Just a walk in the park...

[sawyl]

Instead of wasting today's glorious weather with an indoor climb, we decided to go for a nice walk down by the river. Things started well enough and when we reached Riverside Valley Park R let E off the lead telling him to go left and not to go in the water, which he took as his cue to veer off right and dive into the canal! Having got himself wet and slightly muddy, he then spent his time barking at absolutely everything — as R said, it's miracle he doesn't loose his voice because he seems to be able to bark non-stop for hours — and diving into practically every stream, river, and puddle he could find, often taking the advantage of the opportunity to have a good roll around in the mud first.


After only a couple of swims and very little mud rolling, E still looks relatively sleek and dignified. He was also sufficiently distracted for me to get a shot off — in most of the other pictures, he was too busy barking to look photogenic!

The weather, which had been warm despite the wind when we started out, begun to change and cloud over by the time we reached the mid-point at Countess Weir, and with the sun gone, it had shifted to full-on chilly by the time we reached the car again. Still it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, it gave me a chance to rest my tired climbing muscles than a big session on the wall, and it made me appreciate my nice warm flat and big mug of hot tea all the more.