It’s been a while since I did a Ninja-centric post, and as her fans may be wondering how she is getting on it is high time for an update.

I am sorry to tell you that she weighed in at 5.2kg recently, and the vet declared she needed to lose weight – at least a kilogram. Oh dear! Since that visit we have been gradually changing her food over to a higher protein/lower carbohydrate formula and undertaking an exercise campaign. Fortunately she still loves to accompany me when I walk around the grove, and the call of “Ninja, walkies!” brings her outside and ready for an expedition.

I wanted to visit the hazelnut orchard to see how these trees were leafing up in the warmer spring weather, and to take some photographs for the Fantail Grove website.

Someone got into the act though:

So of course I ended up taking a whole lot more photos of Ninja than of hazelnuts!

She spotted a bit of damage from the most recent of the equinoxal gales (a lovely phrase to describe the windy conditions we experience in spring):

We’ll have to go back with the pruning saw and paste to tidy this up, and be ready for more damage like this, as we are sure to have another gale or two during October and November.

Ninja loved the hay bales, as from the top she had a good vantage point and could survey her surroundings:

On the way back to the house I opened a gate but she didn’t want to come through it when I did. Perhaps she wanted to prove that she wasn’t too fat to slip underneath it, as I am sure there is a smug expression on her wee face here:

This next photo is probably my favourite of the day – and it also gives you a real sense of how rampant the grass is around here in springtime:

When we got back inside, the first thing Ninja did was rest:

This rug is immediately inside the door!