Levee loop

With Mum and Dad waking up still feeling like bloaters after their excesses at the Villa Toscana last night, there is talk of exercise regimes and re-instating diets. This can only be good news for we dogs. Since Meggie's become increasingly old and doddery, walks have sometimes been a slow circuit of the Rec at Meg-speed, with Dad throwing a ball around to make sure I got plenty of exercise.

Today, then, we had the slow-Meg walk round the Rec in the morning (which was Ok as we met 2 other westies at once - Barney (as in Smudge and Barney) and always-clean-and-groomed, frequent entrant into cutest dog photo competitions, boy westie from over the road and up the hill, Jock. 5 westies running around - very busy!

But then after a few other chores and events had happened, Haggis and I were taken out again, this time to re-visit that old friend and formerly several-times-a-week route, the "levee loop". This one takes off Northwards from the house and soon reaches the creek bank levee. Here it turns eastward (bit muddy otherwise!) before circling back southwards and west to come in at the back of Dad's allotment site. It's a nice 2-3 miles which we do at Dad's route-march speed.

It's great to be out in the country again and covering some ground. We find at one stage an intact, fresh and clean but dead dog-fox lying across the footpath. No idea why. hadn't been shot as far as we could see, and appeared to be in good condition (other than being dead, of course!).

Some of the walking is hard work. This land used to be abandonned farmland, so was scrubby grassland criss-crossed by trail-bike paths adopted by walkers.

Last year though, it was re-adopted by a farmer, who grew linseed all across it. Now that crop's been cleared away and the gound has been ploughed and disc-harrowed. But it's not rained here properly for 3 months, so the soil is a hard dry crumb structure, quite difficult to walk on. The footpath routes have not been re-instated and only a few walkers have tracked across the tilth, so it's a bit like walking on a cross between snow and a pebble beach.

Good walking
Deefski