As it was Lenny’s birthday yesterday we decided to take him on a little stroll to a place no one had been to before. So we were loaded into the car once I had run around the garden singing the song of the beagle for around ten minutes. It was 7 am and our assistants weren’t too pleased at my ability to awaken all the neighbours.
Along to the end of the lane and we turned right, right again, travelled for around eight miles, turned left, left again and then right. Up the winding road toward a small car park in a wooded area at Rectory Wood. As the boot was opened we thought it a good idea to sing our song again to a chap who’d been out for a run. He didn’t look as if he would be putting us forward for any competitions. Out of the boot, through the kissing gate and then up the first slope toward a path signposted as Pole Bank. We saw the gradient of the slope through the woods and our assistants considered it safer to have all their limbs intact and not to have something akin to a mad dash through the tangled tree roots and down a vertiginous hill or two, dragged along by a couple of excitable beagles.
We turned right, walked along the path and then descended back down through a gate to the town. We were having a great time, scenting everything and making sure we greeted everyone we came across. Through the town, left up the hill and then to a sign that proudly said “The Long Mynd” and the road snaked steeply up the hill past the sign.
We made the choice to turn left and follow a gravel path along the Town Brook on part of the Burway Loop. We strolled and pulled. I paddled in the stream at very regular intervals. Lenny scented everything and we got our leads tangled whenever we could, as it doesn’t seem to amuse our assistants.
The path started to ascend and I was puffing like a steam train so we were forced to stop our exploration on the basis that I get very overexcited and I am likely to do myself some harm. We returned along the path until we saw a small branch off which lead down to a pool and around the edge of the wood, close by to where we had parked. Back up the slope and left into the shaded carpark. We were reloaded to the car and returned home with grins like Cheshire Cats on our faces.
Once breakfast had been served we thought it only right to snooze and dream of the brilliant adventure we had this morning. I hope Lenny has plenty more birthdays as I want to go many more times to the Long Mynd and Town Brook.
Dexter 