It's Been A While

Archie seems to have had one problem after another with his little legs just lately, he developed a limp which he recovered from only to start limping on another leg. I don't think it's anything serious, he was seen by a vet who didn't think it was anything serious either. He's often had limps throughout his life and they seem to improve with rest so I think he must be prone to pulling a muscle or something.

We always take care how far we walk him when he's limping. He can walk the limp off but we don't want to do any further damage so we take him on very short walks for a while so that he gets plenty of rest, it seems to do the trick. This does mean that it's been a while since we've visited Lotherton so we thought we'd remedy that on Sunday.

It was a nice day, we had blue skies nearly all day but there were times when rain threatened though it never came. It wasn't too cold either, though I did finally succumb, I wore my winter coat for the first time this year.

Autumn is in full swing with the trees putting on a colourful show, they seem to be hanging on to most of their leaves for now.

We're a bit late for conkers, the seed cases are strewn on the ground with the shiny brown seeds already gone, picked up by little hands and taken home no doubt.

I haven't seen Lotherton so busy for a long time. I wonder if people were just taking advantage of the fine day, or whether they were making sure to have fun whilst they could with further coronavirus restrictions in the offing. The majority of people were sensible and stepped aside as they passed others but as always, there's always the odd ones who are rude and walk two or three abreast and won't let others pass safely. It does annoy me.

The orchard has been relieved of its fruit. There are lots of different apple trees growing at Lotherton, some very old varieties, and visitors are invited to pick the apples on a set day in September and the fruit you pick can be purchased, I think it was 10p per apple when we last attended the event a few years ago.

It was nice to get out, what with Archie not having long walks and us not travelling any distance because of coronavirus rules, it seems I've been cooped up indoors for too long. I have to admit that autumn isn't my favourite time of year with summer now gone and winter to look forward to, spring seems a long time away. I don't mind the dry days though, especially when the sun's shining and the sky is blue, it's the dull grey days which tend to get me down.

There's always the beautiful colours of autumn to cheer me up though, just look at this leaf litter, so vibrant.

Lotherton is home to a herd of red deer which were introduced back in the 1980s and have bred successfully ever since.

We stopped for a while to watch them.

There's some magnificent stags too but we didn't catch sight of them on this occasion.

Lotherton is currently gearing up for their Spooky Skeletons Trail which will run over half term, covering Halloween. A few of the exhibits have already been set up.

As you can see, Archie was rather nonplussed at the sight of the skeleton dog.

I'm glad we got out for a walk when we did as it poured down yesterday, and although today has started off sunny, it's forecast rain again later and I'm a bit of a fair weather walker.