I’m not entirely sure how Betty is still alive. The good weather has arrived which means a return to our walks into the countryside: local hikes from the house, treks further to the north, and longer trips taken in Spain. Many of which are certainly not flat. Betty comes with us each time of course. In September she’ll be 14, and it will also be a year since she had surgery to remove the lump on her leg. She no longer pulls us up the hills, no longer barks when we stop because she’s impatient to keep going and she doesn’t try to chase the wild boar we come across. Slowly but surely she makes her way along, stopping as often as she can to have a sniff. There’s life, as the saying goes, in the old dog yet.

These are just some of the walks we have been on recently (although we do the ‘dog walk’ every day of course) starting with climbing the hills behind our house. On top we are rewarded with fabulous views to the sea about 30kms away. The summit is 443m although of course we only need to do 300 of these but still it’s a hike up and up.

This time we were accompanied by linnets, greenfinches and a cuckoo most of the way.

Since arriving up here we have been walking along the River Vez, one stage at a time. It’s an ‘ecovia’ with a walk, sometimes a boardwalk, all along its 36kms. It’s also a museum, the Museum of Water and Open Air, which encourages people to interact with nature. There are occasional information notices along the way. The logo is a dipper which we have often seen bobbing up and down on the rocks, along with kingfishers and otters. This latest walk was the seventh stage (we’re doing this very slowly!) and unlike the previous six, which were more or less flat through woodland, this was more up and down (elevation 123m), and more exposed. It started with some steep stone steps down to the river which Betty struggled to get up at the end.

There are some marvellous spots to go for for a dip along the river.

Another local walk saw us passing through ancient oak forests and past wild ponies up to the Capela de São Lourenço at 614m, where again we went up about 300m.

Most of it was along an official PR route that starts with a board showing a map of the walk and information on how to follow the trail. In reality this means that when you come to a fork in the path, or a t-junction, the red and yellow trail markers are now no longer to be seen. Hence me, traipsing through knee high prickly gorse as the clouds turn a dark grey, calling out: Are you sure we’re on the right path? And Richard replying: It’s an adventure! Betty, ears back, just wants to be home. Does she enjoy the views? Not sure…

More recently we have just returned from a mini break to Castilla y León, and there we had to visit Las Médulas, an old Roman gold mining site which has left an incredible landscape. Knowing how hot it would be we started first thing and did the walk up to the top, through an ancient chestnut forest, without meeting anyone else.

It was a very steep climb at the end but the view was magnificent. It’s 945m at the top, and we did 262m to get there.

We also took her into one of the mines excavated into the hills. We didn’t find any gold but a resident bat and sand martins swirling around the exit at the end.

It was coming down, the morning already stifling, that we came across groups of tourists starting the path up. They were already sweating and struggling. Not sure they all made it to see the views. I think Betty enjoys our little excursions, she always seems willing to get in the car, but without doubt she is happiest once home:

It’s been a bit up and down with the gardening too. Some things are doing exceptionally well, and others not so much. We don’t need to worry about failures in the veg patch though. Our good neighbours continue to offer us enormous amounts of produce. This generous load contained potatoes, strawberries, lettuce and eggs. We are still eating the greens, and yet more potatoes, from our other neighbour. We won’t starve!

So to finish on a high: one of the cuttings we brought with us was a small buddleia from a pink one my father gave us. We planted it in early 2023, it is now enormous with huge fragrant flower heads.

So we’re just waiting for it to cool down a tad, it’s 38C today, and then we can plan our next walk. I’m sure Betty is delighted!