In the forest

Well we weren't going to let a little snow (actually, a lot of wet, if truth be told) stop our fun so we fired up the behemoth this morning and pootled through the slush to Thetford Forest. On arrival we did the usual - hand-brake turned the van onto the pitch, plugged in and got the coffee on. Feeling suitably refreshed, I then took the dogs out for an amble around the woods, finding them beautifully mellow and muted with just the sound of water droplets plopping onto the undergrowth to disturb the calm. On my way back, I met our camping neighbour out with his three Belgian shepherds and despite their friskiness and vocal harmonies, my lot were remarkably restrained. That may have had something to do with the treats I was distracting them with though...I've worked a lot recently on drawing their attention away from other dogs and onto what's coming out of mummy's pockets so that we don't have the usual fusillade of growls and barks from madame Susie and whoever else wants to pitch in. The one downside to this is that there's invariably a needle nose ferreting round my trousers for most of the day...

Because the ground drains so well around here, we should have the opportunity tomorrow to get some good walking/geocaching in - I define' good' as the avoidance of two tons of mud collecting around the bottom of your boots and your dogs' legs remaining the same colour as their bodies. There are two caches within walking distance of the site and I have a geocoin to drop off, so no excuses really - unless it's cold and miserable and wet in which case I may just walk from my bed to the kettle and back.

Before I go, I must share one of those 'differences between men and women' things. Ask a woman the calories in a large pack of Waitrose creamy mash and she'll most likely pull a face before reeling off a figure in the mid-hundreds. Correct. Ask my beloved, as I did just now, and he'll say, 'Fifty'. So wrong but god, how I wish he was right. 

P.S. I think the food situation is getting rather desperate. I'm now counting the minutes till I can tuck into some steamed broccoli...for heaven's sake, the only words that should come after 'steamed' are sponge and pudding. I could be close to breaking....