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14 IWS (plus a small posse of wish-we-were-IWS) met at Lurgashall winery with their families on Sunday 3 February 2008 for
a walk and pub lunch. Lurgashall is set deep in West Sussex woodland with an excellent choice of footpaths and views over
rolling Sussex Downs countryside.
Paul Mackey, who lives right on the picturesque village green in the centre of Lurgashall, was our Intrepid Leader. In
his camouflage jacket and boots he strode ahead with the certainty of a Sargeant Major, although his straggle of followers
leant more towards the Warmington-on-Sea Home Guard than a top dog squad!
In the middle of the wood we deliberately walked past a perfectly lovely lake so the dogs could swim. But for some reason
all the IWS turned up their noses and snuffled off into the undergrowth, leaving Doodle the Lagotto powering up and down in
solitary splendour, calling out "it's lovely once you're in - honest!"
The wood eventually opened out into huge fields, where the younger dogs could romp and play. Actually our youngest IWS,
Keeva, at 10-months old didn't stop "romping" all day. She also found her first suitor in Jaki & Alan Porter's
Barney - she should keep watch for the postman come Valentine's Day!
Dylan, the only dog who was travelling by public transport, managed to anoint himself in that o-so aromatic "Parfum
de Fox". Of course he didn't do it until AFTER we were well past the lake! Bet Caroline and Dylan had a train carriage
all to themselves on the way home!!
We decided to take a Group Photo in the field. O hope that springs eternal! It was chaos trying to get 17 dogs to "sit"
for longer than a single nano-second. We gave up, but some of us took the chance offered by our photographers, Martin Fessey
and Alan Porter, to pose for individual photos.
By now those IWS who hadn't been on a Mingle before, Bob the Builder & Drummond, were wearing faintly bemused expressions...
almost as bemused as an Alsatian in a driveway we passed. His owner held on to his collar while we walked past .. one
IWS, then another, and another ...followed by a few more ...all the same....
The forecast rain luckily never materialised. And the fact that we'd been invited to sample the wines at the winery on
our return had absolutely nothing to do with us speeding up towards the end! The wine shop manager is hoping to get an IWS
himself this year - our dogs re-materialising outside his shop soggy, muddy, smelly with happy faces and lolling tongues didn't
put him off apparently!
The Noah's Ark pub is on the village green; we had a private dining room, but numbers spilled over into the bar, and spilled
over again into Paul & Nicola's kitchen (thanks to them). Paul later led the stalwart few out again in an afternoon walk
to walk off our hearty lunch.
The day tired Erin out so much, that she got home and curled up in her bed without having had her supper - an unheard
of occurrence for my very greedy girl. She did tuck away in her coat lots of souvenir twigs of her visit to Lurgashall which
I've been finding today!
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