my mum is a portuguese water dog

no, we are not mongrel lurchereivers, I swear we are pure bred pwd's , White House here we come.

perfect snowdrop

we are still searching for the perfect snowdrop picture.

butterbur and snowdrops

It was misty this morning, so we went for a long walk, to the site of the butterbur patch (top photo), where as predictably as ever, the flowers are emerging once more. The colours this year with a mixture of orange (old) and green (new) have been striking. Not far from here we found some otter spraint which suggests that otters are active on this part of the Inny, not that with 4 hounds there is any chance of catching one unawares. We saw one once for about 15 seconds, on the other side of the river, during a great spate, when it had been flooded out of its holt. We remain hopeful that the renegade Gunnislake beaver will move upstream and pay us a visit. At 6 1/2 stones he sounds like quite a character. In the meadows Mole has been very busy, but no sign of Ratty.

the eponymous dog

well, it is his blog

lambs' tails

lambs' tails, aka catkins (see link), the flowers of hazel, are out in another sign of the end of winter. Hooray!

washing the dogs

washing the dogs in the stream just below Luckett village. Luckett is in a 'bowl' in the landscape, and the village stretches up hill on both sides of the bridge (see below, taken in 2002). It is hard to believe that this was one of the most industrialised areas in the world not that long ago. In fact mining created a large part of the local landscape, but it is slowly retreating behind thick ivy into woodland and ruin.