autumn – Dexter

Nothing to report?

It’s been a quiet time here in semi-rural Shropshire. The sun has been hidden behind clouds thanks to anti cyclonic weather blanketing the nations for the last weeks. As a result our noses haven’t been down as much and we have had to make do with dull and boring strolls.

I must however report that I have been escorted to the vet due to my inability to refrain from scratching my ears, making them raw in the process and thus additionally itchy. I have been bound up by the Cone of Shame for over a week in an effort to try and stop my incessant scratching. The vet was good and I was examined, prodded and poked as normal. There weren’t as many personal details expressed this time although I was described as “wriggly” if and when I am being examined or, worse still, being jabbed. On this occasion I got both these crimes against beagling.

I look like an extra from a costume drama.

Lenny and I survived the aural horror of Fireworks Night, or Bonfire Night, or Guy Fawkes Night which in the UK has become an excuse for letting off rockets and bangers so loud that us furs as well as many humans fear for our lives. I have wondered (read complained) aloud about the sale and use of these infernal objects for quite some time and I continue to be puzzled. Celebrating the grisly death of a man famous for trying to enact a heinous crime some 419 years ago? The method of punishment and torture was awful, truly grim. Anyway I will continue to advocate for the ban of fireworks to the public for however long I remain alive.

It’s become chillier over the last few days. The clouds have broken and the nights to become cooler. We have taken advantage of the clearer mornings on our separate walks to enjoy the sights and scents that the local area has to offer. We walk separately as we are beagles and tend to try and reach the same scent at the same time, with the result that arms and shoulders are regularly almost disjointed. We tend to be calmer when Lenny and I are apart. We did take a walk across to Cheney Longville over the weekend together though and we were amazed by an older chaps garden, sporting the largest cauliflowers we have ever seen (we are easily impressed). Beyond that we have walked separately and enjoyed our trips with the respective immovable object attached to us, spoiling our intended fun of chasing rabbits, squirrels and anything else that moves.

The days are becoming shorter and the scents are sticking around much more so I think we will be in for a bumper selection of walks and adventures in the coming months. The trees are shedding their leaves and the colours are a wonderful pastiche of brown, yellow and green.

There is much yet to enjoy this autumn and we intend to make the most of it. Stay tuned.

Mists and mellow fruitfulness

Ok, Ok I may have borrowed the title from someone more famous.

It’s got chillier recently. As a beagle of an advancing age I can feel the chill more in my bones now. This doesn’t mean I don’t run around the garden in the rain and wind like a hound possessed, all the while singing the song of the breed so the locals all know I am out and about.

Lenny went for a walk earlier this week and saw the mists sitting across the field which fronts our house. We live behind the trees in the picture.

Then it rained. And rained. And rained. Just for one day and one night. The river rose around 2 metres and the field turned into a giant swimming pool for the ducks and geese, the sheep had to graze on the higher grounds and our walks were taken in slightly different directions.

It has receded now, to be replaced by some excellent muddy soggy patches where we can go splashing through, all the while give ourselves dirty bellies. Returning home to be towelled and dried, provided with food and being forced to sleep on/in our comfy warm beds makes us feel very fortunate to have a safe home.

This will be the norm for the next few months whilst winter spreads her icy fingers across our lives and pushes us to snooze more often in front of the log burner. I may be feeling the chill, but it won’t stop me going out and exploring. There is so much to see and appreciate where we live and to see the seasons give us new palettes of colour every day.

What to say?

I have been remiss once more on the blogging front. I can only say that it has been busy around here and, as a result of our being occupied, there hasn’t been much to report.

As summer turns to autumn, we notice that the leaves are turning brown as we go on our walks, the winds rise and the rain becomes more frequent. The times of our walks are changed according to whether our parents are going to get soaked to the skin or not. No thought or consideration about Lenny or I getting bedraggled I notice. Having said that we are seeing that Lenny doesn’t like walking in the rain, nor does he like walking through puddles. This is strange as that doesn’t seem very beagle to me and I don’t understand him. I like to scour the hedges and roadside verges for critters and scents whilst Lenny seems happiest in the open areas so, again a strange boy. We went field walks over the weekend and he seems to have mastered the art of looking handsome and noble. Ok, treats were involved but I am proud of my tutoring.

We have revisited our good walk to the top of Chanctonbury Ring which affords us some lovely views over the surrounding countryside. We couldn’t go too far as there were cows grazing and I don’t do too well with cows to be honest. I tend to yell at them so the prospect of being chased around a hilltop by three quarters of a ton of ruminant isn’t particularly appealing.

I have thankfully recovered from my visit to the vets to have my teeth cleaned. I am not sure I have wholly forgiven my parents for tricking me into going there. Yet. I am back on proper food and I can still pull and jerk on the lead so I am feeling fine.

We are not looking forward to Guy Fawkes Night in a couple of days time. I despise fireworks and I always shiver and try to dig holes in the carpet to escape the sonic cacophony which erupts. I am hoping that it won’t be as bad this year as we have moved house and no longer live within two hundred metres of the local football club whose display was enormous and very scary for Lenny and myself. We shall see what transpires but we know we will be safe in the house and the television will probably be turned up far too loud to try and drown out any explosions.

It’s a busy life being a beagle, I seem to have something and nothing to do at the same time. I’m off for a lay down.

Hopefully I can report some more exciting shenanigans soon.

As autumn falls

Sometimes there is no reason to post a long and winding blog about where I have been and what I have got up to. This is one of those occasions upon which I will not verbally ramble. I shall instead let my paws do the walking and the pictures do the talking.

Lenny and I went off on a stroll around the fields yesterday. The early morning mist and fog was beginning to release the land from its nocturnal slumber. The air was fresh and cool enough to see our breath as we ensured the deer population in the vicinity were aware of our presence.

There is a stark beauty to the fields when the leaves are falling and the sun is lower in the sky.

Then it is home for a well earned rest.

We are very lucky to have this on our doorstep.

Timber!

I sometimes think my life is really dull and boring. You know the thing, you just plod through your days dragging a parent out on a walk whilst looking at trees and fields. When I get back, my brother is usually there readying himself to attack me in the style of the vampiric Beagle that he is. Anyway, this is how it all started on the Saturday just passed.

The parents woke up later than usual and decided it would be a good idea to go for a walk across the fields. It had been raining for the last few days so the ground was fairly wet. Lenny and I knew this meant there would be plenty of mud and puddles to splash about it, as well as drink from. Off we set, going via the alleyway where there is always a black cat that sits there goading us into trying to have fisticuffs with him. We try to entertain the feline mauler but we forget that we are shackled to a human and they are fairly adroit at spotting said furry hooligan. Turn left at the end of the alleyway and up the hill towards the fields. As we go through the gate the pastures stretch away in front of us and we are allowed to roam, pull and wander about at the end of our respective leads. Rabbits scatter for their burrows and the deer in the field to our right look up, no doubt sighing, and wander off to a safer place to eat the farmers crops. Straight through the first of numerous large muddy puddles and we skirt the edge of the woods at the top of the hillock only to come back down to earth and into the first ploughed field. We see another dog along the top path and say hello from across the field, much to the non amusement of the parents. Along the path by the hedge and just as we enter the second field we turn sharp left then right and take a walk around the edge of Penn Grove. More of Penn Grove later in the tail (see what I did there). We arrive at the opening in the hedges where the gravel track crosses, at which point we see the mile field ahead. Let the fun begin. We manage to pull and jerk on the leads so much that the parents are slipping whilst trying to regain some degree of control. It’s only when they notice that we have seen a deer some way off in the field that they realise why we seem to be entering a competition for “Best Sled Dog Beagle Team in Bucks, UK”. Having regained our composure as the errant deer strolled away we navigate our way around the field all the while ensuring that all the muddy puddles are navigated centrally with all our paws as well as the wellington boots of the relevant parent. I am sure they will thank us at some point. We manage to circumnavigate the field and find ourselves near the burn site where the farmer makes ash from various hedge cutting activities. It is starting to rain so the parents decide it’s best to take the direct route along the gravel track, through Penn Grove and back towards home. I give Lenny the nod and he applies the beagle brakes whilst attached to mum. We get into the wooded area and Lenny is still applying the beagle brakes, somewhat to the annoyance of mum and much to my pride, that I have taught him well. Dad and I marched on ahead and suddenly heard this Crack, Whoosh, Thud as a tree in front of us falls directly across our path. Timber! It wasn’t a big tree, maybe 70 foot tall (that’s about 21.3 metres to you metric aficionados). We stopped and looked back at mum and Lenny. They were aghast and agog whilst we just had silly grins on our faces with the excitement. With the swish of his catlike tail Lenny had turned mum around and was walking swiftly back the way we had come, so we could take a treeless detour and not have any trees falling on our heads. When we got to the other side of the horizontal tree we could see that the root was very shallow and very waterlogged. It was now that we heard and saw our pals Charley and Bromley, accompanied by their mums as usual, telling us that a tree had fallen down. Don’t we know it pals, it nearly hit us on the heads.

Shall we take this stick home — Phew, that was close

Home and a race around the garden chewing each others ears was clearly needed. I don’t live a quiet and dull life, sometimes excitement is just around the corner. On this occasion, waiting to fall on my head.

Hardwired hound

I am aware that I haven’t blogged for some time so I want to rectify that omission on my part. There is no excuse on my part however I have been busy. In any case, I can now dictate my latest missive for publication.

Lenny and I have had a hectic few weeks. I blame squirrels. I also blame the earth for spinning and orbiting the sun. Finally I blame the seasons, specifically one of them namely Autumn. Maybe I should try to explain.

As a beagle harrier I am hardwired to chase small furry creatures that dare to enter my line of sight. Recently there has been a plethora of creatures present on our walks. On our walk through hill and vale we are restrained so any sighting of an unsuitable creature bounding across the road or field ahead of us means we are only able to advance to the end of the industrial strength leads. Worse still they have been invading my garden in the search for food for the forthcoming winter season. We have apple trees which should provide us with tasty and nutritious fruit for eating in their natural state as well as being baked in pies and tarts. This is in an ideal world and doesn’t account for the activities of the local squirrel, magpie and blackbird populations. I say local but it seems to attract all and sundry from around a ten mile radius. If it was only the magpies or blackbirds, the world would be a sane and reasonable place. Sadly, with the addition of squirrels, the facade of calmness is removed and replaced instead with frantic door scratching, constant whimpering and persistent marching from one door to another so I can get a better view of the pesky creatures whilst they cavort in my garden, eat apples and then try to bury their winter food in the grass. Being a beagle harrier with expert vision up to a mile or so, it is extremely difficult for me to miss seeing them in the garden. I have to constantly remind the parents that I should be chasing these furry little chaps and I need to be let out. At this point I should also comment that my little brother Lenny doesn’t help the situation much. He will fly out of the door with me and chase the squirrels up and down the garden. Once the invaders have been repelled he will wander nonchalantly up to the orchard and pick an apple off and start to eat it. I need not describe the look of sheer horror and abject disappointment that I feel.

Having said all the above, Lenny and I actually caught a squirrel last week and were about to play tug of war until we were foiled by our parents. We were strolling around the patio having a sniff when all of a sudden, from the left side, this squirrel wandered towards us. We were stunned at his bravado. Did he not realise who we are? Did he not understand that we are hardwired to “attend” to small furry chaps such as himself. In any case it didn’t matter as within a second his head was in my mouth and I was trying to cuddle him with my teeth. Lenny ran around cheering me on whilst asking to pay tug with the squirrel. My fun was short-lived as a dad shaped object advanced quickly upon our shenanigans and I was told in no uncertain terms to “DROP IT”. I followed the instructions but Lenny then picked the squirrel up and started to practice his dental lobotomy on the furry little chap. We knew we were in big trouble when mum appeared on the scene and the fun was over. Dad still had to remove the very scared, and somewhat drool covered, squirrel from the garden. Fortunately he was wearing gloves as the squirrel bit the finger of the glove to show his gratitude at being saved from a certain doom. Dad had the foresight to loosen his finger from the glove so he wasn’t bitten.

So there you have it. I blame the seasons, the earth spinning and orbiting the sun and the fact that Autumn is upon us. If it wasn’t for all of these factors combining there wouldn’t be as many squirrels in my garden and I wouldn’t be driven to absolute distraction by them. That’s my story and I am sticking by it.

I do think that Lenny looks at me sometimes and wonders why. Just why?