Kiss

I love you. You're my best friend, you are...

I was wandering around the homestead this morning looking more than usually dishevelled, but confident that I was unlikely to run into any innocent civilians, when I suddenly realised that the lane was full of donkeys and people. That's possibly a slight exaggeration - there were three donkeys and maybe half a dozen people - but it's a narrow lane and they were filling the bit at the end of our drive. The people were also looking at me and smiling broadly (as well they might), and it was far too late for me to run away and hide, so I put a brave face on it and went to find out what they were up to.

I hadn't been aware of this before, but the Donkey Breed Society has been running a fundraiser for ten years now which they call the Webster Walks, in which breeders and volunteers walk their donkeys around an area to meet the public and collect money; the funds are then donated to individuals or groups who are using donkeys as therapy animals to help children and young adults with special needs. There's a blog post about this on the Society's web site, if you'd like to know more.

A macro lens on a crop sensor camera isn't the ideal combination for photographing donkeys, but I didn't want to hold up the walk while I faffed around with gear so I did the best I could, before rushing back into the house to get some money to put in the collection box. The big handsome chap on the left of this shot is called Humphrey, and was rather noble and reserved, as befits a champion. I wish I'd thought to ask the name of the one on the right, who was absolutely adorable and wanted to kiss everyone - though s/he seemed to be particularly in love with Humphrey.

The full set is here, if donkeys are your thing. And if you haven't already seen it, I recently back-blipped the second day of our Dublin trip.