book – Whippet Wisdom – a Highland Journey

Friday Favorite: Between Heather and Grass

Laurie Graves shares a beautiful review of Between Heather and Grass on her blog Notes from the Hinterland, alongside music by Jon Batiste! Thank you so much for sharing this Laurie, we’re so happy you enjoyed our second collection! xxx

Notes From the Hinterland

I decided to change the title for my Friday posts. Formerly, it was What’s Making Me Happy, but I had borrowed this from the excellent podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, and I thought maybe it would be best to have something different. There is a fine line between admiration and plagiarism, and I didn’t want to cross it.

So now the title will be Friday Favorites, but the content will be the same as I list things that made me happy or caught my attention during the week. Often I list three things, but today there will only be one as it needs to stand by itself.

Long overdue to be featured on this blog is the very beautiful book, Between Heather and Grass: Poems and Photographs Filled with Love, Hope and Whippets. It was published by my blogging friend Xenia Tran, who has the lovely blogs

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Supporting Children with Cancer UK and Dogs Trust

We are grateful and delighted to support Children with Cancer UK through the sale of Between Heather and Grass in memory of our nephew Jamie Baker.

Thank You Certificate from Children with Cancer UK

It was lovely to make our first donation to this wonderful charity. Children with Cancer UK works hard to find better and kinder ways to treat children with cancer.

If you want to support the charity directly please visit their website here where you can find out how to make a difference.

a blue and white whippet standing on a mountain trail

We have also made our first donation to Dogs Trust, in memory of Flynn, Fergal, Seamus and Ruby.

Dogs Trust is the UK’s largest dog welfare charity and has been caring for dogs in need for more than 128 years. They take in dogs that have been abandoned or handed in by owners who could no longer care for them and find them new, loving forever homes.

They have micro-chipped more than 1.1 million dogs and neutered more than 827,000 dogs since 1999 and provided special foster homes for dogs from families fleeing domestic violence. In addition to these services they run educational programmes in schools, training programmes for owners and actively campaign on dog welfare-related issues.

To find out more about their work or to support Dogs Trust directly, please visit their website here.

two whippets on a mountain trail with lochans visible below

A very big thank you to all you fabulous people who have bought a copy of Between Heather and Grass, left a review and helped to spread the word and raise awareness of these two wonderful charities.

If the book is new to you please click on the icon below for a peek inside.

look inside feature for Between Heather and Grass — Look inside …

Wishing you all a very happy Monday and a great start to the new the week,

with love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Rag Tag Daily Prompt: Fantabulous

Word of the Day Challenge: Ecstatic

close up of a smiling black whippet near heather and ferns

Supporting Children with Cancer UK and Dogs Trust

by whippetwisdom August 31, 2020

a blue and white whippet smiling at the camera

Supporting DOTS

by whippetwisdom August 20, 2020

Supporting DOTS

With more funds raised through the sale of Sharing Our Horizon we are delighted to support Dogs on the Streets (DOTS) this year with a donation of stainless steel dog bowls, pouches of wet dog food, senior dog food, bags of dry dog food, dog treats and other items from their wish-list.

Donation Certificate from Pet Connection and DOTS

Dogs on the Streets (DOTS) is a multi-award winning charity that supports rough sleepers and the homeless community with dogs. They operate mobile weekly street stations across London, Oxford, Kent, Milton Keynes, Bournemouth and in a partnership with a housing project Birmingham with further stations opening in the future.

Offering food and dietary advice as well as providing vital accessories like coats, bedding, collars and leads, DOTS also helps their owners.

DOTS creates pathways to their rehabilitation to overcome many mental health issues, which can often only be achieved with their dogs by their side.

Working tirelessly, DOTS aim is to find permanent accommodation for rough sleepers and regularly represents clients and their dogs with services/ borough councils. Many refuse housing when offered simply because it is not dog friendly. This has been a major challenge during the Covid-19 pandemic and DOTS has been able to foster dogs for the homeless in their sanctuary until suitable accommodation can be found where they can be reunited with their owner.

When an owner is no longer able to care for their dog through ill health or other circumstances, DOTS will find a suitable new home for the dog and can offer peace of mind that their beloved companion will be cared for.

If you want to support DOTS directly please visit their website where you can find out how to make a difference.

close up of a blue and white whippet on a dog bed

Creating books to help others is a true labour of love and you can read more about this here.

A very big thank you to all of you who have bought a copy of Sharing Our Horizon, left a review and helped spread the word about the charities we support.

If the book is new to you please click on the icon below for a peek inside.

Look Inside cover icon for Sharing Our Horizon by Xenia Tran — Look Inside …

Wishing you all a blessed Thursday and a wonderful rest of the week,

with love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Nurturing Thursday #403: Your Light

Word of the Day Challenge: Supporting

Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #113: Labor of Love

Sunday Stills

We are deeply honoured that the lovely Anne Leueen from Horse Addict is featuring a haiku from Between Heather and Grass with a photograph of her beautiful and soulful horse, Biasini, today. Thank you so much for this wonderful post dear Anne xxx

HorseAddict

I did not take this photo. It was taken by my friend Carmen (Queca) Franco at a clinic with Janet Foy last week. I think it is a beautiful photo of my Biasini. The words below the photo are not mine either! They are by Xenia Tran and her book of poems “Between the Heather and Grass:” You can find her poetry and photo posts at Whippet Wisdom.

Heavenly music
part of us remembers
the angel’s harp
Xenia Tran

I believe Biasini can hear that music.

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Cover Reveal

We received our first printed copy this weekend and are delighted to give the paws up for our forthcoming book Between Heather and Grass – Poems and Photographs Filled with Love, Hope and Whippets.

A very big thank you to Darlene Swanson at Van-garde for the lovely cover design:

Front Cover of Between Heather and Grass by Xenia Tran

The focus of this new collection of poems and images is on the comfort that love and nature can bring, even in times of loss. With that in mind we provided a mood board for our designer with a handful of carefully selected photographs, a few examples of book covers that we liked and the freedom for her to choose another photograph from the selection of images for the interior of the book if she felt this would work better for the cover.

We believe she really captured the depth and sensitivity of this collection with her combination of the two images and cannot thank her highly enough.

We are donating thirty per cent of any net profit from the sale of this book to a children’s cancer charity in memory of our nephew Jamie Baker and another thirty per cent of net profit to animal rehoming charities.

Between Heather and Grass will go on general sale on Friday 15th November, when we will publish a special post in co-ordination with the children’s cancer charity we’re supporting.

The paperback edition is available for pre-order from Barnes & Noble, Foyles, Waterstones, Indiebound and Fishpond.

Between now and the release date more retailers will be added to this list.

The ebook version is available for pre-order from Apple, Kobo, Nook and Booktopia.

The Kindle edition is available for pre-order from Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Japan and Amazon Australia.

If you’re interested in receiving a complimentary copy please let us know in the comments. Eivor and Pearl will select two names from the hat on 14th November and we are happy to ship worldwide.

*** the winners are announced here ***

a smiling black whippet leaping along a forest trail in autumn

Wishing you all a magical Tuesday,

with love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/2.8 – 1/250 s – ISO 160 and f/2.8 – 1/160 s – ISO 160.

Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #69: Seeing Double

Twiglet #150: Just Focus

Thank You for Spreading the Love

a black whippet and a blue and white whippet catching the morning sun in their large dog bed

We are delighted to share that we are sponsoring a kennel with the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, also known as the SSPCA, at two of their Animal Rescue and Rehoming Centres.

The SSPCA is Scotland’s largest animal welfare and rescue charity with nine Animal Rescue and Rehoming Centres across the country. They rescue, nurture and rehome animals, investigate abuse and play a vital role in research and education on animal welfare.

You can read more about the amazing work they do and watch a lovely introductory video on their website.

photograph of two kennel sponsorship certificates from the SSPCA

In addition to sponsoring the kennels at the SSPCA we were able to sponsor a special kennel at the Scottish Greyhound Sanctuary in support of the Macau greyhounds. You can read their story in the post Helping the Hounds of Macau and a further update in Edge of New Tomorrows.

We are also very grateful that we could make a small donation to Dogs on the Streets (DOTS), a charity that cares for the dogs of the homeless and helps to find them and their owners suitable housing. You can read more about this story in our post My Friend, My Rock.

These are all small steps that are part of a longer journey.

a black whippet and a blue and white whippet relaxing in their dog bed in the living room

If you haven’t got your copy yet, please consider ordering Sharing Our Horizon from your favourite online or local bookstore.

It will give you a lovely memento with a selection of poems and photographs featured on this blog and helps to support dogs who are looking for their forever homes.

Look Inside Cover for Sharing Our Horizon — Click on the cover to look inside …

Thank you so much for all your help,

with love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Becca’s Nurturing Thursday: Progress

Rag Tag Daily Prompt: Nurture

Our Book is Here

Sharing Our Horizon

close up of black whippet looking up at the camera

We have some very exciting news today. After months of selecting poems and images …

a blue whippet looking over her right shoulder, draft papers displayed beside her in her dog bed

… placing them in seasonal order and several rounds of editing …

black whippet looking over his left shoulder towards the camera, several draft papers beside him on the floor

… we handed our final version to a designer …

front cover of Sharing our Horizon by Xenia Tran

… and our first book to help raise funds for animal rehoming shelters was born.

We want to say a very big thank you to all our followers who encouraged us to create a book with colour photographs and poems from our blog.

If we were going to do this, we wanted it to be for a good cause. We will donate 60% of our net profits to animal rehoming shelters. The more books we sell, the more charities we will be able to help. The remaining 40% will be invested in future fundraising projects.

We want to say a very big thank you to John Hubbard for his beautiful cover and print book design, to Darlene Swanson for the ebook design and the teams at Reedsy and IngramSpark for helping us put everything together.

Our book is now available in paperback and can be ordered from your local bookstore, online bookstores, Amazon, Indie Bound, Barnes & Noble, Fishpond, Adlibris and any other store connected to the IngramSpark Global network.

Our Apple Book can be downloaded from Apple Books in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

Our ebook is available via Kobo, Nook, Google Play and many others worldwide.

Our Kindle version is available via Amazon worldwide.

For further details on where to order, please visit our ‘Sharing Our Horizon‘ page.

We really hope we can make this book a success and help many other dogs find their happy forever homes.

We always remember where we come from and are so grateful for the staff and volunteers in shelters who looked after us when we were there.

Now we want to give something back.

With love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Dutch Goes the Photo Tuesday Photo Challenge: Birthday

Rag Tag Daily Prompt: Color

Haibun: Frozen Footsteps

a black whippet in a blue winter coat on a frozen forest trail

Last week’s footsteps look so fresh on the frozen path where our paws leave no mark. The warm glow of the morning sun welcomes us like long lost friends and in this silence I feel like coming home. Coming home to all that is well in the world, to all the magic that nature has to offer and to the simple ways in which the sparkling frost on the trees connects us to the magic within ourselves.

frost rests
in silent caress
of the dawn

a blue and white whippet in a pink snood and silver winter coat on a frozen forest trail

I look up at the snow covered mountain against the blue sky and my mind wanders into the green and purple heathers of September, the view down over the glen and beyond the Monadliath. Winter has landed early here and we change the paths we walk with every season. Wrapped in the arms of nature we go where she leads.

stillness
before the ski slopes
open to laughter

With love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, unedited.

Camera: Lumix Panasonic FZ38, setting: iA.

I posted both haiku on twitter as part of my daily ‘Find the Silence’ reflections for Carpe Diem Haiku’s Winter Retreat and revisited the parts of the walk that inspired the haiku to create this haibun for dVerse Haibun Monday.

This haibun appears in

which was published in December 2017 and is now available from Amazon in Europe and North America.

The poem is included in our first full-length collection Sharing Our Horizon, published in September 2018, available in paperback and ebook formats from bookstores and online retailers.

dVerse Haibun Monday Free For All

Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: Ascend

Daily Prompt: Silent