SUMMER, WHAT SUMMER?
Wed
20 Aug 2008
We’re
back from three weeks in the Lake District. Unfortunately, the
weather was most disappointing and we did not achieve as much as we
could have hoped for in our quest ti climb all the fells.
Beattie managed to add nine fells to
her list during the time we were there. Our most memorable walk was
the ascent of Scafell, England’s second highest mountain.
Beattie has now made it to the summits
of all the 3000’ peaks in the Lake District – Scafell Pike, Scafell,
Hevellyn and Skiddaw. Her current tally of fells climbed is 111 out
of 214. This means that she is now over halfway towards her
ultimate target! I have 18 fells left to climb.
The
day we climbed Scafell was supposed to be ‘a decent sort of a day’
according to the weather forecast. I had to drive over to Eskdale
in the southwest corner of the Lake District to begin our walk. It
was fine and sunny when we set out, but soon clouded up and by the
time we reached the summit of Slight Side, the rain had set in and
Scafell itself was under cloud. The wind was increasing and
conditions on the top were quite poor by the time we reached the
summit. I wanted to visit the West Wall Traverse, but it was so
cloudy and the ground so rough, I abandoned the idea and instead
headed downhill off the fell. I did manage to visit the top of
Lord’s Rake, a well-known route to the top, which has been closed as
a rock fall has made the route too dangerous. On the way back to
the car, I sank up to my knees in a bog and only managed to
extricate myself with my walking poles.
Beattie was quite nonplussed about the whole situation, being
too sensible to venture into the bog!
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OVERINDULGENCE
Sat 26 Jul 2008
A and I had arranged to meet
AT at Dunwich to take all the dogs for
a walk along the beach. It was a beautiful day, warm, with enough
of a sea breeze to make it feel very pleasant. As we were unloading
all of AT’s dogs from her new van, a
lady with four deer hounds came by. AT
knew her and started to chat. I had never seen deerhounds before:
they really are lovely dogs; very gentle and calm, but must eat
K out of house and home. She was
amazed that we only had Beattie. The
concept of only having one dog seemed completely alien to her.
As we
walked the dogs up the beach, Beattie
drank a fair quantity of seawater. I am always quite surprised that
dogs drink seawater, apparently, with impunity. But not on this
occasion as Beattie suddenly stood
still retching and after a short while deposited her breakfast on
the sand! Had she overindulged herself on all that salty water
today?
We had
cod and chips for lunch, served at the beach café. They do a
roaring trade in the summer, even coping with coach parties. There
were three coach loads that day! We sat at tables outside, as it
was so pleasant. Beattie was under
the table, but we had to keep an eye on her as at one point after we
had finished our meal, the fish skin on
A’s plate suddenly began to move. Beattie
had spotted a chance to scavenge when we were distracted!
A saw her just in time to thwart her
ideas of table theft!
There
was obviously nothing wrong with her stomach. Except, of course it
was now empty!
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Comment from
sablonneuse
Goodness, I didn't
know dogs could drink seawater (usually) without ill effect. Poor
Beattie: she must have felt pretty miserable but if she was well
enough to attempt to grab some fish it was a good sign her tummy
felt better.
FLYBALL
Wed 16 Jul 2008
There
was another ‘event’ at Dog Club last night, a demonstration of
Flyball.
Flyball racing is a race
between two teams of dogs. There are two parallel lanes for two
teams of dogs to race each other. Each lane has 4 low hurdles at the
far end a spring loaded wedge shaped 'box' holding a tennis ball.
Each team has its own lane where four dogs at a time run in each
race, relay fashion over the 4 hurdles, trigger the box containing
the tennis ball, catch the ball and return to the start. The
handlers remain behind the start line. They release their dogs in
turn and collect them at the end of their run.
Flyball started in America in the 1970's and has become an
International event with competitions in the UK, N. America, Canada,
Europe, Japan & Australia. It is the fastest growing dog sport, with
the UK leading the way In Europe.
The top teams in the UK can complete the course in 16.4 seconds!
The course was set up on the field and after the demonstration by
two Border collies, we were invited to bring our dogs to have a go.
The first skill to master was taking the tennis ball out of the
‘box’. Beattie had never picked up a
tennis ball before, but she loves her football and by throwing the
ball a short distance, she soon got the idea of retrieving the
ball! After a few tries using a dummy box, she entered the ‘run’.
After last week, she had no trouble with the four jumps, but had no
idea how to trigger the ball in the box. It is the weight of the
dog putting their paws on the ‘box’ that triggers the spring-loaded
ball. It can be triggered by the demonstrator and when he did, the
ball came flying at Beattie! This
action startled her, and being the sort of dog she is,
Beattie decided that she had had
enough of this strange ‘entertainment and was off back down the run!
I took her back for a second attempt a little while later, but the
memory of flying balls was too much and she totally refused to
cooperate.
Ah well, she can’t be good at everything!
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Comment from
sablonneuse
I don't blame
Beattie for avoiding flying balls. She must have thought they were
attacking her.
AGILITY TRAINING
Wed 16 Jul 2008
As an
end-of-term treat, AT set up a small
agility course for the dogs to try out during the evening. I went
over early with Beattie to help set it
all up. The course consisted of three jumps interspersed with a
series of weaving poles and a short tunnel. The idea was to give
the dogs a taster in the world of ‘dog agility’.
I must
say that after one or two false starts,
Beattie did rather well. Could it be that she has a natural
aptitude for this activity? Bedlingtons are certainly agile and
Beattie can put up a rare turn of
speed when she wants to.
Her
first attempts were on the lead, as she needed to be shown what to
do. The first time I did this with her, I managed to knock over the
jump sending the plastic poles cascading everywhere including over
Beattie. Not a good start, as she can
be easily spooked by such unexpected events! She cringed, visibly,
and shrank to the floor.
She
mastered the idea of the weaving poles quite quickly as she is used
to following my hand in heelwork. It was rather slow, but at least
she cleared the obstacle. The tunnel proved to be problematic as
she was most unwilling to enter. But AT
had a number of strategies up her sleeve for solving that particular
problem. ‘I’ll hold her while you call her through from the other
end’, was one of her ploys. Another was for me to throw a treat
through the tunnel for her to chase! She soon got the hang of it,
but the lead was a constriction as it trailed behind her in the
tunnel.
After
a few dry runs, I took off the lead and was amazed when she
completed the course without any major hiccups! She still needed
pointing through the tunnel, but she was getting the idea quite
nicely. I think AT was quite
impressed with her. I certainly was!
Of
course, this was only a mini-course. The tunnel is much longer and
there are other obstacles as well, such as the see-saw.
AT said she would send me details of a
local club dedicated to training dog agility.
It’s
something to think about, anyway.
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Comment from
AT
Yes, I thought this sport really suited Beattie; with those long
legs the obstacles are of no difficulty and of course she is an
obedient clicker trained dog!
KILLER!
Thu 10 Jul 2008
Regular readers of my diary will be shocked and saddened when they
read the following entry.
Last
evening, I was preparing dinner when
Beattie appeared in the kitchen to stand by the back door.
There is nothing unusual in this behaviour as this is her way of
telling us that she wants to go outside. I had no reason to suppose
it was for anything else than a toilet break or to stretch her legs
as she has been rather short of exercise lately. (See
Recovery)
I
opened the door and she fairly shot our and ran down the garden path
towards a flowerbed next to the shed. As soon as she arrived there,
she jumped into the midst of the foliage, something I had never seen
her do before. Naturally, I was intrigued by this strange behaviour
and stood to watch what might happen next.
Beattie was very excited by something
in the border and I thought it might be a rat the way she was
jumping around. She was definitely after something, that much was
clear. Suddenly, she leapt out of the undergrowth and ran around in
front of the shed. Whatever it was, the creature was trying to
escape, but it was not quick enough for
Beattie! She had the animal trapped and then I saw it. The
creature was a bird and it was already lying lifeless on the path
whilst Beattie sniffed at it
curiously. At no time had she seized the bird in her mouth. The
poor thing must have died of shock or fright!
All
this had happened in less than thirty seconds, and I was very
swiftly out of the door to rescue the bird from
Beattie’s clutches. It was a young
blackbird that I held in my hand.
The
saddest thing was to see the blackbird’s mother frantically
searching for the missing youngster a short while later. She seemed
very agitated that her baby had disappeared and flapped about the
area where she must have last seen her offspring.
I
don’t like to think that Beattie had
deliberately set out to kill the bird. She must have seen it
fluttering in the border from her vantage point in the
conservatory. It was her chasing instinct that prompted her
actions. In no way did she savage the bird at any time.
It’s
normally cats that wreak carnage on the local bird population. I
didn’t expect that sort of behaviour from
Beattie.
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Comment from
AT
Dogs will be dogs!! Seems like she's
recovered then!!?
Comment from
sablonneuse
It's upsetting when pets kill birds - even
if they didn't mean to. Many times I have rescued birds from the
cats' clutches and even administered brandy in water or Bach Rescue
Remedy (both of which buck them up) but can't claim more than about
a 30% success rate. Fortunately the small birds here seem to
have the good sense to keep out of our garden and the cats seem
rather frightened of the big ones.
RECOVERY
Tue 8 Jul 2008
The
past week has been one of slow recovery for
Beattie. She did not have a good day
on Wednesday when she must have still been recovering from the
anaesthetic. Unfortunately, she was incontinent! Not her fault, of
course. I had two lots of clearing up to do and
Beattie actually looked most
apologetic. Perhaps she thought she would be in trouble!
She
was very quiet for a few days and only went out in the garden for
exercise – not that she did a lot of that. On Friday, I took her
back to the vet for a post-op check. When I explained about her
‘problem’ she was taken through to the vet, who gave her the ‘once
over’ and pronounced her to be fine. I took away something to
settle her stomach and was told she did not have to return unless
there were any other concerns.
On
Saturday, she was meant to be taking her
Good Citizen
Bronze Award training day, but I telephoned
AT to say that she was not really up
to a day’s work. She will have to take part the next time this
course is run.
Beattie did not really start to return
to normal until Sunday. On that day she started to play with her
toys in a gentle kind of way. We certainly did not encourage her to
run around chasing things just yet. It was better for her to build
up gradually. I had been told not to do too much with her for the
first ten days. That day, she also went on her first walk down
to the pound and back and yesterday, we did the walk twice in the
day.
Today
I will take her further afield, but still only on the lead and not
too far. I don’t want to rush things, as she must build up to long
walks steadily. That is the best way to ensure a successful
recovery!
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Comment from
sablonneuse
So pleased to hear
Beattie is recovering. It is very worrying when you have to leave a
pet at the vets isn't it? It might be easier if you could explain
things to them but I always feel anxious in case they feel you have
deserted them.
SPAYED!
Tue 1 Jul 2008
The
vet was keen to spay Beattie after her
first season. ‘Think of the risks by delaying’, he said. ‘Increased
risk of cancer , for one.’
After
consulting AT, we had decided that
Beattie was too young.
AT’s advice was that she should have
at least two seasons. She had read a lot of the latest research,
which suggested that dogs should be fully mature before spaying. My
instincts agreed with her.
She
had to be delivered to the vet by 8.30, so we were up early today.
Before we left, I gave her a good groom, as she would not feel like
it for a few days. The nurse saw her and I had to sign the
‘consent’ form as well as answering one or two questions. ‘When did
she eat last? When did her last season end? Is she insured?’ (They
always ask that one!)
It was
strange to walk out without her. ‘Give us a ring at two o’ clock’,
said the nurse, with a cheery wave as she led
Beattie away …
… I
spent the morning painting the gates. It was a good time to
complete this task when Beattie wasn’t
around to poke her nose into everything! I had to leave both gates
open to dry, so that was another good reason to do this work today.
Dead on two o’clock I rang. ‘She’s fine and you can collect her at
five’, I was told by the receptionist. That was a relief! She had
survived! I am sure they do dozens of these ops. Why was I
worrying so much? When I was waiting to see the nurse in the
morning, I had picked up a little book about pet bereavement! Just
the sort of book I should be reading before she went under the
knife.! ‘You may feel very angry’, I read, ‘and blame the person
responsible. This could be your vet!’ … No! I did not want to read
any more.
I was
back in the waiting room before five and I was amazed how normal she
looked as she trotted out on the end of her lead. Had a list of
instructions, of course, all concerned with post-op care. The main
one seemed to be, ‘Don’t let Beattie
jump up at people or on to the furniture.’ Well, that would be
difficult. She did that all the time!
Getting her home, she was still rather groggy despite my first
impressions and spent the afternoon curled up on a duvet that
A put on the floor for her.
So
far, so good …
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Comment from Tracey
Lilly
No unwanted
teenage pregnancy now then?
I am glad she is OK
STUNG!
Thu 26 Jun 2008
Beattie had a
nasty shock on one of our fell walks last week. We have just
returned from a week in the Lakes, the object being to make further
progress towards the target of completing the 214 ‘Wainwrights’.
Last week I added four to my total and
Beattie eight new fells. Beattie
has now topped 102 fells, nearly halfway to the target! Not bad,
considering she only started properly in Easter 2007!
Last
Friday, we drove over the Hard Knott pass into lovely Eskdale to
climb two more new fells – Hard Knott and Harter Fell. The climb to
Hard Knott is achieved by parking the car at the top of the pass and
walking up the fell side to the summit; a simple climb of about
500’.
The
sheep up here are ‘hefted’, that is, they know their own particular
fell and never stray. This ability is passed on from generation to
generation. Unfortunately, in the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001,
the flock on these fells was replaced and three-strand electric
fences had to be erected to ensure that the new sheep did not stray
until they, too, had been ‘hefted’. These fences, called ‘heaf’
fences are very effective in containing the sheep. On the way down
to the car, we were walking alongside one of these fences and I
stopped for a moment to admire the view down the Duddon valley.
Without warning, there was a terrified yelping from
Beattie as she discovered for herself
the purpose of a heaf fence!
It was
obviously a painful experience as she tucked her tail right between
her legs and looked most unhappy as she gazed around in bewilderment
for the creature that had ‘stung’ her! I made soothing, sorrowful
noises at her and led her down the fell to the car. She regarded
the fence with the utmost suspicion and leapt into her crate as soon
as I opened the back door. At least she was safe in there from the
nasty stinging creature!
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Comment from Tracey
Lilly
Poor Beattie.
Hope it won't put her off hill walking - she has an excellent
memory!
A DISTURBED NIGHT
Fri 13 Jun 2008
It’s
rare for Beattie to have a disturbed
night, but she did last night – and so did we! It began at 2 a.m.
A was woken up by
Beattie scratching her crate door.
Almost certainly she wanted to go outside, so I was unceremoniously
woken up to take the dog out. (Why should I be allowed to sleep
through?) I threw on my dressing gown and took her to the end of
the driveway, where she found a space at the field edge to do a wee.
Thankfully, I sank back into bed hoping that was the end of her
nocturnal wandering … but, no … At 5 a.m. there was another rattle
on the crate door, not that I heard anything, of course. Again, in
a trance, I reached for my dressing gown and slippers and opened the
crate. Beattie seemed very eager to
get outside – she must be desperate, I decided. I clipped on her
lead as quickly as possible and opened the door. I was nearly
pulled off my feet by the sudden acceleration as
Beattie sped up the drive as far as
the gates, and, once through she was off again tugging at the lead.
She was very excited by something, her tail was standing straight up
in the air, a sure sign there is something about! She barked once.
I could do without that! I led her some way away from our next-door
neighbour’s bungalow to perform. Even after this she was still very
agitated. Something was exciting her, but what?
I took
her indoors and let her stay on the bed as it was soon time to get
up, but I could have another half-hour, surely? Certainly not!
Beattie just would not settle and kept
jumping off the bed to sit by the back door. I was not taking her
out again! At 5.30, I gave in, dressed and took her for a circular
walk. All the way she was pulling at the lead, nose down and,
occasionally, giving excited little barks and growls.
I just
could not fathom out this behaviour. I did not try to go back to
bed, but watched some early television whilst
Beattie kept leaping on the
conservatory furniture and scanning the back garden for this
invisible adversary. A wondered if
Billy had tried to get in the cat flap
as he had once before? Whatever it was,
Beattie did not settle until after 7.00, and then it was to curl
up on our bed and go to sleep. What a cheek!!
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Comment from
sablonneuse
It must be
frustrating not knowing what caused Beattie's behaviour. Hope she
doesn't give you too many sleepless nights.
Comment from Tracey
Lilly
Sounds just
like a baby. Give in and show attention and they have you up
all night. Still better than having to clear up toilet mess in
the morning and at least it is light at 5.30am - won't be in Dec
though!
BARLEY
Tue 9 Jun 2008
I love
walking through a field of barley in the late spring. Especially on
those deliciously sunny days; when the barley beards shimmer ever so
delicately in the breeze. I love the subtle changes of colour and
texture – the delicate pastel green so different to the harder,
darker green of the wheat field.
Yesterday, Beattie and I were enjoying
a walk across the fields at the back of our bungalow.
Beattie disappeared into the barley at
the very limit of her extender lead. I followed her progress only
by the disturbed barley heads, trembling as she passed. Then,
suddenly, she leapt up, over the top of the barley for a better view
and continued in this way like a demented swimmer doing the
butterfly stroke! It looked very comical!
Reaching the outskirts of the village, I let her off the lead to
wander at will. By now, we were in another field of barley, but a
different strain – an earlier planting and therefore taller and
sturdier. She was forced to keep to the path beaten diagonally
across this field every planting time by the stoical dog walkers.
This
is one of our regular summer walks when the ground is hard – wet
Suffolk clay can be very sticky and unpleasant!
Beattie knows the way now and leads me
in a convoluted circle back to our starting point.
It’s a
pleasant ramble of about an hour and we both feel better for the
walk – especially when there is barley to enjoy!
(Photos)
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VISITORS
Mon
8 Jun 2008
We had
unexpected visitors a few days ago. SH
knocked on the door clutching a photo of a Bedlington terrier, which
she said was one of R’s puppies from
her first litter. What a handsome dog it was, with its ‘show cut’
(not that I am very keen on it myself and would never have
Beattie clipped in this way). The
lady that bought the dog is very keen on showing her dogs and told
SH that this little Bedlington had
done very well and had won a number of classes. They only have to
win one more to be automatically eligible for
Crufts – a great honour!
SH was obviously very proud of
R producing a show winner and I was
delighted as well.
Meanwhile, Beattie had sensed that
P and R
were in the vicinity and went to the back gate trying very hard to
look underneath, without any success. She gave one of her
high-pitched barks of excitement, or is it frustration that she
cannot get what she wants? A told
SH to bring her dogs in for a while.
Beattie was so pleased to see her
‘mum’ again and the two greeted each other affectionately.
R is due to drop another litter in
about two weeks time, so was kept on her lead.
SH is hoping for four pups this time
around.
Beattie doesn’t know it yet but she is
booked in at the vet to be spayed on 1st July. No
prize-winning puppies for her, I am afraid!
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Comment from
sablonneuse
Hope it all goes
well. With our cats we've had very different reactions. For example,
the twins were running up and down the curtains as soon as the
anaesthetic wore off but poor Parsley suffered great pain for a good
24 hours. It was then that I learned you mustn't give painkillers to
cats. They're toxic.
THE OPPORTUNIST
Thu 5 Jun 2008
Do
dogs have a long memory? AT has told
me that there is a lot of research, which may indicate that dogs are
capable of remembering for considerable periods of time. But what
about one year? For it was one year ago that
Beattie nearly had her first taste of
live chicken! (See
Whitsun Holiday Part I The Thrill of the Chase).
On
that particular occasion, she was on her extender lead when she
spotted the unfortunate chicken lurking in the undergrowth, quietly
minding its own business when it was attacked by the Hound of Hell
(aka Beattie) and narrowly missed
losing all its tail feathers completely, and a lot more besides!!
Did
the memory of that failed assault stick in
Beattie’s mind? And had she been plotting how to finish the job
properly this time?
Last
week A and I went shopping in Penrith
leaving Beattie in the van. She is
now quite trustworthy and no longer tries to eat her way through the
furniture! On our return, I was unpacking the car of the bags of
shopping and, momentarily, left the van door open to retrieve the
last bag.
Unbeknown to me, Beattie had spotted a
slim chance of escape and, gleefully she took it. The first I was
aware of the escape was when there was an eruption of noise –
excited barking (Beattie), plaintive
squawking (hens) and high-pitched squeaking from
A, ‘Beattie’s
out! Beattie’s escaped!’
It
didn’t take me long to size up the situation.
Beattie was only after one thing – a
live chicken! Did the wrong thing, of course – I chased after her.
AT’s first rule NEVER CHASE THE DOG!
I yelled at her, ‘DOWN’, but either she hasn’t seen those videos
where the owner manages to down the dog using distance control
commands or, more likely, she just ignored me! Red mist, and all
that (another AT truism)!
By
now, all the hens had scattered to the myriad points of the compass
leaving Beattie a bit puzzled what to
do next. She ran off towards the car and, trying a different tack,
commanded her to WAIT (in no uncertain terms). This time, she did
obey the command and I was able to grab her, pick her up and
transport her to the safety of the caravan.
It had
been a close-run thing!
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Comment from
AT
Why don't you invest in a caravan garden?
Well, that would solve that particular problem!
derek
BEATTIE IS TWO YEARS OLD
Mon 2 Jun 2008
Now
that I am back from another week in the Lake District, it’s about
time I updated the diary. Beattie was two years old on 16 May when
I was away with her in the caravan. That day, I dispensed with the
usual celebrations of cards and presents and took her for a walk
instead. By a happy coincidence, I had a long-standing arrangement
with
John Burland to climb Scafell Pike. This is the highest
mountain in England at 3210’ (977m). It has long been an ambition
of mine to add this summit to my collection and John had planned an
ascent by the Corridor Route starting from Seathwaite in Borrowdale.
Seathwaite has the dubious distinction of being the wettest
inhabited place in England. There are many fell walks that begin
and end at this farm and it is with excited anticipation that one
drives the long mile from Seatoller up the valley at the beginning
of the day. Of course, the first object is to secure a parking
place and an early start is essential.
We met
up at 8.20 on a rather dull morning, the highest tops being wreathed
in cloud. The forecast was for a dry day - I just hoped that the
cloud would lift off the tops to give us the views. As far as
Beattie was concerned, this was just another fell walk. She enjoys
them all, especially the rocky climbs. It’s a lot easier when she
decided she is going to lead the way, rather than me having a
trailing lead with dog in tow. In those circumstances, I am rather
too concerned with looking behind – not a good practice for safe fellwalking!
And
what a superb way up on to Scafell Pike. Although rough in places,
the Corridor Route gives exciting views, especially of Piers Gill on
the flanks of Lingmell. There are no really hard climbs, but all
the while you make steady upward progress towards the objective.
On the
final climb from Lingmell Col we met a party of five young people
walking 24 of the highest Wainwrights in 24 hours for a
Cancer
charity. They would have to go some to complete the challenge.
Their aim is to raise £30k and they are well on the way towards
their target.
And
then I could see the summit cairn and a further few minutes walking
brought us to the roof of England, the highest point. It was a very
satisfying moment. It was soon our turn to step up to the cairn and
stand on the topmost inches before settling down to eat our
sandwiches. Beattie, of course, had really earned her cheese
today!! (Beattie usually shares my cheese sandwiches. I have the
bread – she has the cheese)!
There
is no escaping the boulder field on the return route. This approach
seems to be the most popular, but I cannot see the attraction.
Great care is required and quite a difficult proposition when you
only have short legs and small feet (I am talking about the dog)!!!
But she managed very well and after forty minutes or so reached the
summit of Great End, which, on a clear day, gives superlative views
down Borrowdale all the way to Skiddaw. Today was not one of those
days, although the clouds had lifted off the summits by the time we
had climbed up to the top.
From
Esk Hause, there is a long, uncomfortable descent via Grains Gill
back to Seathwaite. John was on a time limit as he had to be in
Keswick for a presentation by 4.30. But we made it back to the cars
with twenty minutes to spare.
What a
day! And what a birthday present. Somehow, I do not think that
Beattie really appreciated her achievement. She just curled up on
the sofa and went to sleep! (Photos)
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Comment from
sablonneuse
Belated Happy Birthday to Beattie. What a
great way to spend her birthday. Why didn't you carry her over the
boulders?
I had enough trouble negotiating the boulder field myself
without Beattie in my arms! derek
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Photographs taken with a Fuji MX-2900
Zoom or a Canon EOS 20D
Copyright © 2008 Derek Cockell All Rights
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