It is shitting down outside.  That is actually a little used meteorological term for what is going on outside and I am very bored of it.

To cheer myself up, I searched out some old summer photos when it was so hot (remember hot?) that we took the dogs and children swimming in the loch.  The loch is situated in Sandness and is lovely and shallow with a peat bottom and warms up like a bath on sunny days.  Wild flowers grow on the bank and it is the most perfect place to be on a summer afternoon.

This is July 2006.  BeAnne was a few months old (and now I have just worked out she will be 8 years old this year) and there is Celt (lurcher), Flibble and Cassiepups (Jo’s two collies).  All the other three dogs are very sadly deceased so while it is lovely to see them all again, I am sad too.

I remember this day very well and it is lovely to see the photos again. Little BeAnne was beginning to show her long puppy fur.  She arrived in April looking like a Rottweiler puppy and she was the cutest thing ever.  Then the fur started to appear!

To start with she was not sure of the water.

But then, when she saw the other dogs enjoying themselves, she began to enjoy herself.

Someone threw in a flipflop for the dogs to retrieve and BeAnne made it her mission to get it each and every time, undeterred by the bigger dogs in her way.

As my grandpa would say, she was “fierce as maggots”.  This is also her first time swimming and she embraced this watersport like a pro and still looks for any opportunity to swim.

Golly, I am fed up with this winter.

I love hearing the laughter and the splashing – I remember summer! (once)