The Princess has been posing so prettily this month that it’s been hard to choose a picture for my virtual calendar, but I do love this one. It sums her up so beautifully!

Say cheese!

We took the dogs over the fields this morning. It’s a nice walk, with the footpath running through four fields before reaching the road back into the village, where we can complete the circuit.

This morning, the Pirate, in his old man way, trotted away across the middle of the second field, not following the footpath, just, well, investigating. He likes investigating.

The Princess kept up with us (because Princesses don’t do the investigating thing) and so I found myself standing with her at the stile to the next field, waiting for the Pirate to decide to join us, while OH went ahead to push aside brambles and scout for danger and that kind of thing. You know how men are.

The Pirate was having a great time just messing around. He seemed to find it a lot of fun running to and fro and doing a bit of dancing on the spot. And then he did a little spin and his head went up and he looked around for us. I thought perhaps he’d just noticed that he’d been left behind. But no, it wasn’t that at all.

The Pirate came trotting purposefully back to us, and the Princess and I both noticed something at the same time. She went running off to meet him.

‘Whatcha got there, Pirate?’

‘Outta my way, Prinfeff! I’fe CAUGHT fumfing!’

‘But what is it? It makes you smell funny!’

‘Prefent for the Monkeyf!! Coming fru!’

And he pushed past her and trotted right up to me and stood there blinking contentedly in the sunlight, with something black and slimy clamped between his few remaining teeth.

The little sweetheart had brought me half a decomposing rabbit.

I think he may already have been having second thoughts about keeping his prize and bringing it home, though, because he very happily gave it up in return for a small piece of cheese.

I didn’t have to touch it or anything! Ah .. the ‘Drop it!’ command. Such a joy!

And bless him, he seemed to think he’d got a pretty good bargain too! But sometimes I think he worries about us.

After all - who in their right mind wouldn’t want a piece of decomposing rabbit?

In line with my new policy of getting a little bit more exercise and at the same time making sure that The Princess also gets enough exercise, now that The Pirate is fast approaching thirteen years old, I took her out by herself this morning for a longer and faster walk than either of us have been used to lately. It went really well!

She’s a lazy dog. No, really, she is. Her idea of a good time is lying upside down on the sofa with her legs in the air, being fed an occasional treat. If someone sits next to her and pets her, she’s in heaven. However, when I take her out by herself, her head goes up and she can pick up the pace to a nice easy trot, and that equates to a fairly fast walk for me, which is perfect.

Today we walked up to the old Roman waterway, Carr Dyke (now part of the fen drainage system), and then cut across the fields in the direction of the next village. We dropped down onto a back road instead of following the path all the way through, and then, after a few dozen yards, hopped up onto a footpath heading back towards our house, where I’d arranged to meet Other Half and The Pirate to walk the rest of the way home with them. This gave The Princess and I just over forty minutes of fast walking, which made me just warm enough to welcome the heavy shower which began a few moments later. Ah, summer rain … quite lovely, it is!

The butterfly on the yellow flowers is a Gatekeeper, and they’re very common round here. I’d just like to make special mention of that yellow flower, because it’s Oxford Ragwort, a plant which livestock owners rightly fear. It is highly toxic but occasionally it’s eaten by grazing stock - and it causes long term liver damage. Many farmers and stock owners would like to see it wiped off the face of the earth. I have some sympathy with that view, but I would just like to point out that the jolly little chap in the striped pyjamas pictured here is the caterpillar of the strikingly beautiful Cinnabar Moth. And ragwort is one of their very limited range of food plants.

These caterpillars are capable of stripping a ragwort plant to its bare stem. In contrast, pouring weedkiller on ragwort, and/or mowing or ploughing, seems to have little effect on its survival, while at the same time destroying the edible parts of the plant that the Cinnabar caterpillar feeds on. It seems to me that this partial control merely reduces the numbers of the plant’s biological enemy, and I wonder if that’s wise.

Just something to ponder, I thought, but it seems I’m out of touch. Ragwort UK already breeds Cinnabar moths and sells them for biological control.

The butterfly - or moth, I’m still not entirely sure - on the white flower to the left here looks very much to me like a male Scarce Copper. The only thing wrong with that theory is that Scarce Coppers aren’t found on this side of the Channel, so it might be a Small Skipper, but it seems far too dark and coppery. Anyone?

I know, I know. I missed June.

My poor Princess was languishing in a concrete cell with her Pirate and could not find it within herself to pose prettily - I can’t think why!

Still, here she is, back at home with us, and apparently feeling relaxed and playful again.

It’s a dog’s life, I tell ya.