Barn

I pass this barn virtually every day now that I'm doing much longer walks with Bill and even though I'm seeing it even more frequently it still makes me smile each time.

If you're doing the long circular walk it signifies the start of the home straight and if you fancy doing a shorter walk it's the turn around point.

James and I used to run the long walk together with our old weimeraner Lester. We'd all leave the house together and I'd start running about 10 minutes into the route then James and Lester would start when they reached the fields. Lester would then charge ahead to get to me and we'd run together for a wee while. Then, depending on who was having a good or bad run, James would catch me anywhere from halfway round to very nearly at the end and Lester would rejoin him. The barn was the end of the run so they'd wait there for me and encourage me to push it a little bit harder in the final bit.

In the all times we ran that route I never got to the barn first. I came close a couple of times, but he'd fly past me on the final downhill and that would be that!

If we do the short walk together, we have one of those silly family "rules" that you've got to touch the barn before you can turn around.

I'm smiling as I'm writing this too.