Tag Archives: walk

Digley

  By Leanne | March 22, 2010 - 11:15 pm | Dylan, Health, Kim, Mollie, Photos
Leave a comment

We had a lovely walk around Digley Resevoir on Sunday, couldn’t believe it was March, I was walking in my t-shirt!

The hills above Digley Resevoir

The dogs ambled (and sprinted, and swum!) their way around, they’ve been so many times they know the path just as well as me. This is another resevoir my parents used to take us walking around as children, and all of it is filled with those wonderful childhood memories; there’s a section involved very steep stepping stone stairs, only for about 60m but when the stair is as tall as your leg, it becomes traumatic pretty quick. It becomes even more traumatic when your sister slams your fingers in an iron gate and chops three fingernails off in the middle of nowhere, and has never yet apologised … I’m not bitter, no, why do you ask?

Kim really enjoyed herself, it’s her first real run since she had the paw injury. It’s been healing well, but it’s not yet perfect and I daren’t risk letting her play in the res itself, so she had a minor tantrum whilst Mollie and Dylan went swimming. I got back in her good books by letting her pose for a while in various spots. It’s hard to be angry when you’re this beautiful.

Such a poser ...Another pose ...It's tiring being stunningly gorgeous

She even matches the landscape!

Not many photos of Dylan, sadly, because he spent most of the walk with his head in a bush, or herding the 300 other people who thought it would be a nice day to walk around Digley. He was very well behaved though, and only did the stiff-legged barking thing at one dog. He has impeccable manners with on-lead dogs (ie. ignores them completely), even the disruptive and out-of-control ones who lunge at him. He looked mildly concerned about a few of the off-lead dogs, but checked in with me and then continued. He was also flattened by two extremely exuberant Boxers (possibly Boxer/Staffie crosses?!), but didn’t bother a bit. So … interesting. Still thinking about this one, will get back to it at a later date.

(I actually remembered for this blog post that you are, sometimes, allowed to edit photos using this magical program called Photoshop! I’ve been so focussed on the 52 Weeks project that I keep forgetting it’s ok to edit the rest of the shots.)

Another section of the Kirklees Way walked … or so I thought, until I went and looked it up and realised it’s just kind of the same section as the last section we walked. Walking is apparently harder than I thought.

Paws to Valentines

  By Leanne | February 14, 2010 - 6:21 pm | Dylan, Kim, Mollie, Photos
Leave a comment

This was the best way to spend Valentine’s Day. I drove the dogs up to Castle Hill and we ranged all over the footpaths; Mollie interrupted all the snuggling teenagers and Dylan tried to knock people over as he raced past. Kim was on her own mission, which involved digging up as many moles as she could find. She didn’t find any, but it’s always worth a shot.

Mollie did try and adopt herself out to several families who were out for a Sunday stroll, but none of them would take her home. Poor Mol, she’s stuck with us! I did have to send my dad to go and fetch her back after she latched on to a certain couple who were throwing a ball for their own dog, a very patient Collie/Staffie cross. Dad returned carrying her, because she wouldn’t actually leave them alone. She was looking plaintively over his shoulder, but as soon as her paws hit the floor she was off, racing Kim down the banks.

The fitness regime is kicking in, and all the gang are starting to get their streamlined figures back. Dyl has lost almost everything he gained, and his ribs are almost back to touch. Mollie still looks like a bit of a bear, but it’s her fluffy winter coat, and “Fat Rolls Kim” has her waistline back, although her belly is still clinging. It’s hard to get the old ladies to shift their fat.

cloudsWe did two lazy circuits of the hill, and the dogs did at least six mad laps of the hill. We all stood and watched a bit of the rugby going on below, and then wandered up to the castle for a nosy. It wasn’t open today, otherwise I’d have got some photos from the top. The lovely sunshine had all gone and the clouds were rolling in, so we came home a bit early and didn’t let the dogs blast over the kite field. I don’t think they minded so much.

I think Dylan wishes every day could be Valentine’s Day.

Smile

Twelve Days of Christmas

  By Leanne | December 27, 2009 - 3:00 pm | Dylan, Kim, Mollie
Leave a comment

The dogs had a good Christmas. The dogs always have a good Christmas, but they had an especially good one this year. They got some lovely new toys, lots of chews, and Kim got some ultra fashionable leg warmers from Accessorize. Unfortunately she has skinny hind legs so they only fit on her front paws, but they are unbelievably awesome1. They also got snow, which is the best Christmas present any dog could want.

We walked in said snow a lot, had a tasty Christmas dinner, and various other goodies. It’s been a bit of a strange Christmas this year for various reasons, but the dogs are always constant and always cheerful. Especially Mollie; she’s like a little kid at Christmas, she gets far too excited and overdoes everything, and has to go and have a time out when she gets too silly.

I know the blog is becoming a bit of a boring photo journal at the moment, which I promise won’t continue. However, I wanted to post for every one of the twelve days of Christmas, and it would take too long to write, so you’ll all have to put up with a few photo posts.

All the photos on this post were taken on Christmas Day. They all came out a bit dark because it was 3:30 and the sun was disappearing behind the hills, but the dogs had such a lovely time; Kim even tried to play with Mollie, but that’s a post in it’s own right.

1No, I can’t think of any time when Kim might be able to wear any leg warmers either.

Butterley, Blakeley & Wessenden

  By Leanne | December 12, 2009 - 6:09 pm | Dylan, Kim, Mollie, Photos
2 Comments

No flyball training, no competitions, but we have to do something on a weekend. So we hit a section of the Kirklees Way which is very familiar to me and dad, but not so much to the dogs. We used to walk it a lot with the extended family when I was little; it’s nice and leisurely these days but I’m not sure how I managed it when I was 8!

We started off at Butterley Reservoir, headed up past Blakeley Res and on to Wessenden Res. We didn’t go all the way back into Meltham, but turned around at Wessenden Res because it was starting to get dark. It’s an easy walk anyway, nice well maintained single car road for us to follow up, but that’s a bit boring for the dogs.

The Gang Dylan Dylan

Kim had a whale of a time digging up molehills, which is one of her favourite things in the world.

Molehills 2 Molehills

Mollie, being an independent soul, spent most of her time crashing though the undergrowth, occasionally emerging to look pleased with herself. She had a general anesthetic and three teeth removed on Thursday, but I think it’s safe to say she’s bounced right back from that.

Dusk Mollie
Sunset over Blakeley

It was getting quite dark by the time we turned back, but there were some idiots people just setting off for a stroll. Can’t imagine they got very far!

This was the first time the K-x went on a proper expedition with us, I was a bit worried about the weight since I’m used to my super light Kodak point+shoot, but it wasn’t bad at all, especially considering I carried it around my neck most of the way! It seemed to handle the low light quite well too, although it did start getting very insistent towards the end about using the flash. Original Energizer Lithium batteries are still going strong, I charged up the Eneloops on Wednesday but haven’t needed to use them yet. It does start blinking the “no battery” light at me after about 40mins of on/off shooting, but I’m holding on for as long as possible before I switch. So far I’ve taken around 500-600 shots with these batteries, with some play back but no live view or video. Flash seems to be the major drain.

Dylan