Walking with John's dog

After meetings all morning and rain all day, I decided to ring John at teatime and suggested I drove over to his house for a cuppa. That suited him although he had been about to go out to walk their dog, Theo. When I arrived the rain was still falling although not quite as hard as in the morning, and we stayed in the kitchen for tea and a chat. I wanted to show John the picture which he'd taken of the Working Group last week and which the local papers had printed which amused him. John has a lot of technical knowledge of photography and I was able to pick his brain about buying a macros lens and possible a lens extender. We shall see about that.

I was about to go home when John suggested a short walk as Theo hadn't had any meaningful exercise today. So we got in the car and drove to Standish Woods where I took a picture of the fantastic bluebell flowers earlier in the year. The rain was harder by then but I carried my brolly and my camera and took a few shots in the weird light of the very overcast day under the canopy provided by this year's young beech leaves.

I didn't have good waterproof shoes and it was very muddy with rivulets running along all the paths and falling down the steep limestone slopes. Theo, who is a Bedlington Terrier, became very excited and ran non-stop most of the time,. and then suddenly would stop, either to draw breath or to dig a quick hole in the Fullers earth where it was outcropping. John was right when he said that although it was often hard t get out to walk the dog sometimes, he never regretted it once he had made the effort. The landscapes we have available to us all around our area are so inspiring that even the inclement weather can't put you off.