Today’s Mission (and what a mission it was…)

Just the Home Team today! I had to visit my mum in her office in Nursling so Floyd, Didz and I decided to carry out today’s manoeuvres at Lords Wood on the way home. Lords Wood is a pretty coniferous forest surrounding the Southampton Sports Centre and a popular ornithological site – I’m sure they loved us today, as Floyd’s barking skills were on top form!

The boys on a big ol' slope.

Things went a bit wrong when we took a wrong turning somewhere and ended up on a cul-de-sac. Oops. I tried to head back down a path I thought might take us back the right way, but I ended up being smacked in the face by a branch, stranded for a while in the middle of the Bog of Eternal Stench (while my sure-footed collie and schnauzerntain goat hopped through it without getting very muddy at all) and got a big scratch on my finger. Then we came to a fence and a solid dead-end where I had to admit defeat, lift the poor dogs over the fence, climb over it myself and ask an old man in his back garden for directions back to my Hundwagen.

The fence we climbed over - that stack of chairs was handy until they crumbled under my feet. Ouch.

I realised then that although I had my bag with me and my important dog-walking things (phone, gloves, extra jumper, Polos) I had failed to pack the boys’ leads, and we were now on a road. Floyd decided he was going to spend a bit of time munching on some bits of hot-crossed buns that someone had left out for the birds, so it was difficult to get his attention long enough to tie him to a sleeve of my spare jumper. We got some funny looks from people in the road, that’s for sure.

I'm glad I had a spare jumper.

And I could’ve really used that jumper, because as we walked back to the car it started to snow! I couldn’t wait to get home for a cup of tea!

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