The whole family is currently residing in Balsall Common, near Solihull, as we are spending some time with my Sister and her family. The main attraction was dog-sitting for my hairy nephew Branston, a Standard Schnauzer, while his family took a trip to Dublin for the Easter Weekend. Barney and Branston absolutley love each other. Being young dogs who are full of beans they spend hours wrestling and chasing each other and come in with their throats and scruffs wet through with dog saliva, panting from their exertions and covered in mud and dust from rolling in the flower beds.  Betty being an older lady has nothing to do with the 'idiot boys' and enjoys loads of attention from my three nieces, lots of tummy rubbing and stroking, which means she couldn't be happier.  

We had a lovely day touring on Saturday, heading first to Ross-on-Wye where we had a lovely walk along the side of the Rugby Club on a steep wooded slope. There was a lovely walk alongside fields at the top of the bank which we shall explore another time.  Abergavenny next where we stopped to buy a picnic lunch. The children were very excited to be visiting Wales and they loved trying to read the road signs in Welsh - very amusing. We had our picnic on a gorse-covered hillside in the Brecon Beacons but had to keep all three dogs on their leads as their were so many lambs around. They enjoyed a bit of ham sandwich and a biscuit and helped pull me up the steeper slopes!

The most fun to be had during the day was on the Common in Malvern on the journey home. We met at least a dozen other dogs, all enjoying the Easter sunshine with their families. There were lots of sniffy, tail-wagging introductions and of course chasing.  The dogs managed to find the one large drainage puddle on the Common and all three had to have a wallow with a lovely English Setter they met. My sister was very unimpressed with the state of her car's boot and the all-permeating smell of wet dog when she got back! Pity it was too warm to wear my 'I'm on DoggySnaps are you?' sweatshirt.  Everyone should have one. I also spent a happy hour putting Branston onto DoggySnaps http://www.doggysnaps.com/kennels/munkey/branston/?PID=347066 I hoped he might have been the 15,000th member but that happened half an hour later. Pay my nephew a visit and give him a warm DoggySnaps welcome if you have a moment.