Walking with the dogs is an everyday job (hardly a job as it is always lots of fun) and January has been interesting with all the frost, snow, rain and even a bit of sunshine! Trying to get both dogs to look at the camera at the same time is really difficult ... but I have managed it once or twice.

I am so lucky having such fantastic walks right on my door step. The video is a typical walk for the dogs. We also go to Ashridge where we meet up with other cockapoo owners and I had a lovely walk at Marston Mortaine Forest Centre with a good friend - Dylan loves the lake.  We all went up to Sharpenoe Clappers after Joe's training, which used to be lovely but this time was full of litter - a great shame.

It was very muddy today, but sunny and actually quite warm for a January day - hats and coat weather but quite a nice day to walk in. Dylan & Joe got very muddy during our 4.75 mile walk from Harlington, along the bottom of Sundon Hills, to the chalk gravel pits (pictured here) and back home again to Harlington.

I was privileged in that Duncan and Luke came with me along with 52 other people, making 55 altogether. Below I have shared a few of my favourite photos from the walk ...

We went for a longer walk today because finally the ground is hard enough not to slip and slide everywhere. Even yesterday it still was fairly muddy, but today the frost has done it's job. We met Denis and Cal and had a lovely walk down to the Bottoms, across the fields to the bottom of Sundon Hills (part of the Chilterns) ... it was beautiful looking back towards the village. We are so lucky living in such an amazingly beautiful place - see the view below across towards Sundon Hills just as the sun is trying to peek through.

Here are a few more pictures of the dogs having fun playing through the snow.

There is nothing like a walk in the snow, and a day of unexpected snow is even better! We often walk at Ashridge Park meeting friends at the Monument and then trying to get lost through the woodland. Today we stuck to the big field behind the cafe so as to stay away from any defrosting mud!

Dylan enjoyed the company of little brother Joe; Yogi & Harley, Mad Bo (who spend her whole snowy experience looking like a large dog shaped snowball), 6 month old Harvey and a new puppy called Maya. We also met a new cockapoo called Bella that Joe took quite a fancy to.

All the dogs ended up with big icy balls through their hair, but Bo was the best at looking more like a snowball. They had lots of fun running round whilst I made the most of the lovely sunshine to take some photos.

I am so lucky living in such a beautiful village which is accentuated by frost and sunshine, not that I think Dylan appreciates it as all he is interested in is the sniffs!

We've had the van for a few months now and it is really good fun. We are in Bala this weekend with our friends. It has been rather windy whilst camping, which immediately dropped once we decided to test out canoe sails!! Here are a few pictures of Dylan's view ...

We're up in York this week to celebrate my Dad's 75th birthday on the 16th August.

So today we have come over to Robin Hoods Bay to check out the beach. What fun the waves are. Dylan loves it and is quite happy to swim out quite a long way.

Dylan is nearly 9 months now and absolutely full of it as you can see in the video below.

Handsome Dylan after his first hair cut

Today we have been helping at Bedford Canoe Marathon - an annual canoe race along the Great Ouse in Bedford.  Viking Kayak Club run the race on behalf of the Eastern Region Hasler Races and I have in past raced, but today I thought perhaps Dylan & I could help out. We were asked if we could keep an eye on the youngsters in their Lightning Races - making sure they are  safe and on the start line at the correct time, so we took the canoe and Dylan came too.

Dylan did a great job making sure no-one fell out and that they started their races when the judge said "Go"

Dylan is nearly 5 months old now and the last 5 days have been amazing, but cold! Dani, Paul & I took the dogs Harley & Dylan to Cumbria to camp, paddle and walk. We had am amazing time with sunny weather mostly, but very cold nights. Sleeping in Paul & Dani's bell tent was great. We started by paddling Coniston on the first day, but didn't get on there until quite late, so ended up getting off at dusk.
Day 2 was a trip to Grassmere (see photo) where the lake was glass smooth and the views were amazing. Dylan of course fell in off the boat and had quite a dunking, but it hasn't put him off. We had a day off paddling on Day 3 so had a lovely walk. Then we went to Windermere on Day 4 for the most amazing paddle. I even managed to get the sail up although there really wasn't enough wind. Because the trips were much longer than Dylan was used to he got the hang of sleeping in the boat until we found land and then having a mad doodle dash!