Dogs

Today I have Alfie. He's a collie/spaniel cross; very sweet, but with no road sense at all. He belongs to Mandy at the Wholefood Shop, but there are some days that he can't be left at home, and then he comes to me.
Alfie's hobbies are long walks - and more long walks. He gets on very well with Islay, but she's a middle-aged lady compared to him, and she certainly sleeps well when he's gone home!

We went up Nantyglasdwr (Nan Tee Glass Door, more or less, for those who find Welsh spelling confusing), on the English border of Hay, and from there we went a little way up Cusop Dingle. According to the Rev. Kilvert, our local Victorian diarist, this was the last place in England where fairies were seen. When you get up to the far end of the lane, where the tarmac runs out and the lane degenerates into a track and then a footpath, it's easy to believe, and yet this was once an industrial area, with a large brick works. A lime kiln can still be seen, half-ruined, among the trees.

Last night, I took Molly out with Islay. She belongs to Di Blunt, a near neighbour of mine who runs Pemberton's Bookshop, the only bookshop in Hay that sells new books. She wasn't sure if her lodger would be around to walk the dog for her, so she asked me to look in and give Molly a bit of a run. It was only a bit of a run, too - the weather was foul last night, and the river is high today. The Wye often floods at this time of year, but so far it's only lapped at the top of the banks.