Damp camping.........

Returned home yesterday following a three day Bank Holiday weekend camping trip. Saturday and Sunday were scorchio, but Monday was a very damp squib, punctuated by startling thunderstorms and torrential downpours.

Before we left home on Saturday, under duress, Small Dog submitted to having her fringe and whiskers trimmed, inflicting only minor flesh wounds in the process. She thereafter politely, but firmly, declined to have a bath, on the basis that she didn't want to smell like a summer flower, preferring to retain her doggy musk. Upon being informed that 'musk' was not an option, she took a mighty huff, from which only the offer of some morsels of cooked chicken could dissuade her. However the promise of three day's camping improved her mood no end, and suspended her huff for the good of the group.

Noteworthy snippets include one of the uglier items from our first night BBQ menu.....


It's called a Tilapia and was on special offer at Tesco. The reason for this is that it was chock full of long, sharp bones and tasted like mud.

Apparently.

One look at its bony, scaly face was enough to put me off even the thought of it, so I took the safe option and had Tesco Finest Beef Burger instead, much to Small Dog's delight. She took one sniff at PP's exotic fish and retreated to the comfort of her blanket, while keeping an interested eye on the burgers.

Also noteworthy were these............guinea pigs roaming wild and free.



Monday's intermittent deluges did not deter us from al fresco cooking, and Small Dog kept a weather eye for passing ducks who were in their element. Unlike Small Dog, who doesn't like getting her paws wet, so every time I vacated my chair she nipped up onto it and promptly fell asleep, grumbling when I returned to reclaim it.



Eventually she went and lay up on the storage box in the corner of the day tent looking most disgruntled.




You can tell by the position of her ears that she is not impressed at being evicted from my chair, and she is now lobbying hard for a small folding camping chair of her own, so that she doesn't run the risk of getting damp, or having creepy-crawlies running over her, or generally just behaving like a normal dog by lying on the ground.

Over the course of the last few days she has further refined her chair requirements as follows.

• Must be well padded and at just the right height for a 'small dog' leap
• Preferably heated, with adjustable thermostat
• Cup holder for water bowl
• Personalised
• Eye catching colour
• Second cup holder for 'penny pot'. Apparently she's hit on a sure fire method of boosting her ice cream money..... she's going to charge 5p for people to stroke her.
• Removable sun canopy/umbrella
• Tray for snacks

I can't believe I've actually been Googling some of those requirements during a displacement activity break this morning.

I wonder if she'd settle for one of these...........