Bella loves to chase

This photo on Blencathra shows Bella and 'handler' Jane with Liz and a chap clearly enjoying his butty just after Bella (who looks very furtive) hurtled across the fellside with Pete's rucksack as an anchor!

This incident happened way back during the mountain festival when Bella decided to chase a sheep or two.  Her lead was attached with a karabiner to Pete's rucksack and she sped off with it in tow, closely followed by Pete who was trying to save the rucksack's contents from scattering to the four winds..... Well tonight in the garden I was reminded how naughty she can be because our resident hedgehog has appeared again and she is trying everything she knows to get out and chase it.

In the middle of last night Bella barked her head off in protest at this intruder to her domain and woke us both up. Tonight we have a sulky dog at the back door mewing to be out.....The beastie does not seem perturbed which is ok for it but not for us. We are sure it is the same one which we evicted long ago up to a local farm on Springs Road but it keeps coming back (attracted by my slugs and snails perhaps?) and setting up residence under the shed at the top of the garden. Does anyone know how to re home a hedgehog? All ideas will be treated in confidence........ 


Meanwhile we have received a rather amusing photo of a motorhome from Michael and this is it; a sort of elevated mobile chicken shed on a Land Rover. I prefer to 'wild camp' on the ground myself because you can't fall out of bed........

Judith's photos

Well it has been a busy summer so far and I thought it was high time I posted some photos here. Usually I use photos of hills relevant to the actual walks, but today is different, I thought I would use dogs and transport as a sort of theme to give you a flavour of how Keswick Rambles operates. Afterall, we do try very hard to make sure we are environmentally friendly which means we avoid asking everyone to come in their own car as this only adds to traffic congestion etc. Also, we are very dog friendly both on the walks and in the town pubs and guest houses and our canine friends love it here. So thanks to our star photographer, Judith, I shall attempt to enlighten you in all these matters.

We are fortunate in having a number of regular customers who come every year on the guided walks and this year we welcomed back a couple of these in the shape of Hamish and Angus, who I mentioned in the last post if you remember. Well here they are with their owner.

Next we have a photo of Hamish (black Tibetan terrier) and angelic Angus (golden) in action crossing a stile in style   ha ha!

Our next doggy delicious photo shows our dear little Bella stepping out smartly and demonstrating the fine art of crossing a beck with Pete who also shows how it should be done.....

Of course we not only cross becks and climb over stiles but we also jump onto the Keswick Launch when we set off on our rambles. Here is yours truly boarding the boaty.....

Easy does it and don't fall off the step or there might be a loud splosh.....

We also use the open topped bus when we return from Seatoller and this shows the view as it goes down the Borrowdale valley, note it is a good idea to sit well in from the side or you end up festooned with leaves etc in your hair.......

We had to use the cars a couple of times because we needed to start in more remote areas so just look at this for transport......very stylish ha

We don't have a set of wheels quite like that  :-)  but this little number does help us to wiz clients from Seathwaite to Seatoller for the bus sometimes, and it does save a 25 minute walk....

Judith stayed with Pat and Linda Dent in their lovely guest house called Rivendell on Helvellyn Street and of course it is dog friendly..

Her guide for these particular walks was Pete Armstrong.

It only remains to thank Judith very much for sending in so many photos on a cd, they were all wonderful.
Now you know how we organise a typical day out with Keswick Rambles. Of course there were loads of fells climbed too!

Fairfield Horseshoe

We went up Fairfield via the Horseshoe route today in the awful soggy rain. Everything was wet through by the time we landed back home, but we had good company and enjoyed it. So our thanks to all the lovely people who came with us and sorry not a single photo opportunity and I don't think anyone had more than 2 bites of their sandwich either it was so windy and wet.

The three doggies who came too were entertaining to say the least; Bella was very naughty and kept barking at any sheep she saw looming out of the mist, Hamish, who noted Bella's antics decided to pull and would have liked to join in, but, 'angelic' Angus just strolled along without a care in the world and no sound at all.

On arriving home I emptied out my rucksack and discovered a partly dissolved 'gravy bone' biscuit stuck to my compass........and a very wet £10 note which luckily escaped the gravy bone. I think it's time I looked for a rucksack cover, don't you?