Bleats, Goose and Leaves

 Nell the Poo and I braved the canal path walk in the village today. It wasn’t too wet but there was a fair amount of sticky mud. Anyway, we negotiated the big sticky mud patch, with me skidding around like an inept ice skater - I stayed upright, which was a bonus, and more than a lot of the Olympic male figure skaters managed to achieve at the weekend. Did you see them on the telly? Going down like skittles they were. But then I suppose it is a bit slippy out there on the ice. 

I digress…

…once over the big sticky mud patch, we found ourselves on a less mucky path, so the walk was reasonably pleasant from there on in. And as we emerged from beneath a bridge, we saw these…

The first lambs of the year! And a goose, which muscled its way into the first photo because geese are like that. 

There was a fair amount of gambolling and frolicking and baa-ing from the lambs, so I stood for a while and watched them because it was a nice thing to do. And then Nell got fed up and started barking at them, so we moved on. She’s such a spoilsport. 

I was determined to find signs of life in the hedges that line the canal path, just to convince myself that Spring really is on the cusp of happening. Mostly, things are still looking a bit twiggy and dead but I did find some unfurling leaves and baby buds, which was a bit exciting. I know, I am sad about these things, but one has to take one’s joy where one can find it.

We met a few other dog walkers so our outing was punctuated by a couple of conversations, one of which was about Nicholas Culpeper, the botanist and herbalist who was hanging around England doing his stuff in the early to mid-1600s. 

And then we came home.