Though numbers were down on last year - just 23 hounds - it was still a great walk. An unexpected pleasure was to receive the delightful illustration below passed on from Judith Clegg a previous Basset owner from Cornwall. The artist is Liubov Edwards who has illustrated The Guardian no less. (You can see much more of her work on Instagram (liubov_edwards) or Google her.) I didn't speak to her but I don't know if anyone else did. She describes it as a "Basset Reunion Party" which is fair enough.

A notable newcomer was Ashley (Junior) weighing in at all of 15 days old: this is definitely a new record for us, please note he did the whole walk, was not lured into the chip shop by the pier like others I could mention.

And of course we can't overlook Mark and Linda who refreshed us on the way back with his usual impeccable Baileys fudge. Thank you Mark.