Monday

The Dog Rambler E-diary

top 05
March 2012
Walk Dogs on walk

Along the Ormiston railway

Length

6 miles

Chutney, Dylan, Jolie, Lucas, Maggie, Tim, (Findlay)

It was family day today at The Dog Rambler. Findlay in brackets is my sister and brotherin-laws dog. It was not just him who was out. To make it a real family affair my sister, Julia, and Brother-in-law, Mick, joined the rest of us for the walk. Rather than do the tour of the local area collecting the rest of the gang they met us at the start of the walk with Fin waiting patiently in the boot. The rest were very keen to meet him and as soon as they were let out of the car he was surrounded. At first Jolie and Lucas were spurned by Tim. He had a new pal to play with. I am not sure Fin saw it quite that way. Tim behaving as though they had been friends since birth was up and around his face walking along on only two legs to attain the required height. Fin thought this a little bit too forward and told Tim so. He took little notice. It was a glorious day despite the noise of Fin and Tim, with a warm sun hovering in an almost clear blue sky. The early frost of the morning all but forgotten. A few cotton wool clouds relaxed in the sky, gently pushed across it by the chill breeze. Only the breeze stopped it feeling like summer. In the bowl in the landscape through which the railway runs we were protected from the chill and basked in the warmth.

As Jolie and Lucas made fun for themselves racing back and forth along the track Chutney pounced on a stick only to run into a deep smelly boggy pool with it. Good job she is staying with us this week. By the time she goes back home the smell should have faded.

Tim slotted in with the rest of us checking out Mick and Julia as Dylan stalked off at the front and Fin now released joining him and headed on further. Maggie was all over today, not so much chasing but always near the action. Fin got himself equally as filthy as Chutney in another bog. He was almost followed in by Jolie and Maggie but I managed to stop them. Jolie already knee deep. Fin was definitely leading them astray. Keen to push through the wire fence into the fields and bogs beside the track, something the others never do. I left it to Mick and Julia to try and keep him in order. Our rabble was enough to put off a dog coming the other way. We stepped off the track to let its owner riding a bike go through but the dog went the other way. Not liking the look of us. He had to cycle back a collect it on a lead. We were then able to press on and leave the track to climb out of the dip along another track between some of the fields. Away in the distance some snow capped hills told of the cold night now long forgotten. On the way back the dogs had a turn of madness with Maggie wrestling all-comers over sticks and then Chutney finding herself in the same position. But it all became too much for them and in the unnatural heat they began to wilt falling into a straggly heel. Then in the distance the first woodpecker of the year could be heard rattling its beak against the branch of a tree. As its quick drumbeat sounded out across the countryside we covered the last of the track back to the cars. Nick

Photo slideshow from the walk

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