Signs of autumn are everywhere with lots of berries, leaves changing colour and some trees already pretty bare.
The rosehips are very plentiful this year. I just hope that we're not in for the same hard winter as last year, or is it a result of a very good summer....er, no! (not here anyway)

The oats (top) and wheat have now been combined and the straw either baled into big round bales or chopped behind the combine and scattered and already quite an acreage has been ploughed, sown and there are signs of next year's crops through the ground.

These photos were taken a few weeks ago before harvesting had taken place. Now we are walking between stubble fields, not a papillon's favourite playground, (especially a male !) as the legs are not long enough to clear the stiff stubble. This track is not used much by farm machinery and so there are very few puddles formed here. After weeks of heavy rain showers there is mud aplenty on those more frequently used. This has therefore been our usual walking route of late.

A stark reminder.

This morning a blunt reminder of my forthcoming birthday popped through the letter-box. It was from DVLA and more or less said, "Very shortly you will be 70 years old and as of the midnight before the day your current driving licence will be cancelled"..unless I reapply for one soon. I'm beginning to panic, I've had a driving licence since I was 17 and it had given me independence. No more asking for lifts or having to rely on the very infrequent country bus service.
There is a section on the form that asks some very searching questions about my health....OMG!.... luckily nothing about my hearing (what was that you just said?) nor my dodgy knees. No, I haven't had any fits or blackouts (that I can remember!), no brain surgery nor implanted cardiac pacemaker or defibrillator, no SERIOUS problems with memory or periods of confusion (I'm not the person to ask...but would I remember if I had?) and certainly no sleep apnoea syndrome...sometimes I wish I had! On a brighter note, I do not need to supply another mug shot, so maybe they think I haven't aged since the last one AND there is no mention of sending any payment for the new licence but I'll check for any tiny print at the bottom of the page. This has to be a first for any Government form!

My dogs at Belfast Championship Show.

Roley (Crigaber Rolex)

Maisie (Criagaber Timewatch)

Swallow (Meerwings The Swallow Tale by Pyatshaw)--looking as if she'd come out in her underwear...never mind, it will grow back and now she is in season , so no shows for her for the rest of the month.

..and the three of them enjoying the sunshine in Belfast after the show last Sunday.

My friend, Sue Gray (Gennasus) took these 4 photos.

I'm suffering from withdrawal symptoms tonight as I know some of my friends will already be on board the coach down at the Forth Road Bridge preparing for departure very soon for Driffield Championship Show. I did not enter the show...however, think of the money I've saved!

Our day at Belfast Championship Dog Show.

Top left--The dog crates are loaded and the bus is prepared for the overnight trip.

Top right--How we spent the 3 hour journey over the Irish Sea to Belfast. (This was the slow ferry this year.) This lounge (one of several) eventually filled up with passengers.

Middle left--The interior of one of the vehicle decks.

Middle right--We are some of the first exhibitors to arrive at the show and pick our postions for the trolleys near our ring--(which was later moved 3 times!--ie the ring)

Bottom left--The judge, Mrs Jackie Leslie, examines an exhibit.

Bottom right--The ferry awaits us for the return journey--or so we thought, but we were loaded on to a high speed one which brought us back to Scotland in 2 hours. The sea was quiet as a millpond, both going and returning and we even managed a meal on board to pass the time.

There were so few dogs in almost every class that I had hardly time to take photos between showing my own three dogs.

Top left--The dog CC winner, Adnamashan One In A Million.

Bottom left--The RCC dog, Northlyte Timeless Dream.

Middle top--My dogs, Maisie-3rd in Junior: Roley-2nd in Junior dog: Swallow-3rd in Open bitch.

Middle--Papplewick Pretty In Pink At Adinaken-RBCC.

Middle bottom--Sharjoy Sugar Candy-Best Bitch puppy and Best Puppy in Breed.

Right--Gennasus On A Mission-Best Puppy dog.

I did not manage to photograph the BCC winner who also took Best of Breed-- IR/Ger. Ch.-Denemore Iconsgabi.

Update on Irish trip.

The latest news is that the ferry is now leaving Stranraer at half past two, Sunday morning and so now we will be leaving our house at 8.15 pm Saturday instead of the original 4.30 pm, later changed to 6.15 pm! It's been all the talk of dog showing people on the networking site. Someone from farther south said,"What are they playing at? Why can't they put on another ferry?" Well, I don't suppose too many companies could afford to have a huge, spare ferry standing by in case of breakdowns!
Excitement is building as this is our only trip "abroad" showing the dogs and if all ferry services are normal on Sunday we will be back home earlier than if we'd been to a show in the Midlands of England.

Panic stations.

Many of us were looking forward to travelling to Belfast Championship dogshow this weekend but a spanner has been thrown into the works. As most of you will know,for us inScotland, it involves a road journey to Stranraer, a 2 hour ferry trip across the Irish Sea and then a short journey to the venue in Belfast. The preferred ferry was always one which left Stranraer round about 5am, Sunday and it has always been packed to the doors and fully booked well in advance of the show. However, this year, it turns out that, due to technical reasons, it has been cancelled, sending everyone's plans into disarray and now most earlier ferries are also fully booked.
As far as I know, our coach is travelling on one which departs for Ireland around midnight, so here's hoping there are no more cancellations. I'll report later on what actually happened!

Me, or the camera?

If you enlarge this photo then look very carefully you'll be able to make out the little flock of sparrows which had gathered for breakfast, perched precariously on the tall seedheads, waving about in the breeze. They must have been there when the dogs were out (they have no access to that part of the garden) and also my husband who had been smoking outside the back door. He told me to come and see them. I ran to fetch the camera and quietly shut the dogs in the kitchen.

Whenever I went outside, (like a mouse!) with the zoomed camera they became restless and almost immediately flew off, never to return...well, not to-day. Hence some rather blurred sparrows! Was it me...or the camera?

New arrivals.

We usually associate young chickens with Easter...why?..anyway, this little bundle of fluff was hatched recently along with another three over at the farm. Unfortunately one seems to have met with an unfortunate accident as now there are only three. Either a weasel has managed to get into the run and take it or it has escaped out of a tiny gap, but either way there has been no trace of it.

I have never been a poultry lover but I must say I did admire the colour of mother hen's plumage.

Why do many people call these creatures "chickens" when chickens are little fluffy things? No way could you get a decent meal off one of them, but saying you were looking forward to a meal of roast hen doesn't have the same appeal!

Faces.

Dreich, is the word that fits today's weather--drizzly, damp and not particularly warm. Yesterday was the opposite with the sound of combines from the surrounding countryside as they worked in the sunshine.

I took these photos of the dogs after we'd come back yesterday, from a walk down the track between the stubble fields. The only one missing is Tina who is confined to quarters as she is in season.

Top left is Mo (4): mid left-Maisie, now just on 1 year old: bottom left is Swallow: middle bottom is Spencer-13 in November(3):top right is Tass (8) and bottom right is Roley, litter brother to Maisie and bottom of the "pecking order" in this household!

Some more old horse implements.

My husband helped Ross collect this old implement from a farm roup (sale) and it was in a very dilapidated state with rotten shafts and teeth. Chic (husband) thought he was mad but see the following photographs to see the transformation. He found two pieces of the special type of wood of the appropriate length and took them to a craftsman in the town of Aberfeldy, not so far from Abernethy, who steamed them for hours then bent them to the required curve.

This is an old horse hay sweep,now completely restored by Ross himself, and was called a "tumblin' Tam" in Scotland. Once enough mown hay had been collected to form a large pile it was deftly flicked up and over so depositing the pile ready to be built into a rick.

Up she goes..

..rolls over on the curved shafts..

and now almost completely over to start once more.

This old cart, the model converted to rubber tyres, lies in the now defunct dairy premises, awaiting restoration.

Here Ross proudly shows us his two horse ploughs, one restored and the other in somewhat rusty condition. Behind, on the left, is a turnip chopper. I well remember many hours spent pitching turnips into a similar machine to feed to the cattle in winter. The turnips came out like big chips!....and just how that other item came to be up on that shelf remains a mystery!

NB the high fashion of the demonstrator....the obligatory tweed bonnet of the farmer and that ubiquitous old waistcoat!

Childhood Memories

My brother sent me this photo of him with two of his Clydesdales yoked to a flat wagon and it made me quite nostalgic. We never had this type of cart on the farm. The first ones I remember were really quite small compared to the massive metal trailers seen nowadays. They were fairly high with big iron rimmed wheels and wooden spokes and creaked, crunched and lurched over the stones. Then we progressed to rubber wheeled ones which seemed like pure luxury. There was nothing to compare with being in charge of one of the horses driving out to the field to collect some load or other when you were 9 or 10 years old. Little did we know then that the horses we were given could probably do the journey themselves.

Ross is certainly re-living his younger days as he drives around the farm with this well matched pair, Stanley and Amy and I think he has a notion to start a small museum of old horse implements. The drawback is that such a venture is almost strangled by "Health and Safety" requirements if open to the public, but he already has a sundry collection. ..maybe some day!

Lochaber Open Show

Mo (Pyatshaw Ravel) with his trophy and rosette.

(photo by Sue Gray)

It was well worth the 100 mile journey north then west to Fort William through some of Scotland's most stunning scenery as this was a very successful Open show for us.

Mo went Best in Show and we came home with lots of goodies as a result.

For winning Best of Breed he was given (well, me, actually!) a rosette, a silver trophy, a miniature bottle of whisky and £5, for coming Best Toy he again won a rosette, a silver quaich, a large bottle of whisky and a small bag of dog food and for going Best in Show we were given the winner's shield, a big rosette and a large bag of the good quality dog food.

This is a far cry from some much bigger societies who can only provide a rosette for the BIS and indeed some Championship shows which do not even provide a Best of Breed rosette.

Well done, Lochaber and District Canine Society!

They also provide a day long hospitality table laden with homemade biscuits, cakes and liquid refreshments for exhibitors to help themselves.

I am just sorry that I cannot provide some photos of all this as my camera decided to go on the blink at the beginning of the show and no matter what I did--reloaded the batteries, changed the batteries, prodded buttons etc. I still was looking at a multi-striped screen. ££££ notes were floating before my eyes as I thought its trouble was terminal but, funnily enough, when I got home I tentatively switched it on and it leapt into life...good as new! Oh well, I know about as much about the workings of a camera as I do about computers..and that could sit on a pin head, so I'm just thankful!

Mo is back to running through muddy puddles and digging holes and is a far cry from his showring self again and will have to get used to some different feeding for a while as we have quite a lot to get through and being Scottish there is no way I'm not using it.

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It was really a poodle I wanted!

Whilst chatting to a "doggy" friend recently we got on to the subject of pups for sale. At the moment she has Chihuahuas and Pomeranians but in the past has had Yorkshire Terriers. She said, "Have you ever had any strange experiences with people coming to view the pups?" I hadn't but I have never really bred much.
She had this man come in to see a Yorkie pup and he rambled on about other breeds, then scooped up the little Yorkie. My friend then detected this strong smell of drink from him and his ramblings became worse. She darted forward, retrieved the pup, shot into the kitchen where her husband was and said, "Get rid of that man. He's drunk." Then she fled upstairs in tears, clutching her "bairn." The man was duly shown the door but hubby stormed upstairs telling her never to do that to him again!
On another occasion a woman came to see a pup. She arrived just after 7pm, sat in the husband's big comfy armchair (he was working backshift) and chatted, drank several cups of tea and ate the offered biscuits and cakes until she took her leave at 11 pm with the words, "It was really a poodle I wanted!"
She thinks there must be a sign on her garden gate that says "Samaritan"!

Some photos of Papillons at City of Birmingham Championship Show 2010

It seemed no time at all since I had unpacked it from the Welsh show and now, here was the holdall ready for the overnight coach journey to Stoneleigh, near Coventry, along with all my other gear and dogs. This time the trip, outward and homeward, was uneventful, unlike the Welsh journey!
The judge was Dr. Andreas Schemel and I had taken Maisie and Swallow both of whom were placed, Maisie being 4th in Puppy Bitch (one place behind her sister, Libby) and Swallow was 3rd in Limit Bitch.

BOB AND Group 2--Congratulations to Lafford Fly Me Too Farleysbane (Dave) and his owner Sue Victor!

RDCC (left) Ringland Genies To Alex for Temelora (Morrell & Teague) with (right) 2nd in Limit Powdermill Touch of Fortune (Burns)

(apologies for the poor photo-taken against the sunlight)

(right)-BCC,..Gleniren Tres Mannefico Sunshoo (Robb & Roe) and (left) RBCC,...Denemore Iconsgabi (Carroll & Newman).

Best Puppy--Tutyak Edward Rozamie (Magri & Arrowsmith)

Best Veteran--Garbreisa Periwinkle (Crawley)

Minor Puppy Dog

1st.(left) Bedellus And All That Jazz (Beadle)

Dog Challenge (part 1)

Dog Challenge (part 2)

Bitch Challenge (part 1)

Bitch Challenge (part 2)

Later, back in the carpark, fellow exhibitors wait in the sunshine for our coach to return.

In the distance we see it coming round the track followed by a dustcloud.

..and now ready for loading for the homeward journey.

September Header Photo.

This photo of Swallow was taken at Welsh Kennel Club Championship show held recently in Builth Wells in the heart of Wales. Here we are waiting to go into the ring for the judging of Best Toy. The eventual winner was a Finnish dog, a Lowchen.