Windy-uppy-windy-downy-pushy-pully stuff.

Team towpath in action again today! Yayyy! Workywalkies along loads of towpath - some on green squelchy grass, some on gooey mud, some on gritty stuff, and some on megahard stuff. All of it with my attention needed to look after Mummy. On the green squelchy stuff, there were holes and lumpybumpy bits that I had to steer her around and warn her about (stop, nuzzle knee, then nose to hazard to show Mum to be careful). The gooey muddy bits had some very icky puddles to take her around. The gritty stuff was, in places, only a narrow little path with mud and grass either side. Across lots of it there were all sorts of twigs and big sticks. Much as I would have loved to get acquainted with some of them, especially the big sticks (Mum says I'm not supposed to play with them but they are so tempting), I just had to remember my job and make sure she didn't trip over them. The megahard stuff was mainly underneath a huuuuuuge bridge that went on forever. Mum said it was the M5. It rumbled! It had lots and lots of cages all over its underneath and its legs and there were hi-viz manhumans with big white domeheads everywhere! I had to weave Mummy in and out of all sorts of bits of cages and pipes and bollards and things. It was a challenge indeed! But Team towpath conquered it! We made it back aboard floatyboatyhome for a cruise past the bits we couldn't walk because the whole towpath was in a huge cage!

Then came the fun bit! I got to walk the length of the lock flight three times! Heehee! First of all, I took Daddy up to the top, then back down again. (Apparently, he was checking it was navigable and that there would be somewhere to moor at the top). Then I got to do it all again - but this time with Mummy doing all the windy-uppy-windy-downy-pushy-pully stuff. This makes it all a bit stop start, but Mum seems to make it fun by doing something she calls obedience practice while we wait for the locks to do their thing in lifting floatyboatyhome up. I just call it a good chance to gallop to Mummy and get a yummy for having that bit of fun!!

Before we set off today though, Daddy got us posing beside floatyboatyhome. He said it was about time we had an updated profile picture. This will be duly uploaded in a moment, but for now, here is a preview.

Photos show Mummy and me beside our floatyboatyhome. in one of them Mummy is standing beside me, and in the other it is just me. In both, I am in harness and dutifully sitting and posing, facing the camera. Floatyboatyhome is a burgundy and dark blue narrowboat with a silver grey canopy on the front. This is called a cratch cover and acts like a sort of porch, covering the whole of the bow deck area. It has an almost triangular front (narrowing at the top), and windows all around it. In these pictures the doors are open and flapped up and over the top to get them out of the way.