Wildlife walks

I know we live in the country and not in town, but goodness the amount of wildlife we have seen over the last couple of days has surprised me.
Last week when we were out for a walk with Dad after work, we had a great view of an owl sweeping over the field in front of us - Dad said he was looking for his dinner.  Then to top off the evening, we had another hedgehog in the garden.  This one was much smaller than the one we had a few weeks ago.  Dad managed to catch him and took him down to the field in the village to let him go.

Yesterday we all went out together for a big walk which took us along the road than runs behind our village for a bit and then across the fields to walk a big circle.  As we were walking along the road, what we think were two weasels (they moved so quickly it was hard to tell) appeared in front of us.  One ran right across our path to the other side of the road!  Both Murphy and I were very excited by all this and spent quite a while hunting for the second one which had ducked back into the hedge when it saw us.

Later when we were in the field Dad let me off my lead for a run around.

I found a hare which took off across the field with me in hot pursuit.  OK, so I know I was a bit naughty and didn't stop when I was called, but it was so exciting!

I followed him into a field of sweetcorn ...

 .. which as you can see was really dense.  Mum stood at the edge of the field calling and whistling me to come back.  And, after a few minutes, I did!

I think she must have thought she had lost me because she was really pleased to see me and gave me a big hug.  Actually, I was quite pleased she kept calling me because I couldn't see very much in there, so she helped me find my way out!

Mum's day out

Mum had a day out without us yesterday.  Dad said it was as a reward for having done all the washing from our holiday, but I think she had it planned for a while.

She went to London to visit the Parliamentary Archives which all live in Victoria Tower (I have a human cousin called Victoria, but I don't think this is anything to do with her!).  It all looks very impressive

and even more so from the inside

This is the view from an 8th floor window which is at the top of the second set of windows in the photo above.  Not sure how Mum managed to take this as she is a bit scared of heights, but I think she did quite well.

As well as the view, she saw lots of old documents and went into a big room with loads of rolls of paper called the Act Room - just think of the fun a puppy could have in here ... you could make quite a mess.

Of course, never one to miss a touristy opportunity, she managed to get this photo on her way back to the station

How boring must that job be .. just standing there looking smart all day!

I should also add that Murphy and I had a very nice 'boys day' at home with Dad.  We had a trip into town at lunch time and a nice walk across the fields when he finished work. 

New Trick

Am I a clever boy or am I a cheeky boy?  That's the dilemma Mum has and she can't make up her mind, but I think she'll decide that I'm a bit of both!

What have I done?  Well, I've taught myself how to lift the lid on the bin that holds our biscuit and when it's really full (like now) I can help myself!  How clever is that??

Thief!

One thing I'm not so sure about though. Mum said I stole so much biscuit today when she was busy drying Murphy after our very wet walk, that I won't be getting hardly any dinner tonight.  I'll have to be sneakier in the future and not let her catch me in the act!

Home

We had a lovely two weeks away on holiday, but yesterday we had to pack up the caravan and head home, but not before Murphy and I had made sure any remaining biscuits and treats were packed well before we left.

After we got home, I was kept very busy checking out the garden and the house to be sure everything was where I left it.  I had a great holiday, but I have to admit it is nice to have a house and garden to charge about in again, and Murphy certainly seemed to enjoy his big roll and whisker scratch in the hall after dinner!

The Cotswolds

So, we moved from Devon on Tuesday morning (Mum wasn't sad to see the back of the really narrow roads) and arrived at our new site near Burford later in the day.  We have been here before - we stayed here last year for a full week, but this time it was just for a few days.  I remember being here because the site is across the road from the Cotswold Wildlife Park and you can hear the lions and monkeys making loads of noise in a morning.

On Wednesday we went for a lovely walk on the Sherborne Estate which is just a few miles away from the site. 

Catching a quick rest mid walk

In the afternoon we went to Minster Lovell which is a ruin of a house built alongside the river Windrush.  It was all very pretty.

On Thursday morning Mum and Dad went to a falconry centre and watched some of the birds flying.

Thumper is an Eagle Owl - here he is sitting on the end of bench quite close to Mum.

Gina is a Tawny Eagle and still learning her flying routine

Scruffy is a Gyr Falcon

In the afternoon we went for a walk around the Batsford Arboretum which was next door to the falconry centre and a lovely peaceful place for a stroll.



Murphy enjoying himself at Batsford - what a big grin!

 

        My final pose of the holiday







And finally dear reader, this is what a very happy and tired Welshie looks like at the end of his holiday ...

Beach & Dartmoor

We had a really good day today. We went back to my favourite beach here in Devon for another play and a big swim. We met lots of other dogs out doing the same.

We were exploring down by the rock pools when we spotted the heron fishing again. We got up really close and I was just about to say hello when woosh he took off.

In the afternoon we headed off to Dartmoor National Park. I thought that Clumber Park was a big place to run around and have fun, but Dartmoor is much much bigger. We went for a long walk on the moor.  There were ponies and cheeky sheep everywhere so Mum said that I had to stay on a long lead so that they wouldn't get scared by me.

There was loads to see and some great rocks to climb on for a better view of the moors.

Tomorrow we are heading away from Devon and back to somewhere called Oxfordshire. I think that we have been there before, but I'll check it out before blogging again.

Murphy & me on Dartmoor

Tour of Britain

While Murphy and I were snoozing away after our beach trip this morning, Dad disappeared to the village half a mile away to watch a big bicycle race go past.  
He said it was very exciting - lots of police on motorbikes (like when we saw the flame thingy a couple of months ago)....

  and then the first few riders arrived ....
 

They whizzed through the village and he had to wait two minutes for the rest of the race (Uncle Dave, who used to do this sort of thing, told me they are called the peloton)

Then finally, the last few stragglers

and it was all over in about five minutes. 

It might well have been over in five minutes, but Dad still managed to take 80 pictures!

South Milton Beach

Today we were up and out quite early to visit what is fast becoming our favourite beach of this holiday.  We planned to go early to see as much beach as possible with the tide out, and were surprised to see so many rocks compared to when we were there a few days ago. (Compare this picture with the one posted earlier this week.)

We were even more surprised to see this heron  busy looking for his breakfast in the rock pools.

Enough of the scenery and wildlife, Murphy and I had a great time.  While the others all walked up the beach, I swam along side of them.

At the far end of the beach are some more great rocks for climbing on...

Murphy did his usual posing for Dad..

... until I burst in on the act

What you looking at Murph??

Oh, today's arty picture.  There's two - one of the lovely clear (and cold) water in the rock pools and one of the rocks we are climbing on in the picture above

Plymouth

Yesterday we went to Plymouth
 

We went for a nice walk along the Hoe where Mum gave us a history lesson about Francis Drake (below), a game of bowls and a load of ships.

 The Hoe has great views across Plymouth Sound

Just keeping an eye open for any stray ships!

After our morning at Plymouth we went on to see a house and gardens at Cotehele 

It had some great gardens and a very steep walk down to its own quay where we found this boat called Shamrock (Dad was pleased with the Irish connection!) which is over 100 years old.

 

 We had a sit down before we tackled the big walk back up the hill to collect the car.

Thursday

Another journey along some very narrow roads and we ended up at Castle Drogo which is a very impressive place on the edge of Dartmoor and the Teign Gorge.

Mum found a lovely walk which was to take us around the gorge for about 3 or 4 miles.  Just after we set out she decided that she wasn't keen on the narrow path and big drop into the gorge, so she and Murphy turned back and I went on ahead with Dad.
It was very warm and VERY steep in places, but to my delight we walked along by the river for a while and I had a paddle to cool off.

While Dad and I were yomping, Mum and Murphy explored the castle grounds and had a nice walk in the sunshine on their own.  They met us at the end of our walk with drinks for both Dad and me - very welcome.

More big news for today - we met a Welshie called Toby!  He was only 7 months old and very excited to be out and to meet us.

Beach

Yesterday we went down some very narrow roads and found a beautiful beach at South Milton.

It was as deserted as it looks in the photo.  You can see a stretch of water in the sand which was actually a freshwater lake which was part of the nature reserve next door.  I went swimming in it and it was VERY cold - especially when I jumped in to swim across it to Mum and went completely under the water.  Won't be doing that again!


Of course we have the more 'arty' photo - taken on Mum's mobile, it looks quite good and shows there were quite a lot of waves.

We've moved

Yesterday morning we packed up the caravan and moved to Devon where we will be staying for a week.  It seems very nice here although the last bit of the journey was a bit scary - very narrow roads!

Today we went out to explore the area we are staying in and found a really nice beach that is about 5 miles away.  Unfortunately the tide was coming in quite fast, so we only had about half an hour to run about, but that just means we will have to go back again another day.

We're on holiday

So we made it! We left home yesterday morning almost at the time Mum wanted-she gets upset if we leave 'late', but then we are away for two weeks so I wasn't too sure what the fuss was about
We are staying on a site called The Mill Pond that we visited last year and I am happy to report that all of the wildlife is still here. I was very good yesterday evening sitting in the sun quietly watching the world and a family of ducks go by. Charlotte would be very impressed.

Today we have been to Berrington Hall.

There were lots of people there, but we went for one of the longer walks around the lake and park and didn't see anyone, which was rather nice.  After that we had a picnic lunch and Murphy and I had a snooze whilst Mum and Dad took their cameras off into the gardens.

Mum is still learning how to use her camera and so sometimes gets a bit 'arty' ..

 ... not too sure what the onions are all about though!