This morning, we visited Glenarm Castle's dog park, and it was a really lovely experience overall. The grounds are beautifully maintained, and the whole area has a calm, peaceful atmosphere. One of the things I appreciated most was how quiet it was, but we were there very early, and the weather was atrocious on the way down, so I'm not sure if that's the norm for a Sunday morning. Shadow and Sasta had a great time. There was plenty of room to run around, but we had to book all six slots to...

We took a short trip to Glenariff Forest on a cold, wet, wintry afternoon, the kind where your breath hangs in the air and, in true Northern Ireland fashion, everything is completely saturated after what feels like twenty years of rain. The forest was quiet; we were the only ones in the car park, probably because we were the only ones without any sense. Shadow didn’t mind the cold or the rain. He trotted ahead, nose to the ground, absolutely in his element. We didn’t stay long, just enough...

Today we set out for Dungonnell Lough, hoping to make it the whole way up to the reservoir. The morning looked promising; cold, bright, and crisp, but as we climbed higher, the road slowly turned into a sheet of glass. Ice covered everything: the track, the grass at the edges, even the stones we tried to step on for grip. We had to abandon the car farther down the track than we would have liked, but it was just too icy to take the risk. From there, the rest had to be done on foot, carefully...