A not just poignant moment

I thought I'd tell you about something that happened on Christmas Day that I forgot to put in yesterday's post.

As a family we'd decided ages ago that, once the boys were here, we'd go and scatter the rest of Nell's ashes that weren't scattered in Nepal.

Christmas Day was one of the few that we awoke to when it wasn't raining and, after breakfast and opening presents, decided we'd head off down to the Community Woodland with her ashes. It was a place where Nell had loved to walk and, when we'd first moved here and she was still fit enough, one of her favourite activities was to jump into the small stream there and splash about. It seemed like the ideal location.

Water was always a fascination for Nell and whenever she saw any, if she wasn't stopped, she'd rush at it and throw herself in. There were a few times when the ditches she decided to plunge into were really deep and she'd find herself with her head covered in water and after a momentary look of shock as she surfaced, she'd then rush about in it like a mad thing.

We arrived at the small, wooden bridge and each of us took a handful from the cardboard box and watched as her ashes ran through our fingers and flowed into the fast flowing stream water. We did this a couple of times and very poignant it was too.

Nell was a big dog and we still had rather a large amount of ashes left and it was suggested that, as I was holding the box, I should just gently let the rest flow out. I slowly tipped the box so it was just beyond horizontal, so that her ashes would run lightly into the water. The next thing is... splash! Her ashes had lumped together and she went in one swoop and 'fell' into the stream!

It was actually very funny and typical of her. She'd never have approached the water in a gentle way at all, she'd have gone for it. And we came away laughing and feeling it had been a fitting 'scattering'.

I'm adding a picture of last Christmas... her last Christmas... when she got another ragger. She got one every single year she was with us and she was always thrilled with it. Happy memories.