Alastair Swinnerton

Yes, six weeks after my operation, I finally walked the dogs on my own. Really didn’t think it would take that long for things to heal enough to be able to hold a pulling dog, but it did. Admittedly yesterday’s walk was along the River Parrett from Muchelney to Langport, and you can park pretty much next to the gate to the river walk, so my dog-holding abilities didn’t get much of a workout. This morning however I took them into the field opposite, which involves walking along the road, and past the house where two German Shepherd guard dogs live, which Woody insists on straining at the leash trying to reach. Quite how he thinks he’d win a fight with them if they ever jumped the gate I don’t know – he really isn’t too bright. Cute, wonderful, loving, but there’s not too much going on in that head of his.

Anyway, here are some photos, first from the Muchelney walk…

Looking towards Langport – the paths were wonderfully overgrown, bursting with Cow Parsley and Field Mustard (or it may be Rape, I’m not sure), and the occasional Poppy.

The path was quite overwhelming at times for small dogs though!

Riley and the river, looking back towards Muchelney.

Woody likewise. There were loads of birds around – I saw a Reed Warbler, several Reed Buntings, a Flycatcher, several Herons, and numerous Skylarks, one of which photobombed the picture above. Too busy keeping an eye on the dogs to get many other bird photos though, and that Skylark, this distant Pied Wagtail…

…and this even more distant Egret were all I managed.

But it didn’t matter, it was a lovely walk anyway. You rarely encounter many people along that stretch even in normal times, and while there were a few going the other way from the bridge, and a few more on the other side of the river from us, we only came across two others on our side, and both were very friendly and properly distanced. The only other person we saw was as we neared the end of the walk – it’s safe to say there wasn’t a problem with distancing in his case…!

So, this morning we went to the field over the road, and down to the river. No time to stop and photograph the usual myriad insects, because Woody was too keen on racing ahead smelling for pheasants, while Riley mostly walked in my wake. The grass really is too high for him to run in, poor little thing. I did get two shots of them together though…

As I said, no insect photographing today, but for a change there were some birds, a tree full of young Long-Tailed Tits in fact, some of the cutest things in the bird world. I’ve put some of them in a slideshow below. For the full-size photos, just right click on them.

So, finally I’m able to walk the dogs again, which I’ve missed immensely. Hopefully this week I’ll be able to take them back along the Riverside Walk proper, which I’ve missed equally as much. At the beginning of the lockdown it was just too busy down there, with people really not getting the whole social distancing thing, but now it’s a lot quieter apparently, during the week anyway. So, watch this space!