Thursday 11 December 2008

Apples and Pears

We left our mooring at Norton Junction yesterday mid morning and headed up towards the Watford locks, seven locks four of which are staircase locks, that is there is no gap (pound) between the locks, as you leave one lock you enter directly into the next. These were good practice for the epic Foxton locks which will will be tackling next week sometime.

Caxton and Matilda Rose were the only boats on the move yesterday much of our 6 mile journey through ice. Jill and I walked with the dogs until reaching the Crick tunnel where we both boarded and disappeared into the bowels of our respective boats to tackle belated luncheons. We moored up adjacent to Crick village just below Crack Hill.

Today is a 'stay put day' so we slept late, had a leisurely breakfast and then walked across the fields into Crick for provisions. A bit of tidying and cleaning and wood cutting is about all that has been achieved today.

There has been one wee hiccup however, Greygal take note. Having clambered to the top of Crack Hill, a large pudding shaped hill left by a glacier, we were enjoying the view over miles and miles of Northants countryside when a movement caught my eye - moving sheep! Fast moving sheep! A quick headcount of dogs saw my heart sink - one missing! Sure enough Floyd was to be found behind this impromptu stampede. With visions of injured sheep and irate armed farmers I headed off at a hundred miles an hour down hill to stop the mayhem and capture the little git. Manic middle aged woman eventually seperated dog from his new companions and gasped her way back to the top of the hill to beat one happy hearing impaired lab to death!

Postnote: No animals were hurt, sheep or dogs... but my heart rate took a while to go down.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it is an instinct in most dogs to chase sheep, unfortunately.Sheep dogs are trained to control their instincts.Dogs are a great joy but they do sometimes get you going!

Dogsontour by Greygal said...

Serious now, hun. There is at least one farmer up Foxton way that will shoot first and argue the toss later - a tragic case a couple of years ago when a walker's dog wasn't even that close to the sheep but he'd 'had previous' and the farmer shot him dead in sight of his owner. We saw signs to similar effect on the Llangollen - they will shoot even if a dog is not actually causing any harm, just doing the doggy chase bit - that constitutes worrying in their book, and I guess they're withing their rights. Please be very, very careful!