January continues unabated.
Yesterday I was a bit worried because Theo reacted to several dogs we saw. Lockdown fever again. He's still getting walks, but because of the need to stay very close to home, the walks are not so varied at the mometand have fewer dog and people encounters, so when he does meet a dog he wants to fling himself at it yapping joyfully, which looks terrifying, so I have to haul him away, which leaves him even more frustrated. Then we get home and he's all mournful and bored and whiney.
Anyway, I decided this wouldn't do, so I have signed him up for Online Dog School, and decided to make an effort to walk further, while still sticking to the immediate area.
So we went from the house up out of the village and climbed up onto Hingston Down. This road is often not very pleasant walking in other times, because of lorries thundering by to the quarry, but at the moment it's very quiet.
And at Hingston Down, we set out along the path that runs through the open area overgrown with grass heather and rowan trees that is all that now remains of the old mine on the top of the hill.
We found a Huge Stone, so Rosie posed for photos while Theo ran around in the bushes yapping enthusiastically at whatever unfortunate small mammal had disappeared down a hole and was wisely not coming back out again, no matter how loudly he yelled at it.
We went on along the crest of the hill, then down into Drakewalls, and back along the road past this farm, whose name I always forget, but I tend to think of it as the Farm of Encroaching Entropy, because although someone lives in the cottages at either end of this row, the building in the middle has been abandoned to Time. It's still full of Random Stuff, which you used to be able to see piled up waiting for someone to get around to it through the window round the back, which is visible from the foot-path, but recently the roof fell in so I think the moment of Getting Around To It has been comprehensively missed.
The cowsheds seem to run on a similar Encroaching Entropy policy of fill it up with junk then build a new one. These cows (in the new shed, not the old one) were listening to a discussion about quarantine and airports on Radio 2, which they seemed to be very interested in, from the twitching of their ears.
Across the road, the chickens came charging madly over, hoping we would have treats for them, but alas, we did not. Still, it was probably good practice in Chicken Ignoring for Theo to look at them, so we did. He didn't bark, which I was pleased about.
Just 3.88 miles, but it took me nearly 2 hours, what with stopping for Important Sniffing, and occasional need to retreat from Humanity to pass at a distance.
We did manage to practice walking reasonably calmly past four Jack Russell Terriers, a golden retriever, a springer spaniel, some sort of small black mop thing, and a Clumber spaniel in that time, so that's a step in the right direction.
Still no news on house move, which still seems to be tangled in an immoveable knot of paperwork and solicitors, though at least the knot is showing some signs of wishing to eventually become untied now.
In the meanwhile, our dishwasher has given up the ghost and can't be repaired, which is annoying, since it will have to be replaced to sell the place, and dishwashers are currently like hen's teeth due to 'supply issues' so we had to buy a new and reasonably good one because there are no cheap ones. Oh well. Perhaps someone will buy the house for its dishwasher.
Anyway, I decided this wouldn't do, so I have signed him up for Online Dog School, and decided to make an effort to walk further, while still sticking to the immediate area.
So we went from the house up out of the village and climbed up onto Hingston Down. This road is often not very pleasant walking in other times, because of lorries thundering by to the quarry, but at the moment it's very quiet.
And at Hingston Down, we set out along the path that runs through the open area overgrown with grass heather and rowan trees that is all that now remains of the old mine on the top of the hill.
We found a Huge Stone, so Rosie posed for photos while Theo ran around in the bushes yapping enthusiastically at whatever unfortunate small mammal had disappeared down a hole and was wisely not coming back out again, no matter how loudly he yelled at it.
We went on along the crest of the hill, then down into Drakewalls, and back along the road past this farm, whose name I always forget, but I tend to think of it as the Farm of Encroaching Entropy, because although someone lives in the cottages at either end of this row, the building in the middle has been abandoned to Time. It's still full of Random Stuff, which you used to be able to see piled up waiting for someone to get around to it through the window round the back, which is visible from the foot-path, but recently the roof fell in so I think the moment of Getting Around To It has been comprehensively missed.
The cowsheds seem to run on a similar Encroaching Entropy policy of fill it up with junk then build a new one. These cows (in the new shed, not the old one) were listening to a discussion about quarantine and airports on Radio 2, which they seemed to be very interested in, from the twitching of their ears.
Across the road, the chickens came charging madly over, hoping we would have treats for them, but alas, we did not. Still, it was probably good practice in Chicken Ignoring for Theo to look at them, so we did. He didn't bark, which I was pleased about.
Just 3.88 miles, but it took me nearly 2 hours, what with stopping for Important Sniffing, and occasional need to retreat from Humanity to pass at a distance.
We did manage to practice walking reasonably calmly past four Jack Russell Terriers, a golden retriever, a springer spaniel, some sort of small black mop thing, and a Clumber spaniel in that time, so that's a step in the right direction.
Still no news on house move, which still seems to be tangled in an immoveable knot of paperwork and solicitors, though at least the knot is showing some signs of wishing to eventually become untied now.
In the meanwhile, our dishwasher has given up the ghost and can't be repaired, which is annoying, since it will have to be replaced to sell the place, and dishwashers are currently like hen's teeth due to 'supply issues' so we had to buy a new and reasonably good one because there are no cheap ones. Oh well. Perhaps someone will buy the house for its dishwasher.