walking through clouds

So, you look at the weather forecast, it says "rain", what do you do? Well, any sensible person might get a paper and some nice food (!) and plan for a nice relaxing day on the sofa. The STAFF, as you know, do not fall into this wonderful category and in THEIR wisdom planned a 6 mile hike through the Goyt Valley in the Peak District. And I had no choice but to tag along.
At first, I was having fun. The sun was sort of shining and I could scamp about to my heart's content. STAFF were looking at some ruins. How dull. I was looking for food - how exciting!
I am smiling away in the sunshine. At this point no one had taken the trouble to apprise me of the length of this jaunt. I am smiling the smile of all innocent dogs anywhere who can't read maps...
And you see so many great things out in the country. Like walking snacks! Yum! I was going for a sort of Wild West impression.... This path is too small for all of us. Leave now and I shall hunt you. Stay there and I shall hunt you! A clear win-win situation, apart from the fact that STAFF had clipped me into a harness which makes running at speed quite difficult. THEY always do that when there are nice big wooly snacks around. It is most frustrating!

Still, I enjoyed scampering through the long grass. Long grass has the advantage that it hides from view all exciting things, but not from the nostrils. In other words, I can find things that STAFF don't even dream about. And what THEY don't know about, THEY cannot stop you from snacking on.

As you can see, I am rather pleased with my efforts. I had me a good number of interesting things. Trouble with scampering through long grass is that you get grass seeds in your ears. Those are particularly tricky to remove when you lack a small finger and the kind of elbows that allow you to put the little finger in your ear and wiggle. That, and the ability to open cupboards and food containers, has to be the only advantage of bi-ped anatomy.Teehee! STAFF were trying to take a picture - pretty annoying. And there is always that point where THEY are not entirely sure where you are and the lens is going all over the place. So, I kept low, snuck up and at the right moment BOO! Haha. STAFF nearly dropped that camera. I was chuckling to myself for ages after that.

And I seized the opportunity to clamber up some hills to show STAFF who is King of these hills! It was also so windy. STAFF, who don't have 4PawDrive, nearly got blown off the path a couple of times. It was very funny. THEY looked like THEY walked when THEY have partaken in the imbibing of a whole half pint of weak ale.
With hindsight I should have been more worried about the pretty clouds building up in the background. And then with the wind and whatnot and all, suddenly the clouds were not above us, or behind us or anything but all around us and we were walking through the driving rain inside a cloud. I hate getting wet. Unless I am swimming. There's no pictures of the torrential downpour, because we don't have an underwater camera.But here you can see the path we've just come up and the white stuff lying on it, which is a rain cloud. Eeeugh!

I was trying to encourage STAFF to hurry. I could see the clouds were closing in on us again! Thankfully, I had packed my Kagool, otherwise I should have been drenched. Now, correct me if I am wrong, but I am sure when I was a puppy the summers were warmer and longer, well, you know, more than just one day.

Back in the car, I crashed down on my blanket immediately. As you can see my accommodation is very basic. The STAFF totally make me rough it. After 6 miles up and down hills and through torrential rain and all I slept quite nicely on the way back.

And you know, I actually enjoyed myself. I wonder where we are going next weekend? I'd say adventures are totally back on the menu!

Whistle while you (watch them) work

The STAFF, Oma and I went to see the Sheepdog Trials at Longshaw estate. I had never seen this before, and it all looked quite exciting. I thought the dogs were very naughty, because you are not allowed to chase sheep, don'tcherknow, and there was a guy with a big stick in the field who whistled the dog madly. I thought he was going to tell the dog off. But no. They seemed to be chasing sheep together.
The STAFF explained to me that it was all like an elaborate game and that the dog had to lift four sheep in a long outrun, drive them through a gate, go a lift some more sheep, and blablabla. I stopped listening. I was suddenly VERY worried that they had some crazy ideas of me doing something similar. Now. In front of all these people. I tried to hide under one of the STAFF, just in case.
One of the dogs ran out in the middle of working with a nice young girl with the big stick. It was embarrassing. I felt very sorry for her. She had stroked me earlier and called me handsome, so I had rather wanted her to win.

After that I rather lost interest. Plus, the STAFF still didn't get me the lamb I had asked for. And their explanation why it was ok for these dogs to chase sheep but not for me was rather unsatisfactory. Maybe if they got a whistle and a big stick we could chase sheep together, too. I'll put it to them next time the opportunity arises.Speaking of sticks. I don't mind saying that the highlight of the weekend was the enormous stick I dragged out of the river. I had quite an audience and the STAFF were basking in reflected glory. It was simply wonderful!

Of cows, lambs and the "joys" of walking

Cows. The bane of our Peak District hikes. They just don't like me. Once I got chased by them, which was scary. Now the STAFF avoid them, and sometimes we have to walk really long detours to get around them.

Now a nice little lamb. Yum! I would like me one of these. But I always have to have the STAFF on a lead when there's sheep about. Don't know why. And they are too heavy to drag behind when going after a juicy lamb. I know, I tried. Sometimes the STAFF are just annoying!



In any case, I was not going to smile when they had made me walk all the way up the hill. There was no food up here and then I just had to walk all the way down again. Now, if I'd had a lamb, I might have felt more enthusiastic about it...