Birthday Dog Walk

Today is R's birthday. Her activity of choice was dog-walking.

I'm lucky that I have a great friend who lives close by. She has served as poste-restante, shipping box storage, occasional etiquette advisor and, most importantly, supplier of small dogs for loan.

I used to think that Brownie (on the left) looked like that because he was long-suffering during R's previous visits, when he was fussed over endlessly. Now he has a new young and excitable buddy, Otis, and I suspect he thinks fondly of the days when it was just a young girl he had to put up with.

Anyway, Lovely Friend excelled herself. Not only did we take the dogs for a walk, but we went to a great restaurant, where we sat outside to have dinner with them too!

Even with the patio heaters on, it was a bit chilly. We had down jackets and blankets to sit on. So, you can imagine, we had the patio to ourselves. But R was still embarrassed when the waiter brought out a dessert with a candle and we sang Happy Birthday. "Embarrassed in front of who?" we asked, forgetting that almost-teenagers can be embarrassed all by themselves.