Horse and gorse

...or more accurately fell pony and gorse.

The wind on the Helm at lunchtime was penetratingly cold.  The blowing mane hints at the breeze, and the snow patches the cold.  Yet the gorse has been blooming for some weeks now, and was the pony delicately trying to pick the coconut scented flowers off?

In the absence of Rowan who was on a site visit, I spent some time working on Gus's ball retrieval skills.  He gets the idea of returning the ball, he just tends to drop it a bit a short so it often disappears off down slope before I can get to it.  He doesn't follow the ball in the air, so has no idea where it's going to land, and quite often misses it altogether.  Then sometimes he chases it, it bounces off his nose, and he just gives up and comes back to me.

Still for a dog who didn't know how to play until he was five years old, he is doing well, and he can catch a ball on the bounce occasionally now.  When he's with Rowan, he doesn't get a look in, and contents himself with his rounding up duties.  We are not too keen for him to become a ball-obsessed collie, so the ball is a rare treat when we walk on our own.  I would just like to see him give Rowan a bit of competition.

There's a back blip here posted this evening.  I'm striving to make progress towards my next blipstone.