Farewell to The Lakes

I travelled over to Cumbria to meet Mike. We stopped en route at Talkin Tarn where we (me, Paddy, Jewel and Rufus) walked round the lake. The picture shows the lake from an elevated position in a beech wood, if I remember correctly.

When I was younger I would go to the tarn with my parents and sister. We would relax by the lake side and take a rowing boat out on the lake, an activity favoured by my dad.

It's still much the same except it looks a bit manicured to me.

Whilst waiting to get a parking disc from the ice cream/tea shop a lady unfortunately dropped her newly bought ice cream, apple crumble flavoured I think she said. Another lady said 'the dogs will eat it,' and kicked the scoop of ice cream towards the dogs where it lay at Rufus' s feet. But none of the dogs saw it. We tried to point it out to Rufus, Jewel and Paddy but they just didn't realise it was there or what it was. Eventually Paddy noticed it and started licking it followed by Jewel. Rufus stood resolutely with his head up watching what was going on further afield. Then one of the ladies said, 'he's eaten it all!' And sure enough Paddy had eaten the whole scoopful of ice cream leaving Jewel with the lickings on the concrete.

Paddy's lucky day!

After that we took a walk around the lake. Rufus investigating an interesting hole.

I liked this willow hide. Perhaps we can make something similiar in Sweden.
And there were plenty of benches situated around the lake. All of them dedicated to loved ones, which I thought nice.

Here we are at the far end of the lake. The dogs certainly enjoyed their walk. We took a walk into an old bit of woodland, and further on Rufus was curious about a windturbine that we passed. He kept looking up at it. The dogs got lots of admiring glances and it's the first time they've been out away from their home area.

The next day I went to visit my sister and her family. Again I took the dogs for a walk, this time along part of the River Eden.

At my sisters we sat outside with the dogs chatting over up of tea. I initially tied all 3 dogs to the tree to keep them safe. And Rufus and Jewel stayed tied to the tree. Especially after a flash of lightning turned out to be Jewel chasing a cat that crossed the garden. One minute she was tied to the tree, the next she had shot past me into the back garden which is where I found her once I'd recovered my senses. I think she had surprised herself as she was stood motionless probably wondering how she had got there. It is a feature of greyhounds that when they see a small animal such as a rabbit, cat or small dog, their brain disengages and they give chase regardless of any dangers, such as roads and traffic. In fact later on, Rufus was in a fenced compound which he had walked round several times, yet when he saw a rabbit the other side of the fence he ran towards it only remembering at the last moment that there was a fence between him and the rabbit, but too late he barged into it. Fortunately he was okay.

Jazz my sisters cat kept a watchful eye on the 3 dogs. Only Paddy saw her through the window and he doesn't chase cats. Not all greyhounds do.

Paddy seems to be saying, 'can I come in?' But of course we couldn't take them in with a cat in the house. But I let Paddy off his lead to roam the small garden, he doesn't go looking for trouble.

Rufus and Jewel look very contented here. We are looking forward to taking all 3 dogs to Sweden where we have a big garden.

We stayed in a small caravan. it was a bit of a squash with 3 large dogs, but it was cosy. I took loads of photos of the 3 dogs but I think I will show them another time.

We had forgotten that it was Bank Holiday weekend. That means that the Lake District will be extremely busy, so we went to a quiet area. Again it's an old favourite of mine from years ago.

Unfortunately I was plagued with toothache over the weekend despite visits to the dentist over a period of a couple of weeks to try and rectify the problem. Eventually, yesterday the dentist gave me a temporary root canal which should make it pain free. So far so good, I'm keeping my fingers crossed particularly as we start the journey on Monday which will take us to Sweden.

Rufus and Mike sharing a moment.

Family group.