Perfection - Italy on a sunny summer morning.

Anyone who has more 'mature' dogs will know the morning walk routine. A mad rush out of the front door followed by a quick sprint down the road and then a slow gentle,middle aged, amble back. I call it our morning 'rosh' - rush out, saunter home. I reckon that the walk up the hill ( at young dog speed ) takes us ten minutes and the walk back ( at mature dog speed ) half an hour. This rate of progress certainly doesn't give me a good cardio workout but Digby's hips aren't as good as they used to be and we all adopt a pace that fits in with him- I worry a bit about the sudden rate of deterioration in his rear quarters. Although he's only just over eight years old, violent exercise seems to take its toll on him. His big brother of course is built like a bulldozer and would rush around at high speed all day so the trick is making sure the little one doesn't get over tired while the big one gets enough exercise to keep the weight off.

This morning we walked up to the sun flower fields. The boyz love walking through them - from a dogs perspective it must be like going through the rain forest with tall stems reaching to the sky in every direction. Somewhere on the journey home the two troubadors found an old soft ball - by the time we were home the stuffing was spilling out of it and it had morphed from being a ball into a health hazard. Wilf is pretty good - he let's his little brother have the occasional turn at savaging it.

It's heart breaking to see that eight more British youngsters have fallen in Afghanistan. It's proving to be a bloody week. I wish the government would take the time to explain why we're there. Is it because we don't want Al Qaeda to turn the country into a base to undermine the whole region , or is it because if Afghanistan collapses Pakistan can't be very far behind? If it's ethically justified countries like Britain and the US have a moral duty to expend blood and treasure for the greater good , but the number of fatalities in Afghanistan have now overtaken those in the Iraq war.