On the Western Beacon

I took Ruby for her first walk on the moor this afternoon. I've never tried adjusting a polarising filter on a camera lens while grappling with an effervescent terrier on a lead. Not easy, I can tell you. Anyway, I got there in the end.

When we reached the top, I spent some time grappling with a contraption I bought in a pet shop: essentially it's a plastic water bottle with a (bottle-shaped) bowl attached to the screw-top stopper. When packed up, it's quite ingenious, the bottle folding away inside the bottle-shaped bowl. However, using it is something else. You have to unscrew the bottle while you keep the stopper still, all the while the dog is still tugging at the lead (she's not safe off it yet). Then you pour the water into the bottle-shaped bowl and put it on the ground, taking care not to bash your dangling camera on your knees as you do so. Then your dog takes one sniff of it, looks at you, and rejects it wholeheartedly.

Maybe it'll come in useful in the hotter weather, I console myself.