2007 turns out to be a very auspicious year. I am 60 years old. I qualified as a vet 35 years ago. The AVMC (www.alternativevet.org) is twenty years old. It was the first dedicated holistic veterinary practice in the UK.  My tenure as Hon. Sec. of the BAHVS is 25 years old. It is twenty years since I became VetMFHom. The IAVH is twenty-one years old and the first International Veterinary Congress was held in Oxford, twenty years ago. The IAVH held its first Organic Farming Workshop in Foulum, Denmark, ten years ago. 2007 is also the year in which I retired as Hon. Sec. of the BAHVS.

Homeopathy-First Aid for Pets was first published fifteen years ago and Feeding Dogs the Natural Way was first published ten years ago. Added to that, the Mastitis trial took place twenty-one years ago and the Kennel Cough trial twenty years ago.

That's a bunch of special anniversaries.

www.alternativevet.org

Well, we seem to be on top of the navigation button issues, that were spoiling the looks of the site. The host service was very helpful in clearing this for me.

However, the 'interactive bits' of the site don't work yet, as I have to sort compatibility with my new host. This means we have no 'search' or 'feedback' capability at the moment.

We'll get to it as soon as possible - watch this space.

Of course, you could always e-mail me on my blog!

On Saturday 28th July 2007, I proudly watched son Thomas become wedded to Joanna Domaradzka. They made a lovely couple and Joanna's parents Ania and Neil (and what a great couple they are), laid on a magnificent bash at Bickleigh Castle, on the River Exe. The venue was grand, homely, beautiful and many other wonderful adjectives. The lady-of-the-house may have been able to teach Basil F a thing or two but things went really well. The ceremonies were lovely and the food excellent, not to mention the Sicilian wine. The best man went a bit too far with the fancy dress, don't you think?

Congratulations, Jo and Tom, and many years of wedded bliss to you both.

During June, we paddled the Thames. This needs a little explanation. We discussed the possibility earlier in the year but, for some reason, the whole concept gathered momentum and we found ourselves actually doing it, on Saturday morning, 2nd June! Somehow, we omitted to do any physical fitness training or kayak instruction.

The boats were a modern, high performance thermoplastic (HTP), two-seater Prijon Capri and a 'classic' 50 year-old plywood two-seater kayak, made by my father-in-law. We never gave it a thought but this latter boat, nicely-turned-out as it was, raised a lot of interest and folk-in-the-know would come and seek us out while lunching at pubs, having seen it moored nearby.

I can now reliably inform you that years at a computer keyboard, a consulting room desk and a car driving seat are not sufficient preparation for such an endeavour, especially at 60 years old. Nonetheless ...

We walked 20 miles (12 from source to Cricklade and 8 miles from Teddington to Kew) and paddled 140 miles. We took a river taxi from Kew to Westminster and another from there to the Thames Barrier and back. We saw 64 species of birds. We saw bridges, boats and water.

From heavily-wooded, reed-choked and turbulent upper reaches to the wide, deceptively-lazy lower Thames, we had a great experience. I can't help feeling we'd have done it a lot quicker, had we waited until the floods of July! Amazingly, we had but two hours of rain one evening, while we were on the river, on a trip that occupied 13 days, in all. It did rain on our last day but we were well-protected by the river taxis, by then, the first of which was an old 'Dunkirk' boat.

Isn't self-discovery a wonderful thing? Anyone who calls this a holiday, however, is in for a grisly demise.......

Thanks to Stephen & Kristen for looking after home and animals and for transporting us hither and thither. Thanks also to Catherine and Andrew, for putting us up during our London leg.

The BAHVS held its Annual Conference in Leeds, during the last weekend in June (or the first in July, depending upon the way you look at it). It was full of energy, wisdom, insight and conviviality. The speakers were magnificent and inspiring. The organisers did a wonderful job. Thanks!

It was a poignant moment for me, as I retired as Hon. Sec., after 25 years. I thank the membership of the BAHVS for my retirement gift - I shall have fun working out how to spend the book tokens! Special thanks to Francis Hunter, who presented it to me.

On the Friday, it rained .... and rained .... and rained.

On the Saturday, we could not access the field where our cattle had been grazing, nor could we see them. Rather than leave things to chance, we took to a kayak & here are the pics.

We were able to cross fences and hedges, without let or hindrance. The cattle were fine - we need not have worried!

On the Sunday, the floods had fallen a good 12 inches but were still up to the tops of the fence posts, on the lower flood plain, the highest in my lifetime (so far). The electric fencer unit was still a good 10 inches below the surface (new one required no doubt).

Anyway, it all turned into a jolly good excuse for a long paddle - most of Saturday and Sunday 'wasted' on the water. It disappeared all too soon, off down stream on its way to Abingdon, to contribute to the misery further down the Thames. We were the lucky ones. Our hearts go out to those who suffered so much in these floods and in those in June, further North.

I've put together a suite of small, focused websites, for the various therapies.

www.veterinary-acupuncture.co.uk

www.veterinary-herbal.co.uk

www.veterinary-holistic.co.uk

www.veterinary-homeopathy.co.uk

These are designed for a quick visit and they're small enough not to need a sitemap, whereas www.alternativevet.org is a big read, with more pages than you can shake a stick at (see previous article).

After a long time of fiffing and faffing about, I've managed to rescue the old domain www.alternativevet.org from its ethereal meanderings and have updated, uprated and improved the old website. They've come together again in the new offering, of which I'm rather proud. However, there's always a snag - there's an issue with the navigation buttons, that's going to take a few days to sort. I've decided to leave the site 'up', as it all works OK, as far as I can tell. The faulty buttons display their names when your cursor is held over them and they go to the required target. Sorry about it but I am rather amateur at all this.

Anyway, take a look ........