Spring in Lille

These pics cover a span of a couple of weeks, showing early spring flowers in Lille and Bailey's adventures in the woods on our walks. Clay and I both developed a cold as soon as we returned from London and have been fighting it off for the past week or so. He seems to be over it. Mine seems to have morphed from cold symptoms to what I think is just spring time allergies which always hit me this time of year. There's probably some new forms of pollen around here that I've not encountered. 

The past few days have been just perfect, clear blue sky and temps in the 50s and 60s. 

Bailey standing atop a root ball of a downed tree.

This circus tent. We went the night before our trip to London. Really enjoyed it.

Bailey resting on a bench where we sit and watch a barge go through the lock. 

We make a point of passing by the big field at least twice on each walk, but except for a good run chasing a very fast whippet about a week back, Bailey is more interested in our walks through the woods these days. We do encounter dogs there too, of course, and sometimes she will engage in play with the right dog. 

The dark coloring on that white dog is mud. I am very glad that Bailey stays out of the water and out of the mud as much as possible.

These big old beech trees are common in the woods around here.

Bailey walking nicely just behind me. She sticks close and always comes when I call.

She's never been a stick dog, but today she picked on up and let me throw it a couple of times.

She was probably just trying to amuse me.

I don't know what this is, but it sure was pretty. 

Here's a picture of people and dogs gathered on the big field on a beautiful evening.

There were more than a dozen dogs. We walked through the crowd and Bailey greeted a few but just kept walking. The crowd included the whippet she had had such a good run with a week ago, but this wasn't the day for a repeat.