My wife has coined a new term: Jaxercise. Jax is our new dog, who we have now had for a week, so this was our first real weekend together. he has already demonstrated that he doesn't like bigger dogs, and that sheep and goats are things to be chased, so part of the current conditioning program is repeated exposure to livestock so he gets used to them. it is working. It is also getting me out of the house a lot more than I have been doing recently.
Saturday started with a dog walk up on the hills above Blaenavon. I say walk, as Jax seems to be at least semi-aquatic, going into every puddle and pool available. Here he is attempting to dry off after trying to swim across a pool to get to a sheep. He was pretty difficult around sheep all day, but I didn' let him get after them and progress is being made.
In the afternoon I was inspired to go for a walk without the dog, and ended up on the Llangattock plateau where I did a walk out to the Chartist Cave
On sunday I slept late, not being used to the exercise
Once I was up I took Jax over to the forest at Wentwood, but almost as soon as we left the car we were caught in a deluge. I didn't fancy getting soaked so we jumped back into the car and drove towards and through the rain, emerging in the Brecon Beacons on the local ridge. Here there was a nice view of the receding rain and of the clouds formed by evaporating water.
The moor here is all heather, within few sheep, so I aimed for the lonesome pine, a solitary tree growing out on the moor.
On arrival I decided it was a good time to try using my small tarp as a windbreak (it was very windy) and seeing how Jax behaves around camping set-ups. He was fine, and we sat quite happily out of the wind for a bit.
A quick trip up onto the summit cairn and a scan of the surrounds for sheep.
Then home. I quickly went back out again, as I was keen to have a relaxing sit in my hammock chair. I returned to Wentwood and set up my hammock chair and small tarp, both of which I can get into a Finnish haversack with room for a water bottle as well. I added a thick wool blanket from the car (I pitched a monstrous 100+ yards from the car, so this was really remote stuff!) just because of the wind, and because I wanted to test if it felt warm enough to be able to sleep with this set-up. I think I could.
It wasn't quite as quiet as I had expected there on a sunday evening, so after some funny looks from cyclists and a dog-walker I called it a day and went home.
It was a really nice weekend. Let's put it this way, it was a lot better than passing gall stones last night and spending the morning in A&E as I did today 
Saturday started with a dog walk up on the hills above Blaenavon. I say walk, as Jax seems to be at least semi-aquatic, going into every puddle and pool available. Here he is attempting to dry off after trying to swim across a pool to get to a sheep. He was pretty difficult around sheep all day, but I didn' let him get after them and progress is being made.
In the afternoon I was inspired to go for a walk without the dog, and ended up on the Llangattock plateau where I did a walk out to the Chartist Cave
On sunday I slept late, not being used to the exercise
Once I was up I took Jax over to the forest at Wentwood, but almost as soon as we left the car we were caught in a deluge. I didn't fancy getting soaked so we jumped back into the car and drove towards and through the rain, emerging in the Brecon Beacons on the local ridge. Here there was a nice view of the receding rain and of the clouds formed by evaporating water.
The moor here is all heather, within few sheep, so I aimed for the lonesome pine, a solitary tree growing out on the moor.
On arrival I decided it was a good time to try using my small tarp as a windbreak (it was very windy) and seeing how Jax behaves around camping set-ups. He was fine, and we sat quite happily out of the wind for a bit.
A quick trip up onto the summit cairn and a scan of the surrounds for sheep.
Then home. I quickly went back out again, as I was keen to have a relaxing sit in my hammock chair. I returned to Wentwood and set up my hammock chair and small tarp, both of which I can get into a Finnish haversack with room for a water bottle as well. I added a thick wool blanket from the car (I pitched a monstrous 100+ yards from the car, so this was really remote stuff!) just because of the wind, and because I wanted to test if it felt warm enough to be able to sleep with this set-up. I think I could.
It wasn't quite as quiet as I had expected there on a sunday evening, so after some funny looks from cyclists and a dog-walker I called it a day and went home.
It was a really nice weekend. Let's put it this way, it was a lot better than passing gall stones last night and spending the morning in A&E as I did today
