Out in the Sticks

By the canal on a sunny day

I'm not sure if the Sticks is the real name of the place we went to in my campervan, but the humans kept talking about it being out in the sticks so I suppose it must be right. 

It was somewhere in Cheshire, or Whales, or Shopshire but we didn't see any shops at all. Anyway, it was a weekend away in the sunshine, not too hot so I didn't need to wear my cool coat when we had walks, and I loved it.

We stayed on a small campsite in the country (maybe that's what the Sticks are?) and all we saw were fields and trees and butterflies and cows. The humans took me for walks along the lanes when it was cool and there was nothing about, but I did see lots of cows. They came to the gate of their field and I sat and looked at them for a long time. The human who feeds me kept talking to them and they seemed to like that. There were about 20 of them looking at me - of course I love having an audience - and they smelled so interesting.

We had to move on eventually, and back at our campsite we sat outside and watched the sun go down. Well, the humans did and they seemed to like it. If they're happy, I'm happy (more treats!!)

This campsite place had a good place for me to walk, with paths all amongst the long grass and wild flowers with butterflies and bees. I liked going there but the humans would linger about with their cameras, taking photos of these butterfly thingys.

Before we left, both of the humans had to play some strange game together on the grass. It was called croaky (croquet, Ed) or something like that and they had to hit a ball through some hoops.

They left me sitting outside my van so I could watch them. Personally I couldn't see anything in the game. Why hit the ball when you can chase it and have much more fun?

On the way home we found a good place to park my van so they could have this coffee thing they like to have. All I wanted to do was get out and explore - and we were right by some water. It's called a canal I think (I've walked by one before), and there were masses of wild flowers and grasses growing by it. They had coffee, we had a walk, we had lunch and then another walk. 

I must say it was all rather good. Lots of big long boats with people on them came chugging past, and they waved and said hello to us. If this is what the Sticks are I'd like to go again, please.