Smooth Coat Chihuahua

Brussels Griffon--Rough Coat

Irish Setter

Great Dane.

My Skywatch Photo.

Taken on a cold December afternoon with a band of freezing fog leaving only the top of the hill visible. This is near Abernethy, in south Perthshire, Scotland.

Go to the Skywatch Friday site to see many more skyscapes from all over the globe!

Tass' pups (2008) revisited.

This photo of Wee Geoffie, now renamed Pepe, fell out of a Christmas Card from his owner, Eunice. It's hard to imagine that he was only one and a half ounces when he was born.

..and this photo of George, his litter brother, but MUCH bigger at two ounces(!) at birth, came several weeks ago from Sandra, his new owner. Here he is relaxing on Sandra's husband, Bill.

Both "boys" seem to have inherited their mother, Tass', lovely eyes, (although George must have been looking directly at the flash!).

I love to be kept up to date with any dogs I've sold and enjoy seeing their photos. Both these dogs have lovely homes.

Although Geoffie is not a big dog, George grew to over eleven inches and it just goes to prove that birthweight has no bearing on final size. It's all to do with your particular "recipe".

Brigadoon?

The bright, sunny, anticyclonic winter weather continued today and of course the dogs and my footwear remained relatively clean as the mud was pretty well frozen on the tracks to the north of the village. At this time of year the sun spans the sky for such a short distance that most of the day the village is in the shade and the frost lingers there but farther out in the valley the warmth from the sun could be felt and melted the hoar frost from the vegetation. The droplets of water quickly froze again on the tips of branches and grasses.

A strip of fog lay to the north above the rivers Earn and Tay.

When I turned for home a ribbon of fog had descended suddenly on the village. The road just vanished into the gloom. It was all very eerie looking. Then, almost as quickly as it had come, it evaporated and the village houses became clearer.

The bottom right photo shows the frost on our car windscreen.

My Skywatch Friday photo.

Beech twigs and empty nut shells against a bright blue sky on a rare sunny, but frosty day in Perthshire, Scotland.

There are lots more sky photos on the Skywatch site.

Skywatch in Berkshire.

Looking over a park towards the setting sun when I was visiting family in Bracknell, Berkshire, England in November.

More people from around the world show their sky photos here.

William Wallace--Part II.

These two photographs, taken in very recent years, were by my friend Jean Baxter (Crelak), who sent them to me on reading my post of yesterday. The Saltire Society has taken an interest in the statue and it is now signposted and the area tidied up with easier access, although still by foot only.

At primary school, in history lessons, we really only learned Scottish history and my great heroes were Sir William Wallace and Sir Robert The Bruce.

The Wallace, as he is known, was a giant of a man, standing at well over 6 feet tall, and must have been a formidable adversary on the battlefield. However, he was finally betrayed and taken south where he was hanged and his body dismembered and displayed on London Bridge. For more information on this great Scottish patriot look here. or here.

I remember visiting William Wallace!

Please excuse the quality of this scanned slide, which was taken in 1964. I do not know what has caused all the lines on the scanned photograph. When I put away the scanner one day it had been working perfectly and now the results are as above. Maybe someone out there has the answer?

This is a photograph of a huge statue of the Scottish hero, William Wallace (aka Braveheart/ Mel Gibson!) and is found in a secluded part of a wood near Melrose in the Scottish Borders. We had to traipse down a muddy track to find it. These two people are my husband (then fiance) and his cousin who demonstrate the size of the monument.

I thought this might be apt to show W. Wallace just now as St. Andrews Day has just passed (30th November) and Scotland has been celebrating the Year of theHomecoming with all things Scottish.

Whether this statue is any better known now than in 1964 I do not know. I have never revisited!

Other people share their memories here.

The Scottish Papillon Club Open Show.

Best in Show was Mrs Angela Skelton's Adnamashan Time After Time, aka Joseph, who also happens to be the sire of our 3 pups.

Reserve Best in Show was Pyatshaw Silver Tassie, aka Tass, who is now 7 years old and whom I showed in Veteran class.

Here she is again where I had abandoned her on my grooming table when I went off to photograph some dog at the other end of the hall. Good old Tass!

Even the fact that the car heater had packed in in the midst of the current frosty spell (-3 degrees C) failed to quell my excitement. Both my veterans, Spencer, now 12 years old, and Tass the youngster at 7, have won Reserve Best in Show at the 2 successive Open shows of the club this year.

My SkyWatch Photo

The rising sun gains the crest of the low hills near the small village of Roseisle, in Morayshire, North Scotland.

The SkyWatch Friday site has lots of lovely skies from around the world.

The three pups at 9 weeks old.

The terrible trio are now living in the kitchen along with the rest of the gang.

The top row of the collage shows all 3 pups, starting with the dog pup on the left, followed by the 2 bitch pups. Try to work out the rest of the photos for yourself!

I remember my first portable radio.

Here we are listening to the radio while on holiday at the caravan, probably in the late 1950s. This was a novelty for us as this was the first time we could take a radio with us and the cars then didn't have one installed! It was quite a substantial piece of equipment made of solid polished wood and weighing quite heavily.

I remember the excitement of opening this big parcel one Christmas and finding it. I immediately carted it off up to my bedroom for private listening. Previously, the only wireless, as we called it, was in the kitchen and was powered by an acid filled accumulator which had to be taken away to be charged every so often and it also had a table knife blade behind one of the tuning dials. Apparently this had some essential function, but don't ask me what it was!

"Portable" is probably a bit of a euphemism as it took me all my time to carry my new radio, with its large dry battery, up the two flights of stairs to my private quarters but it was wonderful being able to listen to the Hit Parade on Radio Luxembourg which was never allowed downstairs!

Things in the radio world have certainly moved on quite a bit since then.

For more memories take a look at this site.

My very local world after the rains.

The above collage shows our very local River Earn, Perthshire, Scotland, in full flood mode. Bad as this looks, it is nothing compared to what some areas of Britain, viz. Cumbria and Dumfries have experienced over the past week of torrential rain, described in the newspapers as "of biblical proportions" and it is expected, now that the worst is over and the floods slowly recede, to be quite some time for the clean/clear up to be complete. There was one fatality, when a policeman was swept to his death when the bridge, on which he was standing, was brought down with the strength of the current. In this area the worst we experienced were a few closed roads for a short time.

One of the photographs, taken in the car park of a farm shop, states that the River Earn is 400 yards in the direction of the arrow.......I think not! (click to enlarge)

This collection of 4 photos shows the flooded football pitches on the South Inch, a large park-like area on the way into Perth from the south.

No football matches last Saturday!

To us here in UK this all seems worrying but it is nothing to the type of conditions that some countries experience on a fairly regular basis. All I can say is, "Thank goodness I live here", where very seldom is it VERY wet, VERY dry,VERY hot or VERY cold...just sort of temperate.

To view photos from all parts of the globe click here.

Vanquished!

We returned from Arbroath minus the shiny trophy. Mo failed to do what Swallow had done last year and a Miniature Schnauzer puppy was declared Best in Show and went off home with the pristine silverware...there's always next year!

The Day of Reckoning.

To-morrow is THE day, the day for one of our prize possessions to be returned...the Best In Show Cup which Swallow won last year at the Dundee Canine Club Limit Show. We've had a full year to have it inscribed with her name and keep it clean, but, as usual...procrastination..(there's plenty time!) Over a week ago I took it to the engraver and he was quite pessimistic about having it ready on time as he had so much work in hand due to clubs presenting trophies at Christmas time. However he came up trumps and had it ready today for tomorrow's show. Never again will I give a puppy a long name as it cost me a small fortune due to the number of letters in her official name.

It's looking good now all polished up---all these antiques programmes keep telling us not to over-polish silver or brass--no chance of that here!

The Cup, newly polished.

..and Swallow, looking quite pleased with the end result.

My Skywatch Photo.

Up, up and away..........off into the blue. An aircraft rises into the blue sky from Heathrow, London, bound for some long-haul destination, on a sunny November afternoon.

To see more skies from around the world, or, to add your own, visit the Skywatch site.

My annual trip south.

Windsor Castle.

Leafy Berkshire.

The entrance.....no......exit gate (NB the "No Entry" signs!) from Sandhurst Military Academy, viewed through the wet windscreen, as we stopped at traffic lights.

"Pyatshaw, Pyatshaw, where have you been?"

I've been to London to see the Queen"

Well not quite. I was visiting one of my daughters, son-in-law and 3 grandchildren who live in Bracknell in Berkshire and when paying a visit to Legoland we had a lovely view of Windsor Castle.

Legoland was largely closed for the season, all except for the pricey souvenir shops and a cinema showing short 4D children's films. We did, however, manage to see some of the figures, animals and objects made from the plastic blocks. Luckily, this and the car parking was free and it was fine wandering about the almost deserted tourist attraction.

My World----Kelso, Scotland.

I have just come home after spending two nights with a friend who lives in Kelso and took these photos on a rather cold, raw, misty morning.

Kelso, in the Borders, is unique, in Scotland, in having a French-style, cobbled town square fed by four cobbled streets...a minefield for wearers of high-heeled shoes to traverse! When I was first married, well over 40 years ago, we lived fairly close to here and did our banking in the town. Then, when driving across the square, everyone took their own route and at times it could resemble "dodgems" but now routes are marked out with flower tubs.

In the collage the photos in the top row show, from left to right,

(a) the row of elegant buildings on the north side of the square, (b) the well kept gates and lodges leading to the William Adams designed Floors Castle, home of the Duke of Roxburgh and used as the film location of the birthplace of Tarzan! and (c) the view up the northward leading cobbled street from the Square.

Middle right photo shows the Town Hall in the Square and bottom right is a view to one of the churches down a side street.

The left hand bottom photo shows the remains of the 12th century reformed Benedictine abbey which suffered much in the on-going wars between Scotland and England and now not a lot is left standing.

The town stands near the confluence of the rivers Teviot and the famous salmon fishing river Tweed. There are two bridges over the Tweed, one being of recent origin and the other over two hundred years old. An earlier bridge was swept away in a flood. This later bridge was built by John Rennie who later built Waterloo Bridge over the Thames in London.

Kelso is also famed for its Ram Sales, held every September and its Racecourse.

It is twinned with Kelso in Washington, USA and Orchies in France.

For other folks' "worlds" look here.

My Skywatch Photo

The rising sun tints the sky to the north over the Moray Firth and The Black Isle in the north of Scotland.

For more World Skies visit this site.

Autumn--fading!

Winter approaches. One day the trees are covered in golden leaves, the next there are virtually none left. These photographs were taken earlier in the week when I was out with the dogs. It was the day after "the rain".

They show the trees, some now stripped almost bare, the lovely yellow Silver Birch, one of my favourite trees with its silvery bark, windfall pears which nobody gathers so I suppose offers food to whatever wildlife, views across the Tay/Earn valley and a Suffolk tup staring at me staring at him.

I remember my first trip abroad.

This is me collecting my cruise ticket and toasting my success in a national newspaper competition, the prize being a Caribbean cruise for 2 for 18 days. This all happened about 20 years ago---note the massive "Deirdre Barlow" specs! Someone from the newspaper phoned me to tell me I'd won and I rushed out to the farm steading to tell Chic, but no one was about so back to the house to phone my mother. I remember her words very well; "That's wonderful but do you know this is the expensive time to phone. I'll phone you back after 6pm!"

Chic took a bit of persuading to accompany me as he was not a "holiday" person but capitulated in the end.

We had never been abroad so had no passports and had never been on a plane and Chic still had to be persuaded to leave his bonnet behind--"We're not cruising with that!"

It turned out to be the most wonderful experience, with a week cruising the eastern Caribbean on the Crown Princess, then back to Fort Lauderdale in Florida and transfering to the sister ship, Regal Princess, for a week in the western Caribbean and a visit to Mexico. I did feel a bit unwell on the return from Mexico as there was a terrific gale blowing and even that massive ship with its modern stabilisers was extremely unstable. Chic turned out to be an extremely good sailor.

There were lots of courses served at the meals, But even I, eventually, had to cut them down to 3 and after dinner each night we had wonderful shows in the theatre.

Every morning we'd wake up to a new shoreline in a different island and we'd have a shore trip during the day. I think my favourite must have been St. Johns in the Virgin Islands.

Everywhere in this region is very beautiful, lush and green.

Before the trip started we were told to use our credit card on board ship. We didn't have one but it was soon acquired. Imagine my horror when we were about to board the plane for Miami from London when I discovered that I'd left the damned thing at home. I phoned the travel agent who had arranged our trip and he told us not to worry(!)--he would arrange for payment of our on board expenses (which were a minimum) and he would bill us when we arrived home.

I took dozens of photographs, in slide form, and have now bought a scanner which converts them to digital images. Right now it is not working too well---it might be due to my "slow" laptop.Some day I hope to be able to post some of them.

We had dipped into a world a million miles from our own!

Other recall their memories on this site.