0 Reservoir Walks

 I woke up this morning and it was as if we'd landed in Oz.

The wind had stopped.

For the first day in nearly a week, the trees were still.

As a bonus, around 2 PM that magical ball in the sky known as the sun appeared, and the thick cover of white cloud parted.  

Happy holidays to you, too, Aeolus!

First I popped Max in the car.  He's not able to do the same length walks as Sloan yet, so if I'm walking them alone (Paul's at work) then I have to take them separately.  I took him to Fewston Reservoir, the further of the two reservoirs right near our house.  

The bridge on the right of the above image separates Fewston and Swinsty, and the house there is the residency of the Yorkshire Water attendant.  Sloan seems convinced this house is hers, as she constantly tries to go down the driveway.  I think she just wants the prime-traffic location for barking at all the human and dog walkers.

You can see how excited he was to take a picture with me...

Unfortunately for Max, the general rule here is that a dog is only on lead for two reasons: he/she is still young and in training, or he/she is aggressive.  He is still required to be on lead to prevent excited-running damage to his knee, and due to his size (75 lbs) people tend to assume the lead is because he's aggressive.  I spend half our walk explaining that he's recovering from surgery and is happy to sniff-greet-tail wag with other dogs, which we want him to do so that he maintains his sociability.  All-in-all, his story is always a good ice breaker!

 And this is a perfect way to show you why wellies are a MUST here!  When Max and I left I still hadn't decided where I wanted to take him, and Swinsty Reservoir has fairly clear paths.  Well, Fewston has a lot more muddy areas and puddles.  I took this picture AFTER I stood in the reservoir and shook my feet around to get most of the big bits off- I should have taken one before that!  

(For those of you who were at our wedding, these are the white Uggs- nearly 7 years on, they're not really white anymore- especially not after today!)

 Some of the ducks/geese/birds at Swinsty Reservoir, where I took Sloan.  She likes to chase these, and they seem fairly used to it and fly just out of reach.  

 If you look closely (click on it to make it bigger) you'll see hundreds of little white birds.  They descend on the reservoir at dusk and cover it. 

What, the sun doesn't set at 4:30PM where you live?