Slugs and snails...

...and puppy dog tails eyes! That's what this little boy is made of. That's muddy water all over his face and in his hair. The rest of him looked pretty much the same.

As if you couldn't tell from the picture, we had a very splishy-sploshy muddy walk today. We were out for almost three hours and the boys had a blast.

Noah spent most of the time leaping into enormous puddles. Funny how the same water looks black on his face and white in his hair!

He was soaked, filthy and delirious with joy and is now snoring in the next room.

H rampaged through the forest with the dog, hacking at sticks with his pen-knife and finding fossils...well, he thinks they're fossils. He still mourns the loss of his real fossil. He is now passed out in front of the TV.

The dog lived up to his nick-name of 'velcro-pup' and brought much of the forest floor back with him. He stank and needed a bath.

Bathing Archie is a two-man job, but as I couldn't find even one willing man it was down to me, a jug, a towel, a large bottle of Aloe Vera shampoo and a battle of wills. Pity, if it had been a battle of wits he wouldn't have stood a chance...he runs on empty most of the time, but he has a lot of 'will' and put all of it into thwarting my attempts to soap him. By the end of twenty minutes it would have gone to a panel to decide who had won. We were both equally wet, soapy and frazzled but I think Archie just pipped me on points.

He's now sulking in the kitchen.

Bob and I are enjoying the peace and quiet :-)