Dream House

My mum and I took the dogs for a walk today from Hethe to Cottisford. It's such a beautiful walk and the dogs LOVE it. They were in seventh heaven chasing pheasants and setting off after all the deer, hares, foxes and other goodies which are obviously hiding behind every bush.
And Archie was doubly happy because there was so much water to splash about in.
At one point he got stuck on the other side of the stream - because it was too deep for him to get back over and up the high bank. He was doing a hilarious thing with his paw, slapping the water to see how deep it was. So clever!! Just as he - and I - was starting to panic that he was proper stuck he found  tree to climb over on. Phew.
Mum and I had a lovely twenty minutes sat in the churchyard at Cottisford. It was so beautiful and peaceful. Juniper Hill is just a little way away which is Flora Thompson's Lark Rise and she went to the village school in Cottisford. It's hardly changed!
As we walked through the village we passed what is pretty much the nicest house in the world - a lovely old manor house with this gorgeous pond and  and bridge. Definitely the house I'd buy if I won the lottery.
This picture reminds me of Monet's Garden and I've just had a happy five minutes looking back at all my Giverny blips. I can't wait to get back there.
And I've just looked up Cottisford Manor and discovered that William Turner lived there from 1825 so there is definitely an artistic connection!
As we headed back towards Hethe Archie gave me another scare. They had both disappeared off into some fenced off woods, obviously after pheasants and were gone an unusually long time. I was worried that Archie would be trying to get out of the woods further on but couldn't because of the fence. I was whistling and calling but there was no sign of him.
He normally comes immediately when I whistle so it was definitely a bit odd.
All of a sudden, quite far off, I heard barking. I knew there was something wrong but couldn't get into the woods because of the fence. Rather than calling him to get him to come back I started calling that I was coming and he was a good boy and MUMMY'S COMING!!!!!!!!!!!
I went to the gap in the fence and started half running, half stumbling towards the barking. All the while shouting that I was coming.
And all the while wondering what the hell I was going to find - had he been shot? It's a massive pheasant shooting area butting onto the Tusmore Park estate, had he been caught in a trap? Fallen into a pit? Stumbled and broken his leg? Or had something happened to Elsie and he was just stood by her barking? 
It was quite horrific. The woods were thick and tangled and impossible to rush through.
He stopped barking as I got closer but luckily I saw him. Just stood there looking at me. I was so relieved to see him but almost scared to get closer to  see what on earth had happened.
His tail was clamped between his legs and he was stood so still and weirdly. I assumed Elsie was going to be with him but she was nowhere to be seen. 
I took a deep breath and went up to him. He looked fine so I just couldn't understand what was going on!
Only when I stood right over him did I see the fallen tree branch stuck through his harness and pinning him to the spot. He'd obviously caught himself on it - hopefully not running at any speed - and couldn't free himself. I felt so awful thinking that as I'd been whistling and shouting him he'd have been trying to get free to get back to me. But such a clever boy barking and guiding me to him. Lassie eat your heart out!!!
He seemed absolutely fine and ran off as soon as I'd freed him. Easier said than done, it was a huge branch sticking about a foot through the harness!
Elsie eventually reappeared, she'd obviously been off on the trail of something! 
It took ages to get out of the woods again. Without the adrenaline driving me on it was bloody hard work!
The rest of the walk was uneventful thankfully and Archie had another lovely paddle in the stream before jumping into the car for a well earned snooze.