Cramond Island

Apologies for the delay - I've had the in-laws visiting this week and its been a bit more chaotic than usual. Missy was pleased to have her uncle Flash visiting, although he is getting rather old and grumpy - at -8C today, I cant blame him for not wanting to play.

Yesterday was the only day we could all manage to go out together, so we decided to go for a walk over to Cramond Island. Locally it is well known as you can walk over the causeway at low tide and easily access the 1/3mile long island and it had strategic importance in both the World Wars - most obviously seen by the large concrete anti-boat booms.

It was a cold day, but clear and crisp. Both the dogs enjoyed getting in everyone's way and stopping for cuddles from every passerby and the humans of the group argued over whether we could see sand pipers or dunlins and everyone agreed on the oyster catchers. Its about a mile long walk to get to the island, and we were very aware of crossing times, as its easy to be caught out by the incoming tide and get stranded. 

We also all agreed on the heron!

We made our way to the highest point of the island where we got a good view of all the bridges (with three now at the same point, its rather unmissable!). All the signs have been removed, so we're assuming that they are getting updated to include the new crossing. The MIL was anxious not to get caught out by the tide (I perhaps should have saved my story about a friend-of-a-friend who had to be rescued by the coastguard after having a BBQ there until after we had visited the island) so we didnt loiter long. 

Flash is also feeling cold these days, and he was rather thankful of the open fire we found at the nearby dog-friendly pub. Missy conceded defeat and allowed him the prime spot, although it meant she could loiter beneath the table, so I think I'll call it a draw!

In other news, our sneak approach to Christmas seems to be working. We haven't had any anxiety problems yet and Missy has been quite chilled out. And here is a picture of her with the very special VIP we met the other weekend! (apologies for the cropping!)

How many pups get to meet santa?

Enjoy!