Strolling in the Sunshine

After the better part of £300, Missys odd limping hop has finally been resolved - she has had a knee injury and the resulting bone growth and inflammation basically means she has very mild arthritis in the joint. The vets happy that it shouldn't get worse provided the supplements that they've given us do their job and everyone is very keen for Missy to fully have her bounce back.

On that note of good news, this weekend we manged to finally get training for the Kiltwalk that we are doing in September. Bearing in mind that Missy is still technically in recovery (try telling her that) we decided on the nice flat and well paved Union Canal. 

Google informed me that the park and ride to the end of the canal in Edinburgh and back again was ten miles, so it seemed a nice starting point. We were accompanied by a friend who is also joining us on the Kiltwalk and had arranged to meet another friend at the halfway point for the picnic who was then going to accompany us back.

We were phenomenally lucky with the weather and as a result the canal was incredibly busy - we saw people rowing, kayaking, running, cycling and, those on the same wave length as us, plenty of other dog walkers. Missy got a little too curious about a swan and made a swift retreat at its hissing, so no one was harmed except perhaps for her dignity!

The Union canal runs right through Edinburgh and, despite the fact that you can literally walk over a main road, is incredibly scenic with little impact of noise from traffic. If you know what to look for, there's plenty of wildlife to spot - though you'll need to make it a dawn or dusk trip to see the foxes. 

After our picnic we all headed back to the house for an evening of board games and enough cake and ice cream that any health advantages of the walk were well and truly neutralised. 

Then the ninja sunburn struck.

So, when we had all gotten back to the house, everyone was fine, it was only a few hours later that the redness started to develop. No one had brought sunscreen as the weather had turned out much better than forecast (you'd think being married to a red head I'd have learned my lesson before now). Nonetheless, I seem to have gotten off the lightest and the pinkness has now passed with no real agitation, but weirdly my friend who was out with us the shortest amount of time has ended up with the worst.

So, note to future self. In addition to the rain coat you'd brought as a just in case, and the thermos of tea which was a just in case, now pack sunscreen.

Saying that, this is Scotland. That one day was probably our summer!