scene - Minty's Christmas teddy bear. First he chewed off both his eyes. Then he made a hole in his head and pulled out his brains. Lastly he went straight to his heart and pulled out his insides. He behaves like a puppy, honestly he's 7 years old now!

After adopting Minty, we soon realised he was not like a typical greyhound. He was WIRED for a start. He needed long walks and exercising and he just wanted to play all day long. As for sleeping, well that was a rarity. It felt like we had a labrador puppy and I do wonder if that is in his blood.

Though he had looked like a greyhound at the rescue centre, over the first year he filled out a lot. He did not become overweight but he simply had a much stockier build than a greyhound. Looking back at pictures of when he first came home, I am shocked by how skinny and underweight he was.

Being a rescue, he came with baggage. He does not get on with other dogs which is probably why he was kept away from them at the rescue centre. He needed a lot of training and he took quite a while to trust us. When we put him in kennels for the first time when we went away, he wouldn't look at us when we picked him up again and he lost a lot of weight. It was obviously too stressful for him and now he only stays with family.

Even now he stills exhibits some behaviour related to being abandoned. He needs a lot of physical contact for reassurance. If we are in the house but in separate rooms he will only sit in the hall where he can see everyone. He is always checking where we all are. He won't let anyone else walk him unless he knows them really well. And whenever one of us leaves the house, he makes a lot of noise!

The lovely thing about rescue dogs is that they have so much love to give. I think he honestly appreciates affection all the more because there was a time when he never had it. We find ourselves saying "Yes we STILL love you, don't worry!" because he is always rolling over for tickles just to check that we do indeed still love him!

Day 4

Back to Minty Woo today as a subject. He's getting more comfortable with my camera now. When I first got a DSLR he kept turning his head away when I tried to photograph him. Now he just looks at me like I'm nuts, especially today when I was photographing his nose!

I had always wanted a dog and nagged my parents for years and years. Finally when I was 16 and studying for GCSEs (exams in the UK) I said to my parents, if I get 10 A* star grades can I get a dog? And my Mum said YES, if you get those grades we will get one! The thing was she didn't think I would get those grades. And to be honest I didn't think I could either. But I gave it my best shot.

In the end I got 6 A* grades and 6 A grades and 4 of the A grades were only a few marks off A*. Because I was literally a few marks off the target, she gave in and said we could get a dog! We had in mind that we wanted to get a retired greyhound because a lot of them need homes after their racing careers are over. They are also generally very placid, laid back characters who sleep a lot, don't shed much hair and actually only need 2 short bursts of exercise a day.

So we went to a local rescue centre but didn't see any greyhounds. We were about to leave when we saw a sign to 2 more kennels down some steps away from the other dogs. Down we went and there was Minty in a huge outdoors kennel. He ran staight up to us and put his paws on the wire. Of course we were smitten. Then he started playing with his Kong toy and he was jumping literally 5 feet in the air! He was full of beans.

After a bit of thinking we decided a younger dog would be quite nice because we'd have them around for a bit longer. Although it said Greyhound Cross on his details he looked exactly like a greyhound. So we played with him for a bit in their exercise area and I remember he wouldn't look any of us in the eye. After a home inspection he came home just a few weeks later!

More on his adoption tomorrow . . .

Day 3

My 365 photo today had to be inside the house again. I'm staying in to try and get some work done on my dissertation. I thought I'd give Minty a rest and find something interesting to photograph in the house. My Mum keeps this bell on the hall table. She bought it when we lived in our old house to ring when dinner was ready. I was a teenager and my room was in the attic. When I was upstairs working listening to music, the bell saved shouting / trekking up 2 flights of stairs!

However, it has become habit to ring it. I usually help prepare dinner but if I am upstairs she still rings it, even though our new house only has a first floor. Minty knows it means dinner and he howls when it is rung!

I liked the different focus on the knut and bolt and the clapper (the ball inside). This picture reminded me of the Italian word for bell which is "campana" for a church bell or "campanello" for a smaller bell e.g. a bicycle or door bell. Campanology is the study of bells. I loved learning Italian at school because it is close in origin to Latin therefore similar words pop up in English a lot, which made it easy to remember!

Day 2

Dolce Vita by Dior is my favourite perfume. My Mum used to wear it and when I was little I would sneak a spray when she wasn't looking. Now I wear it every day. I love how the smell of different perfumes takes you back to a certain time or a memory of someone.

Day 1: Project 365 Begins

Day 1

Happy New Year!

And so begins Project 365. I have been very inspired by other bloggers' 365 projects. You can clearly see an improvement in their photographs over the course of the year. And that is my main aim, to improve my photography skills using my relatively new DSLR. It will also be great to capture 2011 in pictures.

2011 will be an interesting year for me with a lot of changes. Starting next week I will be working in a London hospital on placement as part of my degree to become a dietitian. That will last 3 months, after which I will finish off my research project, revise for my final exams in May and hopefully graduate in July. Then in August I will be moving out of my London house and moving back with my parents who live near the south coast. Come September, I am hoping to do a 2 week trip to the USA with a school friend and then on return, it will be time for job hunting in the REAL world!

So this year will be hard work but hopefully a LOT of fun too. It will be a real challenge to take a photo every day, especially when I am working at the hospital because the pictures will have to be taken in the evenings only. But it wouldn't be any fun if it wasn't a challenge would it?!