One of the most puzzling things about life in Britain is interpreting the signs.
With all the rain and dreary weather we've been having lately I decided to cheer myself up by uploading the photos of the last sunny day we had, this past Friday. I'd gone for a long walk around my town with a friend, who knew some footpaths I'd never been on before.
We came across this sign near the entrance to a private estate. We were struck by its vagueness: laws regarding the public footpaths say that it's okay to let your dogs run free, as long as they are "under control" (a vague condition in itself). Does "exercising dogs" mean something different than simply letting them run free? Maybe it refers to people who let their dogs run on treadmills in that area. Maybe they're worried about the dogs chasing the horses in the pasture, and didn't want to say so for fear of hurting the horses' feelings. Maybe they got wind of the Yorkshire terrier we took on our last walk and hurriedly erected the sign.
And what about that empty beer bottle—a statement of protest left by some dog exerciser? Should it be interpreted as "Shove this one up your pole, mate!"? Or is it merely a random act of littering, in which case perhaps room should be found on the sign to address that issue as well.
What bothers me even more than the sign's vagueness is the lack of punctuation. I think I'm going to make a sign that says: "We request that laws governing the punctuation of sentences be respected."
Shove that up your sentence, mate. I'll go exercise my dog elsewhere.
