Travels with Charley

I've been a bit quiet on the blogging front, partly because I have either mislaid or lost my camera and also because it has been too hot for the dogs to walk very far.

I am reading "Travels with Charley" by John Steinbeck. It's an account of a 3 month journey across America, in a converted pick up truck, that he did in 1960 with his standard poodle, Charley.

This excerpt struck a chord with me, as it describes exactly what Milo and Bruno tend to do to wake me up:-

"Charley likes to get up early, and he likes me to get up early too. And why shouldn't he? Right after his breakfast he goes back to sleep. Over the years he has developed a number of innocent-appearing ways to get me up. He can shake himself and his collar loud enough to wake the dead. If that doesn't work he gets a sneezing fit. But perhaps his most irritating method is to sit quietly beside the bed and stare into my face with a sweet and forgiving look on his face..."

Bruno favours the ear flapping, snorting approach, whilst Milo is more of a face starer.

Southwold to Walberswick

I did this walk this afternoon on my journey home from Nigel and Tina's house. By the time I parked up to start the walk at the Southwold water tower, I felt fairly puffed out -  after a week of toing and froing, table football tournaments and wii dancing - so because of that and tomorrow's weather forecast (rain) I decided to head straight home afterwards, rather than spend a night camping.

This is the water tower, built in the victorian era, a local landmark that stands on a common on the edge of town. There is plenty of free parking on the common next to the tower. The area is quite posh - a shiny new Maserati parked up next to me, and I noted a lot of plummy accents as I walked.


The route led me across the common, part of which is used as a golf course, across the River Blythe and through the Walberswick South Nature Reserve which is an area of marshland reedbeds by the sea. I kept my eyes peeled for Bearded Tits, but had no joy.

The dogs taking a breather before going through the marsh. They had to stay on the lead so as not to disturb the nesting birds (and also to prevent them from rolling in marsh mud):-
 
 I headed back along the beach to Walberswick, the dogs had a good frolic in the waves, they were acting like puppies. The shoreline was a bit of a disaster area with a couple of dead dog fish and thousands of bedraggled insects that must have been blown out to sea. I stopped to give first aid to a couple of bumble bees but left the rest to take their chances.

The Monster Mash