The Labraventures of Carbón, Spanish (ex-) foster dog extraordinaire

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Waiting for my gelato cone in Cortona!

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

I'm sure all the driving must be draining @Emily_Babbelhund . I drove back from Somerset on Sunday (about 6 hours - awful rain and heavy traffic) and yesterday I just lay around watching rubbish TV!

Shhh, but that’s my plan for when we reach Venice. Or not “shhh” because by then Carbón won’t want to do much traipsing around either! We have a 6 hour drive back up to Venice on Thursday and then for the next 5 days I’m really looking forward to no cars, no bicycles, no mopeds, and no ‘must see’ sightseeing treks. Just our favorite walks, a good play in the park, loads of photo safaris close to ‘home’, beach walks… and watching trashy videos on YouTube.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

La tua ML è molto bella Signor Carbòn.

Ooooo, italiano amiga Jac! Be still my leeetle gentlemanly heart!

Who took the photo?

A nice American lady. I was giving her my lovey dovey Labrador eyes so she could not resist saying hello, and then she offered to take our photo. It was muy simpatico of her, even if I prefer solo modelling most of the time. I will try to be gracious!

 

[Jacqui-S]

Ooooo, italiano amiga Jac! Be still my leeetle gentlemanly heart!

Much harder than Spanish I think Señor.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Much harder than Spanish I think Señor.

Well, pues, for ME Italian is harder, seeing how I am a proud Spaniard. For ML, Italian is easier because it is more like French. Also we Spaniards tend to eat half our deleeecious words and flow one word into the next, whereas Italians like to really shout nice round words at you in their entirety. Not quite as much as the Germans, who would rather die than drop a consonant OR a vowel, but close.

Oh dios mio, I think I have been sitting too close for too long while ML does all those Zoom language classes. I have turned into a language nerd Labrador! Pfft!

 

[M.F.]

A nice American lady. I was giving her my lovey dovey Labrador eyes so she could not resist saying hello, and then she offered to take our photo. It was muy simpatico of her, even if I prefer solo modelling most of the time. I will try to be gracious!

And so stunningly framed! When someone else takes a photo, you have no knowing what they’re taking! It reminds me of when my sister and I backpacked together, in the days when cameras were expensive and could only take pictures! We had one between us. She was very specific about how she wanted to be framed in the photos. We were traveling through Vermont in the Fall and I had to ensure she was on the edge of the photo with the full tree taking centre stage. She was very specific and took aaaages to pose for a photo. Extremely boring.

In those days, you had to wait till the roll was done and the photos developed. Many days later she was massively annoyed with me because I put her so much on the edge that she never made it into the frame!!! Oh dios mio it was bad. I didn’t do it on purpose; the camera eye showed more than what it captured.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Hola amigos! Pues, that is a wrap for Umbria! Our leeetle paws are very cansados, very tired, but I wanted to share just a few of my best efforts, with more to come once we land in Venice and ML can sit down and edit. Tonight she has to pack because Venice means we are back to backpack life. Claro que sí, all I really care about is my stuffie amigo Gerry and my rain coat, but ML has to sort herself out. Being human seems to mean carrying around a lot of things. I say, just go naked, no?

Leeetle dog, big world in Montefalcone


Bathing beauty in Rasiglia


Bonitas portas in Spello

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

And so stunningly framed! When someone else takes a photo, you have no knowing what they’re taking!

She did a nice job…and also I edited it. But yeah, I mostly say no when people ask if I want a photo with Carbón because (1) they usually take a single well-meant but horrible shot and (2) I’m afraid they’ll try to steal my phone. Sorry for that last one - you can take the American out of the US, but you can’t take US culture out of the American.

In those days, you had to wait till the roll was done and the photos developed. Many days later she was massively annoyed with me because I put her so much on the edge that she never made it into the frame!!! Oh dios mio it was bad. I didn’t do it on purpose; the camera eye showed more than what it captured

Oh, that’s a shame! But I get it - the old cameras had no way to know what the shot really looked like, just what you saw through the viewfinder. I guess if you had a real reflex camera it was different, but a point and shoot or even a bridge (maybe what your sister had), forget it.

I was in Europe for a year and a half working after uni graduation. I had so little money that I saved up my precious camera rolls to develop once I got home because it was so much cheaper in the US. When I got home, I discovered that my camera had stopped working about 3 months into my trip. The last photo was a beach in Belgium, every roll after that…blank. I’m still sad about all those photos.

It’s just another reason I love digital and have 4 backup disks plus the cloud! I’m paranoid!

Ok, now I return you back to your regularly scheduled Señor.

 

[M.F.]

It’s actually very funny in hindsight. We got “divorced” at the time, went our separate backpacking ways. And are now absolute best friends. (It was a point and shoot camera.)

Sorry about your blank rolls. It’s like losing all your photographs. I once had a similar experience. I was leaving the country and my lovely house (rented). I took photos of the landlord’s dogs (JRs) and my lovely housemate and landlord—he lived on the top floor of the house. A whole lot of memories, capturing my lovely time there. Flew up to Joburg to stay with a friend for a day before going overseas. Took my roll of film to get developed and yes, blank. Hadn’t rolled it on properly. Weirdly, I remember all the shots I took!! But it would be nice to compare my memory to the reality!

My mom tells the story of a big family event in the 1970s. A cousin had been a professional photographer and offered to take the photos. Ceremony and party. Except he forgot to put film in the camera!!!

 

[Stacia]

My Mother's second marriage, film all wrong, no photos

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Hola amigos! We arrived in Venice yesterday. It was a surprise to me because we drove a very long time, all the way around the lagoon for the first time, and left the TARDIS in a fruit orchard belonging to a nice señorita named Elena. A señor on the street in Regensburg told us about Elena and that it would be safer and cost less dinero to park there. It was and adventure! ML is still a leeeetle worried about our beloved car, but we must think good thoughts until we see it again. Cruzamos los dedos, cross the fingers!

Our apartment is the smallest we’ve ever stayed in and the entrance smells of cat wee and looks like it was bombed in WW2, but we are back in our favorite neighborhood and it is Venice, so it is all bueno.

Today we mainly rested after a sunrise morning jog, and now we go to the park to see dog amigos and watch the sunset. I am sure to feel more modelly mañana!

 

[Boogie]

Absolutely beautiful

 

[Stacia]

Best place in my world

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Our sunset vaporetto ride. Recuerdes, I am wearing my muy stylish muzzle because it is required and I love it because it means COOKIES!

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

But my paws got wet as the high tide was right as we were walking through S Marco. Que lastima, that is not my kind of ‘wet from below’. Luckily ML did not ask me to stand in the water to model, as many other humans were doing. Instead SHE stood in the water and let me stay where it was drier.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

We also found some shoes for amiga Nadine. She is very fashionable and is looking for furry street shoes. I understand this completely because I myself have furry street shoes siempre, ALWAYS.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Best place in my world

I agree. Venice is my favorite city (if you can call it that) and Cornwall is my favorite everything else.

 

[M.F.]

Did you actually buy those??

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Did you actually buy those??

Noooooooo!

But I sent her the photo- she can order them if she wants. I think even for a fashion queen, that’s a little steep for furry shoes.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Noooooooo!

But I sent her the photo- she can order them if she wants. I think even for a fashion queen, that’s a little steep for furry shoes.

Just heard from Nadine - she will NOT be buying the furry trainers. But she got a good laugh (as did I).

Now Carbón and I are off for some good walking before it starts to rain. We all know the Señor must be safely home before the ‘wet from above’!