Water Baby

On Tuesday, we went to Sence Valley Forest Park again - and this time we took a camera. It was warm out and it's a 2 mile drive, so by the time we got there Mollie was starting to overheat slightly. We threw the ball as we walked (off and on - when produced from a pocket and squeaked it provides an excellent distraction from other dogs) and by the time we got to the first bridge, Mollie was panting hard. I walk down to the 'stream' to see if I could persuade her to have a drink, but she decided that was enough and flung herself in. We spent a few minutes chucking the ball from one bank to the other, with Mollie swimming across the current, then walked further down to where the path slopes down towards the water, and Trace threw the ball - and off went Mollie. As you can see, she really enjoys swimming now!! When we took her to Bosworth Water Park in April, it took several attempt to get her in the water and she wasn't very confident at all. Since then she's really toned up and got stronger and generally more confident and that obviously helps with the swimming as well.

There are some more photos here, in a slide show. The white gravel in some of the photos shows where the paths were eroded by the flood, and the straw across the path shows where the water was up to at the weekend.

Back in the car, Mollie (with the aid of her wet fur) managed to slip her harness and escape onto the parcel shelf. She then spent almost the entire trip from Ibstock to Loughborough (we went to visit some friends) drying herself and nesting. Here she is drying her muddy face on the shelf - her tail was wagging so hard that it's just a blur!!

The rear windscreen is now a bit filthy... and the harness is going to be adjusted somewhat before it's used again - it was new so I didn't quite tighten it enough...

From burbling brook to raging torrent

Spare a thought for the staff of Dogs Today magazine, who had to evacuate last week as the waters rose at their offices in Chobham, Surrey. Beverley Cuddy has posted some piccies on her Cold Wet Nose blog of the waters rising. As she says, even with a couple of inches of water they'll have to replace the carpets and replaster; luckily (for us!) they put the next issue to bed with what sounds like minutes to spare.
I think more and more that we're quite lucky here in Leicestershire. We have a bit of flooding around Rothley and Sileby - but that always happens when there's heavy rain. In fact there's a stretch of road that goes under the A6 that is closed most of the Winter because it floods. Most of the flood plains are fallow fields, used for grazing in the summer but left empty in the Winter because they flood - these are flooded now but with minimal damage to crops. Other flood plains, such as Watermead park near Wanlip (and of course the lovely Sence Valley Forest Park!!), are country parks. Whitwick has flooded in the past as the normally picturesque and burbling brook has swollen to river size and broken its banks - but this summer, although it's definitely been much deeper than usual, the village has escaped largely unscathed thanks to significant work carried out on the flood defences last year. Mercifully, we live on a hill - so although our garden is absolutely sodden (clay soil = no drainage!), we won't flood. It all drains down into the valley..

Save Our SSSI

Speaking of the valley, some people local to us are trying to raise money to save our woods from developers, clean them up and turn them into a real focus for the community. I'm confident that the campaign will succeed and I look forward to helping out when the clean-up begins - at the moment we're always on the lookout for teenagers on motorbikes and broken glass, it'll be nice to get the area cleared of rubbish and shut the yobs out. The addition of poo bins would be good, too...

Where'd that bridge go?

Well, yesterday we pootled off in the drizzle to Sence Valley Forest Park again. There was an open day so we thought we'd do the walk round the lakes then have a look at the open day, then head over to Ashby Farmer's Market.
The walk started OK, Mollie was soooo excited to be out and about, she does love it there. When we got to the first bridge - the one just by where she slipped and fell in the other day - the water was up to the top of the arch and had actually eroded some of the path. The path was underwater on the other side, but it was only an inch or so deep so we risked it and carried on walking. When we got to the next bridge, however (there are several streams which run into and between the lakes, and the path crosses them), there was no way to continue without waders. The path was under at least a foot of water. Mollie was all for carrying on as long as the ball went in that direction, but we turned back. The park was full of dog walkers getting just that far then turning round.
We walked back and headed for the open day stalls - but the rangers had given in to the weather and were heading home - the lake had already got to within a few feet of the big tent and was still rising in the persistant drizzle, and the only people at the park had either come to walk the dog or take photos - on which note, I have to apologise as neither of us even had a (working) cameraphone with us, so no pics I'm afraid!