Just a little blue damselfly

Not a great image,
phone snap of a damselfly.
Busy, walks thwarted.

Ben wasn’t in school til 11 so I had to juggle him (not literally) this morning. He had a big incident over wanting his new shoes for school but I hadn’t laced them with the easy close elastic laces yet. We muddled through and then he did go to school well, he had a MacDonald’s reward day trip (not sure what they’re rewarding him for?!) so that was quite a good incentive. I went to the shops and then tried to organise food and snacks for the afternoon and then walk Leo. I made it to the brook with him, popped the full poo bag in the bin (this is a relevant part of the story) and then he found a bit of tin foil with something juicy and brown inside it. He could not be enticed to “leave it”, “drop it” or even respond to a “no”. I resorted to putting him under my arm and gently shaking him to see if he’d let go. He would not. I bribed him with a treat which went well until it turned out he was faster than me and managed to take the treat and still leap back to the grim tin foil, all at lightening speed. I repeated the process thinking I was all over it and would pounce on the foil and put it in a poo bag. This was the point at which I realised I didn’t have any poo bags. Hence the earlier part of the story. I definitely did have poo bags at the start of the walk :-/ so I surmised I had dropped them en route. Guilty and grossly, I did the sleight of hand with the treat, acquired the tin foil (heavier than I wanted to contemplate) and launched it over the brook, manoeuvred Leo back onto the lead and retraced my steps to reunite with my poo bag roll. It meant cutting Leo’s walk short but I didn’t want to be in the position of touching anything else mucky without the required equipment. I fastidiously followed my earlier path and frustratingly did not find the poo bags. We arrived home flustered and grumpy, in no small part due to the ferocious barking Leo threw in the direction of a sweet, if large, looking St Bernard type dog. Let’s talk of it no more.
Ben had a tricky afternoon at school but we have come up to the north Pennines for the weekend so I’m leaving the drama behind. Happy Friday all!