![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Mr Nasty & The NitWit Family...
Dec. 27th, 2011 03:17 pmIt stopped raining for a couple of hours this morning, so we seized the initiative and got the bikes out for a birl down the cycle track. Nineteen miles seemed like a good idea at the time - and with the weather forecast fluctuating between unpleasant and dire for the rest of the week, I think we were right to push on and get the miles in, sort of...
The day was not without incident. Most of the people (and dogs!) we met were very pleasant and well-disposed towards the world. We were passed early on by a dapper gentleman on a bicycle - not exactly a lycra-clad knight of the road, for he was in jeans and a very smart jacket and paired with an impeccably clean bike that looked like it had been lifted out of its box moments before (to be overtaken by HIM! What is the world coming to???). He announced his presence by loudly clearing his throat, at which point we neatly singled out to let him through.
We met him later on. We'd just passed a family out walking, and were chatting away, when there he was, coming along in the other direction. J pulled back to give him room, but alas, we were too slow. As I cheerily greeted him, suspecting nothing, he rode straight at J and snapped, "Single file!". J's barked response, was, I fear, unprintable.... And put it this way, J wasn't going to let any dapper gentleman on a bicycle intimidate him, so he swerved away at the very last moment...
God knows how our friend the dapper gentleman coped with the other denizens of the cycle-track. Such as Quad-Bike girl, who ploughed towards us with blonde hair flying from beneath her helmet, a Jack Russell and a labrador bouncing along merrily beside her like a high-tech version of a certain Joseph Crawhall painting featuring a girl on a bicycle. And the NitWit family, whom we had the misfortune to encounter later on. There were five of them in all, of various ages, who included amongst their number a black retriever and a panda (Actually, it might on reflection have been a child in a panda hat... Ah, guess who's paid a visit to Edinburgh zoo! Hey, I'm doing better than Sherlock here!!). The retriever was of course happily doing its own thing fifty feet away. A mountain biker was approaching at full bore from the front, and we were catching up from the rear. I called out a cheery 'Coming through!' and all five (including the panda...) dutifully filed to the side.
Leaving the dog beleaguered. Not a word, not a single instruction. The poor old mutt was left completely alone to dodge first the mountain biker (who was taking no prisoners) and then not one but two cyclists hammering down from the opposite direction. It hadn't a clue where to turn, or what to do next. Which might have been really funny, because its flustered and bewildered expression was rather comical but... I really don't find it very amusing when a perfectly good dog is completely let down by the people who are SUPPOSED to be responsible for it.
J's response? "Ah," quoth he, as we arrived home. "Just another typical day on the cycle-track'.
And now I'm knackered. But on the plus side... We just had a male blackcap in the garden. It's a definite sighting, and it's a first for me. I've never had a blackcap here before, and I must admit that it's not a bird I've seen very often, full stop. And you know what's stranger still? It's meant to be a summer migrant. This thing should be in North Africa, not hanging around in the West of Scotland.
The day was not without incident. Most of the people (and dogs!) we met were very pleasant and well-disposed towards the world. We were passed early on by a dapper gentleman on a bicycle - not exactly a lycra-clad knight of the road, for he was in jeans and a very smart jacket and paired with an impeccably clean bike that looked like it had been lifted out of its box moments before (to be overtaken by HIM! What is the world coming to???). He announced his presence by loudly clearing his throat, at which point we neatly singled out to let him through.
We met him later on. We'd just passed a family out walking, and were chatting away, when there he was, coming along in the other direction. J pulled back to give him room, but alas, we were too slow. As I cheerily greeted him, suspecting nothing, he rode straight at J and snapped, "Single file!". J's barked response, was, I fear, unprintable.... And put it this way, J wasn't going to let any dapper gentleman on a bicycle intimidate him, so he swerved away at the very last moment...
God knows how our friend the dapper gentleman coped with the other denizens of the cycle-track. Such as Quad-Bike girl, who ploughed towards us with blonde hair flying from beneath her helmet, a Jack Russell and a labrador bouncing along merrily beside her like a high-tech version of a certain Joseph Crawhall painting featuring a girl on a bicycle. And the NitWit family, whom we had the misfortune to encounter later on. There were five of them in all, of various ages, who included amongst their number a black retriever and a panda (Actually, it might on reflection have been a child in a panda hat... Ah, guess who's paid a visit to Edinburgh zoo! Hey, I'm doing better than Sherlock here!!). The retriever was of course happily doing its own thing fifty feet away. A mountain biker was approaching at full bore from the front, and we were catching up from the rear. I called out a cheery 'Coming through!' and all five (including the panda...) dutifully filed to the side.
Leaving the dog beleaguered. Not a word, not a single instruction. The poor old mutt was left completely alone to dodge first the mountain biker (who was taking no prisoners) and then not one but two cyclists hammering down from the opposite direction. It hadn't a clue where to turn, or what to do next. Which might have been really funny, because its flustered and bewildered expression was rather comical but... I really don't find it very amusing when a perfectly good dog is completely let down by the people who are SUPPOSED to be responsible for it.
J's response? "Ah," quoth he, as we arrived home. "Just another typical day on the cycle-track'.
And now I'm knackered. But on the plus side... We just had a male blackcap in the garden. It's a definite sighting, and it's a first for me. I've never had a blackcap here before, and I must admit that it's not a bird I've seen very often, full stop. And you know what's stranger still? It's meant to be a summer migrant. This thing should be in North Africa, not hanging around in the West of Scotland.
