Remembering the dogs of yesteryear

Today was the best sort of winter's day: a thick overnight frost was succeeded by bright sunshine so that there were sharp contrasts everywhere: light and shade, green and silver, ice and melt. I went out walking and my camera was rarely in its case; it was hard to choose which photograph to blip. In the end I've gone with this one, for its curiosity value.

It shows Casey, my Jack Russell, paying homage at the graves of two dogs that died over 100 years ago: Snap the 'faithful friend' in 1887 and Jumbo the retriever in 1904. I suspect that very few people know the existence of this little pet cemetery hidden in a clump of rhododendrons in the grounds of what was once a country mansion but is now a hotel. Eight dogs are buried here, starting with Zulu in 1886 and ending with Arnie in 2002, but Arnie's gravestone is not as beautifully executed as the earlier ones and I don't imagine there will be any more.