2022 Another year has gone!

The year has flown by! Since the last blog back in October 2021 I've carried on with my usual active lifestyle but with a bit (well quite a lot) of sleeping in between. I was a poorly for a few weeks in March with a liver infection so I couldn't do much exercise but my humans and vet looked after me very well. I am back to full fitness again and have done nearly 1000 km of running and walking so far.

I had a great eighth birthday with a special cake but not the wine, the humans had all of that, as always!

 The Loggerheads 5km Canix Race, I didn't feel well!

My last race before I was poorly was a 5 km Canix race in Wales in March but I had to walk most of the course as I really didn't have any energy.  My human gave me lots of cuddles and we went to see the vet.  I had to go to Vet Hospital for a few days but soon came home for rest and cuddles.  I did some gentle walks, then short easy runs before my first hill run in mid-April.  

Sadly my nephew Terry went to doggy heaven earlier this year, we had our last scamper together on a really wet, windy and muddy day in the Chilterns, here is our last picture together. Gone, but not forgotten.

Then is was off to the Yorkshire Dales for a few days walking, running and sightseeing.  I stayed at Kirby Stephen in County Durham in an area called the Westmorland Dales - yep, that is confusing but it is an area on the border of two counties.  While in the area I visited Richmond Castle and sat on a throne, according to wording behind the throne it was the the seat of power and my word (woofs) carry weight and whole  communities depend on what I might say next (really?) which just proves I am the boss. 

                                                  

 The River Eden, Cumbria.

Whilst in North Yorkshire I popped over the border into County Durham for a little stroll on the Pennine Way in Teesdale.

The River Tees and High Force on a lovely sunny day.

Here's a picture of me chilling at Richmond Castle.

Castles and stately homes were a recurring theme this year with visits to Norfolk as well, Norfolk having the added bonus of beaches. 

I visited Blickling Hall and Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk, they were very interesting from the outside but only humans were allowed inside but that was fine because I went on long walks in the grounds of the houses while one of my humans went inside.

   Blickling Hall (left) and Oxburgh Hall                                         

The first beach run of the year was on New Years Day, it was a great day, my friend Bobster the Border Collie was there with another Border Collie and we ran around chasing a ball, sometimes I got the ball before the Bobster, by the end of the afternoon I was so tired I slept in the car all the way home.

 

New Year on Treath Harlech

Brancaster Beach in May 

Summer time at Traeth Llandanwg

Sunset at West Kirby beach

Exploring rock pools on Little Eye at
West Kirby.

Apart from beach scampers in different parts of the country I did some mountain biking running and some hill and trail running although not quite as much as in previous years partly due to my illness earlier in the year but also because we had some really, really hot weather in Wales.  My human won't let me run with him in hot weather so he goes off on his bike while I laze around trying to keep cool. I've added some photographs of some of the places I've been for runs and bike rides and you'll see that I managed to get to all my favourite places.

Here I am at the top of Pale Heights during a ride around  Delamere Forest.

A photo overlooking Llyn Tegid and a video of me on the Trig Point at Moel y Garnedd.

I may have mentioned that I do not like early mornings, I enjoy my breakfast but after that I prefer to snooze until mid-morning.  I am prepared to make an exemption to this routine if, and only if, something exciting is planned.  In early May I had an early breakfast then it was off to  Dolwyddelan for an 8 o'clock start of a walk to the summit of Moel Siabod (872 metres). It was a bit overcast an quite windy but the early start enabled us to get to the summit and return by Llyn-y-foel before the forecast bad weather set in.  The summit was clear of cloud so there was a great view of most of the high peaks of Eryri.

On the ascent of Siabod.

At the summit looking towards Tryfan.

As usual Moel Famau runs were fun and easy for me, as was the running on the Mawddach Trail.

The view west from near Moel Dywyll and strange encounter near Coed-y-garth on the Mawddach Trail.

Having encountered the River Eden in Cumbria I was taken to another river with the same name, the Afon Eden, in Coed-y-Brenin.  

Nope, I did not get my paws wet!

To finish the year off I went to meet my new nephew, Toby, he's a lively young chap but after some boxing, chasing round the house and a walk in the snow he was worn out.  These youngsters have no stamina!

Me and Toby.

Snowday !

Lots of wags and woofs.

Have a wonderful New Year!

Dexter.     🐾🐾

Out and about

 

Y Lethr, Diffwys & Moelfre in the distance

Hi everybody,

It has been almost six months since my last blog and in that time my adventures have ranged from the west coast to the east coast.  My travels have given me the opportunity to experience some brilliant scampers on beaches as well as the usual hilly stuff and forests.  

My humans found a new beach at Llandanwg, this was great for sniffing and exploring rock pools, as well as having lots of rocks to climb.  

Llandanwg

There’s not much sand at high tide so my best run was further south on the beach at Abermaw. 

Llandanwg

After a long drive I arrived in Norfolk. I have never been to Norfolk, it’s not as flat as I had heard and I had some awesome runs and walks at Brancaster Beach.  

Brancaster beach

Brancaster beach

On the last day before I went home I had an awesome run on the marshes and beach, but best of all my human stopped for ice-cream and gave me some.  This is the treatment I expect from now on.

 

I have done plenty of hill running over the last few months but so far this year I haven’t ventured up into the high mountains.  Lots of runs have been in the Clwydian hills and the hills around Llyn Tegid and Bala.

My human took me running with some of his friends around Llanuwchllyn on a really wet rainy day and then chose another wet day for us to explore a new run near Dolgellau.

Waiting for my slow human on
 the ascent to Moel Fammau

Halfway there!

At the top and a good look around before the mad dash down!

Below are two photographs taken on a new route overlooking the Mawddach with Abermaw in the distance, this run started off dry then it rained and rained and rained!  The first photo shows the bridge at Penmaenpool, I often start my Mawddach cycling adventures from there and then relax in The George pub after a good run. 

As well as running and walking with my humans I have been cycling with them.  Now, I can’t ride a bike as my legs are too short (or so I’m told), so I run alongside them.  They tell me that they are keeping the speed down so I don’t get tired, I suspect that is their excuse for not riding fast, I know that I can run really fast if I want to.

Delamere Forest

Anyway, my running with the bikes took me to the Mawddach trail and Delamere Forest and I managed to keep up easily.

When I’m out running with my human I never meet any other running dogs but in October my human and I took part in the Loggerheads 5k Canix race.  This was awesome as I met lots of other running dogs, I did notice they all had longer legs than me, and we went off through woods and over crags with lots of woofing.

Post-race drink and treats

I've another race planned for December and a few Parkrun events over the next few months.

Wags and woofs,

Dexter 

More lockdown and a light at the end of the tunnel

Well it's May already, there is lots more green on the trees as the leaves come out, as I look out of the window today the weather seems quite grim for May.  However, my human will take me for a walk today.  Until last week all my exercise was taken from my house, it hasn't stopped me from doing plenty of running and walking, so far this year I have run and walked 424 kilometres. 

Finally I have got my human to understand that I do not like early mornings unless I am going for a walk, I much prefer to run in the late morning or afternoon.  My human has decided that I should have a non-running day every other day so the pattern has emerged over lockdown that I run 3 days one week and four the next with a walk on the days I don't run. Running from home over lockdown is not the same as the hill running so my human tends to be a bit faster, on the hills my human is very slow on the uphill bits so I get much more chance to scamper ahead and sniff.  

As spring progressed I started to see more leaves and blossoms the tracks and fields became much less muddy so I didn't get myself as dirty as I had during the winter.  This was a relief because my coat got longer and longer but even though the weather was sunny it was not too warm so the long coat was alright. 

The hairy look followed by the post lockdown haircut, just so smart.

  

Finally spring was in the air, a whole new set of smells and sights...

My birthday, 7 years old and a great 5 km run to celebrate as well as a very special doggy birthday cake just for me.

My human always keeps me on a lead when we can't avoid fields with livestock, I ignore horses, cattle and sheep but I find sheep worry me, there's one route we use where the sheep always chase after us.  Even if my human is walking the sheep get up and follow us, they get closer and closer and sniff at me as you can see from the photo, I don't like this and try to hide behind my human.

 Finally after months of running from home we were able to travel to start some more interesting runs, my first one was on the Sandstone Trail around the Frodsham area, it felt so good to be out on hilly ground again. A nice 10 km run on lovely soft ground and up and down lots of hills.  I prefer hill-running to running on the flat because my human is so slow running the up-hill bits that I get plenty of time to sniff and scamper around

My Strava record of the run.

I had a rest day after the Frodsham run with just a walk to get some exercise and then I did what has been the best run of the year so far, I got back into Wales and ran a very nice route around the base of Moel Fammau, onto the summit and a cracking run back down to the car-park.  The weather was perfect as the photos show.

The route heading west through the forest with the summit of Moel Fammau in the distance.

Shown below is one of the steeper parts of the route on the ascent from Cwm-llydan (about 150 metres)

The first photo shows the view to the east from the ridge of Ffrith Mountain, the second photo slightly higher on Ffrith around the 430 metre contour with a great view due north over the lower Cilcain Reservoir towards the Irish Sea.

Once up to the 430 contour it was just a short climb to the summit of Moel Fammau at 554 metres, I posed for some of the usual Trig point photos (always worth it for the special treats I get at the summit) and then an easy scamper back.

   

The day following the Moel Fammau run was a rest day with just a walk to keep me happy. Following my rest day I went for a short 5 km run and got a decent time of 27 minutes for the run so I was happy with that.  I'm looking forward to more adventures on the hills over the next few months and I will tell you all about my new buddy, Bob the Border Collie.

Wags and woofs,

Dexter.