Watermead Park - piccies

Here are the pictures I promised from yesterday's excursion:

King Lear's Lake:


Traditional view of Jack Russell terrier when out and about:


Swimming Dog strikes again:


In my top at the pub afterwards (the Hope and Anchor, in case you're wondering). She was shivering in the cool breeze while I enjoyed my cold beer (which is just out of shot! and is a certain Northern bottled brand particularly enjoyed by bikers - or in this case - ex-biker.) so I wrapped her up. She dripped onto my lap so it looked a bit like I'd wet myself when i stood up...

Houdini - or back seat nesting 3: the last stand

Yesterday, we went to Watermead Park again. We've stopped going to Sence Valley for the moment as Mollie has some nasty spots between her back legs, across her inner thighs, and we think they're insect bites or an allergy - the water at Sence Valley doesn't move much so there are quite a few flies & midges and lots of weeds in the water; it's possible that something there might have bitten, stung or otherwise irritated her - and skidding after the ball on a grit path will have sent stone chips flying up too. Watermead is an ex-industrial site like Sence Valley, but rather than coal it is sand and gravel that used to be extracted there. In fact, there is a working sand pit just next to it still, at Wanlip.

On the way there, Mollie sat in her quietly in her harness for most of the journey. At one point, I looked over my shoulder and she was just lying down, head on paws, and I think her eyes were even shut. Seconds later, I felt a wet nose on my elbow and when I looked round she was completely free! I'm still not entirely sure how she did it, but the harness just wasn't on her any more. On Friday night she'd managed to stand on the seatbelt release (they're flush with the seat in that car). And on the way home she set herself free again. Today, Tracy's going to put the dog guard in the back so we can just chuck her in the boot on a pile of towels...

Anyway, at Watermead the swimming was going well again when the ball was unfortunately thrown a bit too far and Mollie just couldn't face going to get it - she did try, but after a few yards she just turned round and gave up. it holds the current record for the ball with the shortest life span - I think it was out of the packet for around 4 hours before it was lost! Even without a ball as an excuse, however, Mollie wanted to go in the water, and was literally checking the bank every few yards to see if she could get in. She hasn't quite got to the stage of just throwing herself in regardless, she has to make sure she can get out again as she's only ickle, but she's definitely become a water addict. I think we need to get a paddling pool for her next Summer!

We met lots of dogs again too, and she was very friendly with all but a lab pup who was on a lead and so a bit insecure - but even then all she did was bark a bit.

I have some lovely photos - but they'll have to wait until tonight.

In the meantime, congratulations to Graham on bringing home the lovely Tilly! I'm sure you'll agree that she's adorable, and join with me in wishing them all the best.

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...