Another lovely day at the beach.
“Put down that stupid book and take us for a walk!” The strange blacked out shape at the bottom of the picture is my lap. My bare legs demonstrate a sad lack of photographic preparation.
The water was actually less enticing this morning than yesterday, but I felt I had to have a swim as, perversely, I was wearing my togs today. And actually, once I was in, it was lovely. Lured the dogs into the water by swimming across to the other side of the river, filling them with dread that maybe this would be that one time I disappear into the distance, never to be seen again. Once on the other side, we played a game of fetch. Well, it was the Jordan dogs version of fetch, which involves enthusiastically running after the stick, and then either sniffing it and then ignoring it, or otherwise picking it up and running back towards me, filling me with false hope, before running past me and refusing to give the stick up. The oldest and most experienced dog will chase each stick while still carrying the previous one in her mouth. She will then inspect the new stick, and only if it seems in some way superior, will she make a switch. It’s hard to know what are the criteria that make one stick better than another, it’s certainly not simply size, but if one of the other dogs wants the new stick, then it suddenly becomes the most desirable of all possible small wooden entities. The only way I can make a game of fetch last any time at all is to have a small stockpile of sticks beside me. When the time comes that the old dog figures out she can bypass the middleman and go straight to my stockpile, the game will well and truly be up. But, that day has not yet arrived, and a very enjoyable day out was had by all.