Dog walking and Hedge scrumping

I am rediscovering the joys of dog walking. Dennis was never one for long walks - and he was a monkey, preferring to run away from us rather than with us! And for the last couple of years he has hardly done more than a quick walk around the park under duress!
With Candy we are rediscovering old walks that we used to do with the retrievers. We are so lucky here to live within a 2 minute walk of open fields in any direction. And a 2 minute drive takes us to even more possibilities - rivers, canals and woods.
Candy investigates the bridge, not sure how to get across it yet:
Typical springer lollop - tail flying, tongue lolling, ears flapping - so much to see and so little time!

Time for a quick cool off in the river - just the feet, she didn't venture any deeper.

Have to check out the trough as well.

She is a joy to walk! Not brilliant at coming when called, but she doesn't run off far and although she loves to say hello to other dogs, she doesn't want to be seperated from us.

This evening though she blotted her copybook by sliding into a very fresh cowpat. Most of it got scooped up into her collar, the rest was smeared down her side. Lovely!! However she redeemed herself by standing stock still whilst I hosed and shampooed her in the garden. My own fault really - I was engrossed in picking sloes and blackberries and she got bored!

On the plus side, I have a huge haul of sloes ready for gin ( I would never have spotted that bush if it hadn't been for Candy!)

Dog Days ...

I have become very lazy in my blogging recently! I do apologise! I came to post about recent goings on and realised I never did share the finished pictures of Dans bedroom!
Anyway, here it is - although not quite finished (I never did get round to making bunting for his window - I might one day!) but his lighthouse is finished.
And we have the Normandie Express ferry racing across the wall as well. He has moved in and loves his new room. One day he might even get it finished!

Since then, we have had some rather sad happenings. Our little westie dog Dennis had to be put to sleep the other week. He had been slowing down for a while, back legs looking very stiff, and I just assumed it was a touch of arthritis. But then he deteriorated really quickly and was struggling to walk in a straight line and becoming incontinent. The vet diagnosed nerve damage and put him on valium. This cheered him up no end, but he still couldn't walk properly and was really beginning to struggle so we made the hard decision to let him go.

I was quite looking forward to the freedom of being dogless, but hubby had other ideas and so we did a tour of the local rescue centres last Monday.

I'm very pleased we did, because we found this little lady and brought her home with us.

Candy is a 6 year old Springer and she is adorable. She is an angel with the children - likes to sit and shake paws for a treat, and is very gentle. When in the house she just wants to be a couch potato! But get her out in the fields and she goes into full Springing mode and is great fun to watch.

However, she is also very fond of the chickens so we do have to keep them segregated. I don't know if she will ever be safe to be around them, but we will wait and see. In the meantime she spends many happy hours trying to figure out how to get into fort knox to play with them. Luckily their run is Springer proof, and they are very laid back about her attentions.
So it's back to daily doggie walks. Oh well, I suppose at least it will keep me fit!