Spaniel days…

Now, we know it is totally unacceptable to have favourites – either within the dog group or the children group apparently. Who would have thought it?

So, being a good dog owner and an experienced mum and step mum, I obviously don’t and wouldn’t have favourites.. no no no.

But, by the way, my favourite dog was Black Hollyberry, my darling Spaniel from Suffolk. We got her in about 1983 I think and she came from friends in Snape who had an idyllic thatched cottage down a farm track. Her mum was Pippin and we got Holly and her sister, Red Russett. They were Field Trials Champions, of course. A third sister, Snuffy was kept by the breeder and she and Pippin always gave us rapturous welcomes when we popped into Watering End during a weekend in Suffolk. Clearly the days were long, sun filled and glorious as all summers are in our memories and the stream that ran through the garden was a constant source of delight to the dogs who learnt to walk along a low hanging tree branch and dive in to retrieve pebbles thrown for the purpose. With 21st Century hindsight that sentence is so full of Health and Safety issues that it strikes terror into the heart, especially when young children running around bare footed are added into the mix and gin and tonic had been flowing for the adults as it only could do in Suffolk – copiously and from early in the day.

Anyway – here are some more of my best pix of the darling dog….