We start 2012 with our 201st blog post and a sighting of our first snowdrops of the season.
Mum and dad stayed out late last night, to celebrate the new year, so today we made them pay with our demands for a long walk and no breakfast for them until they came back.
With dark clouds all around and reasonable warm temperatures of 10 deg C, a walk in the big world was the least they could do, after leaving us to fend off the firework monsters last night.
We headed for Dalston, to the west of Carlisle, where we know we can have a good walk without getting too muddy and dirty.
Many of the soil and grass paths in the county are just soaked through and have plenty of standing puddles of water. This sort of rules them out, unless we are allowed to get really mucky.
Snowdrops flower
A sure sign of the warm winter this year is the arrival of the snowdrops. These are the first we have seen for this season and brought a smile to the two leggers faces.
Huddled behind a wall at the side of Dalston Church quite a few clumps of the small white flowers were to be found.
Our walk took us through the churchyard, were we were on our best behaviours, and onto the path which leads behind Caldew School and the Nestle milk factory.
This path is well used and was especially busy today with a lot of cyclists, walkers, children and friendly pooches.
Paths repaired
Way back in November 2010 we mentioned that some of the paths on this walk had started to crumble and were at risk of collapse.
Following our walk today we are please to report that it would appear that a lot of money has been spent to underpin and repair one stretch.
Looking over towards the river, work seems to have been done to install cages full of rocks into the river bank to prevent further damage. A new fence and tarmac path have then been installed on top.
Well done to all of those involved as the finished path looks really good and in character with the area.
Machines take a detour
Further on towards Carlisle we spot a new, very muddy path curving off to our right. This gives a bit of an insight possibly into the work needed to repair the path earlier.
The small, narrow path appears to be too narrow for any machinery to cross so they have been forced to take a detour across a small stream and across the very soggy grassland.
We so wanted to investigate, but mum stopped us before we could get really dirty.
Until next time. Have a safe, happy 2012.
Buster and Charlie