Disturbed...

Our walk around Ring Haw yesterday had repercussions for Gemma and Rosie. They're both getting arthritic, but still can't resist chasing after rabbits, and there were loads of them in the quarry. They slept for most of yesterday evening, and when I called them for their morning walk I realised Rosie had stiffened up so much overnight that she couldn't stand up. She was obviously in discomfort, but also wanted to go out again, and shuffled round in a strange half crouch whimpering gently.

At times like this it's tempting to allow her to rest and recover, but through long experience we've found she's actually better if she get's moving. I put her lead on and lifted her into the car and we all set off for a relatively short walk along the river. Rosie loosened up very quickly and really benefited from the gentle exercise.

After a frosty start, the sunshine soon warmed things up. About half way round I noticed Gemma was flagging a bit so we stopped to have a little rest in the sun. A man who had been walking behind me with his dog also stopped and asked whether I'd got any good photographs. It turned out that he was a local press photographer, and we ended up having quite a long chat about the relative advantages/disadvantages of digital photography and film!

I actually didn't take many photographs - the sun was almost too dazzling! But as we were walking by the river we disturbed a heron and I managed to get a reflex shot as it flew upstream. The lighting was quite difficult, as I was shooting towards the sun, but I'm actually quite pleased with the effect. You can also see how murky the river is, though the turbid brown of a few days ago is now shifting to green.

Towards the end of the walk I took a couple of shots of a crow scavenging a dead fish, but I thought I would spare more sensitive viewers the slightly gory scene!