The warmth of a cold nose

It’s that erratic phase of Autumn again.

First thing  – just as it was getting light and less than half an hour since I ditched my duvet – it looks and feels a bit nippy so I don a thin woolly jumper under a thick woolly jumper to set off with the dogs.  An hour into my walk the sun is out, I’m spaddin’ out and the combination of the two has me agitatedly hot and bothered.  My back, and mood, turn bristly and I cast branches out of my way animatedly and boot cones as if they personally contributed to the knitting of the blasted jersey.

 

Wearing wool next to the skin should be an acceptable defence on manslaughter charges inducing as it does homicidal tendencies.  “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, consider this.  At the time of this unfortunate offence the defendant was wearing an itchy jumper. Case dismissed.”

Even the woods at my favourite part of the walk couldn’t lessen my increasingly fractious mood.  A trio of deer comically mimicking John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett in the “I know my place” sketch on the British class system didn’t improve my disposition nor did the ‘wumph’ of a heron suddenly rising from the burn right in front of me.  OK, the heron maybe did just a little bit.

Just as I was making a solemn promise myself to ceremoniously cut up, set fire to and jump up and down on the offending jumper when I got home I noticed my shoe lace had come undone.  Sighing (and perhaps letting slip a tiny expletive) I knelt down.  As I did, Dylan, a handsome black Labrador and one of my charges at the moment, trotted back to check out what I was doing down at his level.  As I lifted my head after tying the last knot to look into his expressive beaten- copper eyes his nose gently touched mine … and he kept it there.

All prickly thoughts of my scratchy sweater left me and beneath our conjoined noses my lips drew back into a wide beam.  And I’m sure Dylan’s did too. The day was a perfect one, life looked wonderful again and I suddenly felt just the right temperature.

Never underestimate the warmth of a cold nose.