In July, Leelu & I spent a few days in the very north of Yorkshire with a group of volunteers that were a mix of ages ranging from 18 year old students completing the residential part of their Gold Duke of Edinburgh award through a few 'Middle Agies ' to slightly older. It's fantastic how you can put a bunch of people that have not always met before, from different backgrounds and of different ages together and they all muck in and get along. On camp we tend to stay in village halls and take it in turn to cook (unless we are lucky enough to have our own cook). Because Leelu was with me, I took our VW camper and the pair of us slept in that, which in hindsight is a great way of getting away from the snorers!
We had suburb weather andLeelu was loved by everyone (except one person who didn't like dogs but I did catch even him throwing the tennis ball at one point!). We did weed clearance from the canal, shrub clearance from the banks, put in some new mooring pins and made a new water point and because we weren't using heavy machinery there was lots of opportunity for the frisbee to be thrown for Leelu, to be honest I didn't really get a look in as everyone else was looking after him!
One day we went to the beach, yes it rained but we loved it, despite nearly falling foul of the 'don't bring your dogs into this area of the beach' rule...oops!
We even had a bit of a look at the mini digger although he struggled to work out the controls
It was a cracking hot sunny camp with some lovely people. Here is his new fan club!
To bring it right up to date, the vans we use to transport the kit and volunteers all over the country really need replacing. Leelu and I are part of a team doing a sponsored walk along 22 miles of towpath starting and ending at Droitwich in the Midlands. Flat walking is much more difficult than mountain walking, in my opinion but we did a practice walk of 14.7 miles last Sunday. I was quite tired after it, Leelu of course just wanted me to throw the tennis ball when we got back! We have already reached enough sponsorship that we now have to go do it in fancy dress. Our theme is 'Snow White and the Seven Wharves' yes wharves not dwarves, we had to make it canal themed somehow. I am going to be 'Buckby wharf.' For those that don't know, a Buckby can is a metal can that sits on top of traditional canal boats and stores water, when you want a drink your pour water out of it. Leelu will be wearing a 'Waterway Recovery Group' bandana (& my husband is doing first aid cover for the event, phew!).
We would therefore love any sponsorship that you can find. Please go to http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/rfb where you will see a lovely picture of Jude in her Snow White outfit. However it looks like her husband, who is also the chairman of WRG and has an MBE will be wearing it if we can get enough money!!
I will be doing updates!
