Hills – Dexter

Light Spout Waterfall

We finally got around to going somewhere more exciting than the local lanes, fields and park areas. It was a lovely sunny morning with the birds chirping in the hedges whilst they dug up worms for their breakfast. I prefer kibble and my chicken food.

Lenny and I were walked briefly across the field at the front of the house and then found ourselves locked and loaded into the car for a trip. What was this sorcery? We had no idea. Anyway off we went along the lane, turn right and right again, then a left, a right and straight on to our destination. Well, kind of. As the boot opened we breathed in the scent of the countryside and gazed out of our prison cells to the hills towering in most directions around us.

Once our parentals had sorted out their footwear, we were attached to a human and bounded from the car. Off we go then. A lady on a recumbent bicycle drifted past and Lenny aroooed. A man ran past, so I aroooed. This was to be a theme for the first ten minutes or so of our trip. As we wandered (read pulled and strained in our harnesses) along the valley floor we kept on looking up and seeing the hill tops in the distance. Through the water, drink in the river, pull my welly wearing parent into the river and then arooo at another person who wandered past us smiling. Across the ford, over the footbridge and follow the little sign with a green band around it toward Light Spout Waterfall. As we stopped at the junction of the paths, we allowed three people to go ahead of us whilst of course arooooing loud at them.

Looking along the path it started to get rocky and uneven, with boulders and gravel for slipping opportunities. This was going to be fun. Our leads were subsequently shortened as we ascended the first section of the rocky path. Over the boulder, around the edge of the path, through the stream and cross the footbridge. This continued for a while until we arrived at the waterfall which was a trickle thanks to there being little rain for some weeks now.

It was still very pretty and very quiet, so we weren’t disappointed. The circular path seemed to go up steeply next to the waterfall and it was at this point that the parentals looked at Lenny and I both puffing like steam trains. They looked again at the steep path, looked down at us and muttered something about a nearly fifteen year old beagle who doesn’t know when to be careful and who “will be broken through the exertion of continuing the ascent”. We had walked far enough for Lenny and I to turn around for the descent of the path which proved equally as proficient for the chances of slips and slides. Being reined in again was a bit boring to be honest. Returning to the main path we decided that it was a better idea to try and walk in the river, as this was also better for our sore paws, as well as explore the sides of the valley.

I drank the water whilst Lenny tried his best to avoid getting his toe nails slightly damp. He had no choice as he was walked through the little ford further down the hill. Back to the car and we were duly placed in our cells for the return home and our breakfast. We just finished our walk as the people arrived for their trip around the hills of valleys. I’m not sure it would have been as quiet as it had been for our circuit.

Living locally to the Long `Mynd is handy for getting there early, avoiding the more crowded times and giving us the chance to go on shorter exploratory walks. I am now lazed under the desk noisily snoring whilst a parent writes this. Maybe they were right about me being tired.

What a cracker, second part

I would like to continue my run down of our year 2024. Lenny and I had so many fun things to do and see. Here are some of them and I apologise if I have left any out.

July

Lenny and I ensured that people behaved themselves whilst performing their civic duty at the polls. We managed not to mess about for around five to ten minutes.

We went for a climb up onto the hill at Flounders Folly and welcomed our friend River to our house. Griff came along to join in the fun too, which is always good.

Our fruit trees were starting to produce fruit which needed to grow further. We helped water them.

We were so tired after all our July exertions, we needed a lie down to recuperate.

August

The weather was warm and trips were planned. We went for a walk up to Wart Hill and we went almost into Wales when we visited Clun.

The Victoria Plums ripened on our tree and they were devoured greedily by our assistants.

We finished our month with a polite and quiet stroll around Town Brook on the Long Mynd which was great fun, if somewhat tiring for me.

September

The month started with Lenny needing to go to the vet for a blood test. They wanted to make sure he didn’t have a nasty disease so he had a blood sample taken. I felt sad for him but there was a lull in bitey face games for around 30 minutes.

We went to Llangollen to meet up with Sasha, Griff, Smudgey and Ted in the hope of going for an interesting walk across the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. Unfortunately Lenny kept on trying to get through the railings when we were high up so we turned around and strolled along the canal itself. It was lovely, despite being somewhat soggy under paws.

Lenny and I decided we would take the assistants for a walk from Bromfield to Ludlow but we had planned it badly as the cinnamon bun cafe wasn’t open. There was much disappointment all around.

It rained, rained some more and then poured down. The flood plain did its job thankfully and the river took the flood waters away.

October

The days became cooler and the mists began to rise more often, shrouding our area in a cloak of secrecy. Lenny needed the Fingerposts to be able to navigate some days.

It rained even more than it had done in September so the flood plain and river were called into action once more. It was like a giant duck pond.

The fields in the valley stretching away toward Bromfield and Ludlow became misty and mysterious. And muddy, very muddy.

November

We decided on a trip to Carding Mill Valley in early November, just to stretch our legs and explore a new place. It was great fun.

My ear trouble flared again so I was forced to go and see the nice vet ladies who looked after me admirably. They still made me wear the Cone of Shame though.

The sun was lowering in the sky but it still managed to shine over Norton Camp whilst I was out on my walk.

And then if rain wasn’t enough it decided to snow, turning our meadow into a snow filled playground for Lenny and I. We love the snow albeit it disappeared within a few days.

December

Just to prove our assistants wrong, we proved that we could snooze together without antagonising one another. Maybe it was a brief lull in shenanigans but it was a lull. We were being watched as my time in the Cone of Shame continued.

We met with Griff for a pre-Christmas stroll from Bromfield to Ludlow and this time the cinnamon bun cafe was open. We returned via a slightly longer and different route which gave us some lovely views over the hills.

Lenny got the chance to explore slightly off-piste on Christmas Eve and he dragged his handler up onto the top of the hill so he could survey all that we would like to wander across.

And to finish we had a Christmas morning walk up onto the top of the Long Mynd. It was a wonderful quiet stroll and we enjoyed ourselves very much.

To sum up then. Wow, what a year it has been for us. Moving home again (apparently it is the last time we are moving) and having some lovely places on our doorstep is a huge bonus. We are closer to one of our best buddies who is happy to show us the places we don’t yet know about, as well as accompany us to the places we do know of. We will explore further to see what else lies beyond our current horizons. One thing is for sure though, we will try our best to enjoy ourselves.

I never realised

Until I blogged yesterday I hadn’t realised what we had done between our adventures on the train to Ludlow in late March and our sojourn to Wart Hill last Sunday. Here is a precis of our shenanigans, sorry I meant to say our adventures. 😀

Firstly Lenny discovered Sallow Coppice, a small wood close by Stokesay Wood. He said it was so quiet and pretty that he needed to explore every leaf, twig and fallen branch. Our dad however had different ideas.

We welcomed another beagle parent to our house, this time one from Houston Texas who was visiting the UK. We got chew toys which we played with quite nicely.

The field in front of our house dried out significantly and I could stroll down by the river, taking in all the sights and scents that accompany a meadow.

Sometimes Lenny and I are walked separately as avid readers will remember. We tend to drag our respective parent around after the same scent so they think its calming for us to walk separately to discover new things. In this regard Lenny found the back road to the next little hamlet of Lower Dinchope which he eagerly explored.

In the meantime I was discovering Stokesay Castle and all its interesting features. We swapped stories and then adventures at a later date.

In early May we accepted the offer of a guided tour from our good friend Griff to go and explore the bluebells at Hope Bowlder. Griff is a rescue like Lenny and me, so we always try to look out for his wisdom.

Lenny and I then swapped routes and he discovered Stokesay Castle, whilst I strolled up to Dinchope to see what all the fuss was about.

The route toward a place called Sibdon Cawood was next to be crossed off our list of places to explore. This walk involved traversing fields of wheat or barley as well as strolls down very quiet lanes. I must admit that there is a welcome dearth of traffic here.

At the end of May we had a visitor from Yorkshire, another beagle called Hector. We couldn’t play as he had a poorly paw and I was very overexcitable so we were banned from exploring the garden without supervision. Actually we were banned from the garden, full stop.

Then we took on the challenge of a 10 km circuit around Wart Hill via Cheney Longville which is a village named in the Domesday Book. Our exertions caused us to feel rather tired for a few days after our walk, which cheered our parents up for some reason. 🙄

Lenny decided to take dad to a place called Flounders Folly as a precursor to all four of us making the trip some weeks later.

The road past Stokesay Castle and the path through the lower part of the wood was the next assault on Lenny’s visual and nasal senses, with him doing the precursory legwork for a future visit.

In early July we made sure that everyone who went to vote was behaving themselves.

This was followed by our combined trip to Flounders Folly for a lovely view over the surrounding countryside.

Finally we welcomed another beagle visitor to our area. River was visiting Griff and we were so happy to show her around the meadow.

In between all these excursions we have been making sure that the fields and side roads, especially those leading to the Discovery Centre have been regularly pounded.

Phew, I never knew we packed so much into our first 4.5 months. I think I need to go and lie down.