Wednesday

The Dog Rambler E-diary

To 22
August 2012
Walk Dogs on walk Pressmennan Wood, East Lothian Length 6 miles

Cyrano, Dylan, Finn, Jolie, Otis, Phoebe, Teela, Tim

Half a mile on the lead again at the start of walk and Teela was a very happy dog. No longer the quivering girl sitting in the car ready to get out. No attempts to run back to the car as on previous walks. Once off the lead her tail was up and she trotted along, albeit with many reassuring glances over her shoulder. None of the rest suffer such anxieties. Phoebe and Finn bundled about each other along the track. This time joined by Tim on one of his irregular Wednesday walks. Jolie too pressing in on them, creating a right guddle of noisy dogs. Several times I had to remind them that we are not a barking group. Otis was briefly caught up with them as he tried to charm the girls. But being much more tom boys his nosing and attempts at ear washing failed to impress. Dylan and Cyrano found their fun sniffing in the long wet and dank undergrowth. It is a long time since we have travelled these woods and there was a lot to catch up on for them. Our track rose through the trees but did not get any lighter for it. The fir trees,

interspaced with more native species, clustered closely as though pressing in on us. Passing them you could almost feel them reaching over in for a closer look, blocking more of the light. The camera struggling to focus as though ghouls and ghosts drifted across its viewfinder. I looked around; it was only me who had noticed it. The dogs merrily stomped their way along the wet and muddy track. Before long we were to be wet all over as a very dark cloud cloaked the sky. But before then we had time to escape the woods into a kind of vale. Wet fields of scrub and grass dipping onto a bowl. A narrow stream collecting water at the bottom. With very muddy surrounds in places. Not helped by the arrival of the rain. Out in the open we were never going to stay dry, despite the shelter of these rising fields. The dogs ran across the open ground. Finn, Jolie, Phoebe and Tim racing each other but using underhand tactics to impede one another. Cyrano, Dylan and Otis explored the muddy terrain by the steam. Along with a fence, lined with ragged bushes, it separated the two fields. Teela kept me firmly in her sight, dropping her head once the rain came. We climbed to the top fence of one of the fields. Revealing views across to a blazon of blue from the Firth of Forth with a very close looking Bass Rock rising out of it. The tip of North Berwick law prodded a stubby finger above a further field. Now exposed the wind caught us and blew us back a little ruffling the dogs hair but not really helping to dry us out. No point anyway because once back in the woods we stayed low and reached Pressmennan Lake. A man made finger where the vale kind of continued into the woods. Cyrano slipping down the dammed end and into the water after a stick. Tim teetered on a strut of concrete from the dam before taking the plunge. Replaced by Jolie she looked on aghast at such antics. No fear of her going in. Otis paddled about getting the worst of the mud off him. It would soon be replaced once we had moved on. Dylan waited some way off not fancying the water and Teela sat at my feet enjoying a little rest. Finn quickly jumped off the dam once he realised the depth and played with Phoebe at a safe distance from the water. We climbed back into the darkness of the woods and slithering on muddy paths wound our

way around them eventually clambering back up onto the top track. With expanding blue skies banishing the darkened cloud it was as though the woodland sprites had looked favourably on us and brightened our track back to the car. Nick

Photo slideshow from the walk

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