Long Lead Adventures on the Heath

Yesterday morning was about as sedate as possible around here. I did a little bit of light gardening -- watering and deadheading, that kind of thing -- and then sat on the garden bench and read my Thom Gunn biography. I think I may actually polish this book off in a day or two. As with so many books, it was slow going at first but I eventually got into the rhythm of the writing and the drama of Gunn's life and now it breezes along. (It gets much more interesting, in my opinion, in the 1960s, when Gunn moves to San Francisco and experiences the Summer of Love, the mind-expanding possibilities of LSD and the heyday of early gay liberation.)

This was the scene as I read -- parched grass, snoozing dog. (Her limp, by the way, vanished overnight. Whatever was going on apparently wasn't a big deal.)

After lunch I decided to be brave and take Bailey to Hampstead Heath. I wasn't sure how well this would work, given that I can't let her off her leash, but I thought I'd try. So I dug out the new 10-meter lead and off we went. (This leash, by the way, is not retractable. The woman who runs the rescue kennel where I got Bailey specifically told me to avoid retractable leashes -- she says they're not strong enough. That's why I've written about the challenge of using it without getting tangled up in it!)

And it worked out fine. I learned the hard way not to let her plunge into the brush in pursuit of a squirrel, because untangling the lead from the bushes can take a long minute, but if I keep her on the paths she's fine. She loves the walk and she's super-vigilant about the critters. (And on a summer weekday afternoon there weren't many other dogs around, which is a plus with Bailey.)

My real goal was to let her swim, and she plunged into the duckweed-laden pond on Sandy Heath with gusto. Unlike Olga, who used to just wade, Bailey is a full-body swimmer and even dives under to get her head wet. (There are no predators and duckweed will not hurt dogs. Blue-green algae is toxic, but I saw no sign of that in this pond, and indeed Bailey was fine after her swim.)

Afterwards, more walking. Bailey is like Olga in that she is a self-cleaning dog. By the time we got to the Hampstead Heath Extension, she was dry and back to her normal coloring. (She still got a bath when we got home!)

Here's a video for those of you who would like some Bailey action shots. Or inaction, as the case may be, as the first clip shows her dreaming in bed. Then you see a quick shot of a red admiral butterfly on our garden Buddleia, followed by the spectacle of Bailey in the pond.

I'd say the long lead works fine, with the proviso that I keep her out of the bushes. I may also want to get some gloves, because when she sees a squirrel, the risk of rope burn is real!

Last night I watched an action movie called "Greenland 2: Migration" starring Gerard Butler. I watched the first one several years ago and thought it wasn't too bad, but this was just one action sequence after another tied together by the thinnest of plots. There was no complexity. The effects were fun, but honestly, a seventh-grader could have written this movie. (And perhaps did.)