{"id":925,"date":"2016-06-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kergudon.com\/https-www-kergudon-com-sunday-12-june-monsieur-brandon-est-arrive\/"},"modified":"2020-05-12T15:54:47","modified_gmt":"2020-05-12T15:54:47","slug":"sunday-12-june-monsieur-brandon-est-arrive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/sunday-12-june-monsieur-brandon-est-arrive\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday 12 June – Monsieur Brandon est arriv\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"

As predicted I wasn\u2019t able to post a blog last week as it was just such an exciting (and busy) day but we have had a very busy, productive (and expensive!) couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

At the start of the first week we decided to honour the UK public holiday, and enjoy the amazingly hot weather, by taking a day off our projects and exploring a little more of our area.\u00a0 (Another beauty of living abroad is that we can choose which public holidays we take, French or British, or both!)<\/p>\n

Since David has been working in Moraix if I have travelled with him, and had time to kill while he works, I had been taking Garratt for short walks north of Morlaix in fabulous countryside.\u00a0 I found a number of lovely strolls but wanted to explore a little more so we devised a route on the map, packed a picnic and headed out.<\/p>\n

I have always enjoyed the variety of walks within easy reach of us.\u00a0 Walking in Saint Cadou takes you through forest and farmland but, very short drives away, there are wild moorland walks through the uplands of the Monts D\u2019Arr\u00e9e; wonderful woodland and geological walks; stunning coastal paths around the Finist\u00e8re coastline; and our walk last Monday was more equine, agricultural and rolling countryside which gave us lots of opportunity to find a perfect spot with sweeping views to enjoy Dave\u2019s amazing picnic and famous homemade pork pie.<\/p>\n

The remainder of the week I continued to divide my time between making (slow) progress in the boot room, general painting and maintenance in the gites, including replacing a fence panel that had blown down outside Hayloft, and weeding parts of the garden.\u00a0 David continued to dig the new flower bed in the orchard which got increasingly hard as the dry weather continued and made the ground rock hard.<\/p>\n

All of which was valuable and beneficial but none of which generated any worthwhile photos (especially as we foolishly forgot the camera on our walk!) or not as worthwhile as what we did last Sunday when we collected our puppy \u2013 Monsieur Brandon.<\/p>\n

\"Monsieur<\/a><\/p>\n

Brandon\u2019s breeder was about 2\u00bd hours south of us, just beyond Vannes in the Loire-Atlantic department, and it would have been lovely to be able to take a couple of days to travel there and back and see some of the country \u00a0however, due to time constraints we decided to travel there and back in a single day \u2013 and come home via the Morlaix kermesse which was inconveniently arranged for the same day but where we bought this year\u2019s selection of plants the majority of which will go in the new orchard bed.<\/p>\n

Brandon seemed to take it all in his, very small, stride and seemed relaxed when we got him home and introduced him to Garratt who had been having his own away day playing with a new friend, Jenga, as our friends Penny and Frank had been kind enough to dog-sit for the day.<\/p>\n

\"Separate<\/a><\/p>\n

It has been amazing to see the differences in character between Brandon and how we remember Garratt to be in the first few days that we had him home.\u00a0 Brandon is certainly much more confident and vocal than Garratt was, indeed he has \u2018said\u2019 almost more in a week than Garratt has in the year we have had him.\u00a0 He also makes the cutest of noises when he yawns which sounds like a cartoon sound effect used for when a big old door creaks open!\u00a0 He does however have the same razor sharp puppy teeth!<\/p>\n

Can you tell which is which at this stage of their life?<\/p>\n

\"LeGarratt<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Monsieur<\/a><\/p>\n

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For the first few days Garratt seemed to pretend that Brandon wasn\u2019t here and would avoid all contact, walking away when the puppy wanted to play.\u00a0 We knew that it would be a massive change to Garratt\u2019s life as well as he was no longer the sole recipient of our attention and that he may resent the new arrival, so we have been extremely careful to give him almost more attention than he had before and plenty of time on his own \u2013 including me having my first run around Lac du Drennec since we moved here taking him for his own exercise.<\/p>\n

However, at the end of the first week Garratt is much more back to his old self and they are now good friends playing together \u2013 Brandon even seems to prefer Garratt\u2019s bed to his own whether Garratt is in it or not.<\/p>\n