Beech Wood

It has been another grey and damp day but nowhere near as wet as yesterday.  We continued our mission to find a not too muddy walk - and, we were successful!  

Today we went away from the coast and into the South Downs near to the National Nature Reserve of Kingsley Vale - renowned for its ancient yew trees.  We were in a beech woodland which covered the gentle slopes of the downs.  It was a good place to walk Merlin as the ground was chalk and flint, and the trees spaced wide enough to enable us to see where he was going - and for him to see us.  

We loved the walk and wonder if in Spring it will be filled with bluebells.  Merlin had a fantastic time too, especially when he met another German Shorthaired Pointer - an eleven year old bitch who was perfect at putting our young upstart in his place - we could do with borrowing her for a few weeks!

After a lunch of lovely hot homemade soup, Andy did some more work on his computer programme and I went to the allotment for a few hours.  Today I did more moving of the compost from the front of the allotment to the back bed, then I mulched it down with some manure and covered it with matting.  Hopefully over the winter the worms will do their job and incorporate all this additional matter into the soil.  It was quite damp at points but very mild - 13 degrees!

I hope you have all had a good day.