Yesterday The Lodgers went to Coombe Abbey for April's White Lodge walk. Despite the threat, a threat that unfortunately was to be realised, of rain (we'd driven through exceedingly heavy showers on the journey) there were lots of Lodgers there and some new faces too; new faces of course means new friends to meet.

We set off and almost immediately we received comments about the number of greyhounds in one place; on behalf of Rosie, Sol, Guinness, Skye, myself and others I shall point out that the assemblage was not made up solely of greyhounds, though one admits they were the most numerous among us.

As you might imagine we formed quite a procession, and at times I'm afraid others had to wait for us to pass; in some cases causing bewilderment with our numbers (as with the dog bottom left).


Over the bridge

As I am sure many of you are aware, Aunty Claire has moved to Northampton; one rather pleasant consequence of this is that Guinness and Skye are now able to join us. Aunty Claire came along with her scooter; though - without wishing to decry Skye's efforts in any way - it was not overly fast with a 1sp engine (Saluki Power).


1sp Scooter

Jack and I spent much of the walk with a human belonging to one of the new chaps; a fella by the name of Patch who was having great fun.

We followed the same route through the woods as our last visit here, which was almost exactly one year ago.

Coombe Abbey itself dates back to the 12th Century, a period of time when damsels in distress were a relatively common commodity. Though rarer now we did come across one on the walk. The fair maiden had hurt her foot and was unable to walk. One does feel that there is a fundamental design flaw with humans only using two legs; if one is disabled they too are disabled, whereas the superior design of hounds means that even if one leg is inoperative we remain mobile, albeit with reduced speed. However, a damsel in distress is a damsel in distress and aid was rendered in the form of Aunty Claire's scooter (we were rather short on knights on white chargers), enabling said damsel to be swiftly and painlessly transported to the safety and comfort of her carriage. We wish her a speedy recovery.


Damsel in Distress

Soon after this we came across an ice cream van, manned by a human we called - for reasons that will soon become apparent - the nice cream man. Dad purchased two cones which all of us Beasts shared; well, when I say shared, without doubt Jack availed himself of a significant proportion of one of the cones.


Jack eating Ice Cream


Rosie having a Nibble

The nice cream man realising that hounds like ice cream then presented an additional four cones to be shared among those that had not had any ice cream. As these pictures of Wing Commander Mortimer (replete in his flying jacket), Ruby ,and Sol (adopting Jack's method of consumption) demonstrate - everyone enjoyed them.


Wing Commander Mortimer


Ruby


Sol

And just in case you were wondering dear reader, yes, I also had some.


Mmmmmmm, Iiiiiiice Creeeeeeeam

You may recall that I mentioned the threat of rain was to be realised. It was soon after our dalliance with the nice cream man that the heavens opened. We took shelter in the porch way of the visitor centre until the rain, though not ceased, had reduced in intensity to make walking to the Beast Bus relatively tolerable. The rain did unfortunately mean that the usual treats in the car park were not on offer, though to be honest I think we were all glad to be out of the rain.

Despite the weather at the end we really enjoyed ourselves; it was nice as always to see our friends, and we always like to make new ones and hope they will come again.

Until next time.