The Joy of Dog Walking

...is that you get to see sights you might otherwise miss, you get some exercise and you meet people.  And when it is literally freezing outside, you get very cold extremities! That particular joy came for me this afternoon.  Before that, I was out in the back garden this morning, north-facing and frozen.

The pond has been solid for days now.

This tree decoration twirls in the wind and offers an alternative view of the surroundings.

After moving the sofa upstairs, we have now rearranged the house. What was the living room is now an office-cum-music room, the former bedroom is now an upstairs lounge, the spare room has now become our bedroom and the utility area is no longer a workspace. Lots still to do, but it is great to re-imagine the space - just like moving house, but a lot cheaper and quicker!


After our exertions, We went out for lunch - back to Prior Park garden centre, followed by a trip to drop stuff off to Dorothy House Hospice shop. Came home, and I could no longer postpone going out with Bella. Found this newly deposited skip - wonder what treasures will appear in it?

A cold walk, made more challenging by the wind from the north and east.  Bella didn't mind, because she had her built-in fur coat as well as her other coat. Coming up the hill out of the Charlcombe valley, she found this ball.

It didn't last very long - this was it five seconds later!

These hellebores are doing better than ours, which were very unhappy this morning.

Walking up this path, I did my grumpy old man impression being appalled at the amount of rubbish littering it.

A few paces up the path, found this empty carrier bag. So, to add to my reputation as an odd character, I decide to fill it with as much debris as I could fit in. Three minutes later, one full bag, a clean path and a smug me...

Bella discarded her deflated ball for me to put in the carrier bag and found this rubber quoit-like ring, which she quickly trained me to throw for her.

This day last year, I spent most of it inside teaching before going off to Tony Solomonides' farewell dinner. Tony first employed me at UWE and is now working in the USA. This was the view over Bristol on the way home the previous night.