Gateway

This isn't really a dog related post (apart from the picture of Pudding waiting to get on with her walk). This gate is at the entrance of a small nature reserve in Silverdale, it is dedicated to the memory of a dead musician, whose name I can never remember, but who I always say a silent hello to when I'm there. Silverdale is a magical place - even the name feels like something straight out of Tolkien - the hills are covered in hazel and Yew woods, and if you know where to look there are even some of the incredibly rare Lady's Slipper Orchids. Close by there's the RSPB nature reserve Leighton Moss, and here comes a very tenuous dog link, Leighton Moss with its extensive reed beds, is famous for its breeding population of Bitterns. For any non bird watchers, Bitterns are a secretive type of Heron, famed for their strange booming call. Now here comes the dog bit, in Arthur Conan Doyles 'Hound of the Baskervilles', the villain claims to Dr Watson that the distant baying of the hound, is really the booming of a Bittern - I warned you it was a tenuous link.

Just to prove what a boring son of a bachelor I am, I actually have another Bittern anecdote, sad isn't it? When I was about 15 I was crammed in a bird-hide in Leighton Moss with several other Birders, all of us hoping for a glimpse of an elusive Bittern, suddenly one of my companions leaped to his feet with a strangled cry of 'Bittern', unfortunately in his enthusiasm he dislodged the prop holding open the hide window above his head, the window swung closed with a sickening dull thud, half decapitating the poor old birder. To add insult to injury, the force of the blow knocked the chaps top set of false teeth and his £700 telescope straight out of the hide window. As long as I live I will never forget the sight of this poor man's telescope slowly sinking into 3 feet of glutinous mud while his teeth lay there smiling maniacally back at him.