Point 'n shooting

I try not to work on my bears at weekends, to recharge my batteries and  I love to pop a camera in my pocket and go out walking with Polly whenever possible.  There's something very therapeutic about a walk close to water, so we took Polly for a tromp round Leybourne Lakes in the sunshine on Sunday afternoon.

Much as it would have delighted her inner retriever to be allowed to splosh, I decided it would be less messy and kinder on my car's upholstery, to have a dry lead walk instead. Polly gazed at the lakes longingly a couple of times, but she was a good girl, trotting along beside us, just happy to be outdoors with her people.

With low cloud reflected, the lakes looked stunning in the sunshine. I only had my little 'point 'n shoot' camera with me, but did my best to capture a few pics.

Polly met a group of three sweet little dogs as we walked along, taking a particular shine to a cheeky young spaniel.  As we chatted to the owners, the little spaniel was in danger of becoming tangled in Polly's lead, so I dropped it and they raced across the grass together, enjoying a wonderful game of chase.  Despite Polly being much larger, it was plain to see the spaniel pup was leading the game, especially when he grabbed Polly's lead in his mouth and led her in large circles for a jolly good run ... they had such a fun time together!

Back home, I couldn't resist tweaking the above photo to give it a more arty, dramatic look; there's plenty of fun to be had with even a simple pocket sized compact camera, which is just as well, as it's very convenient when we're out dog walking!