Pyatshaw Papillons et al.

Sunday, 11 July 2010

Flower Power.

Flowers attract my dogs like bees. That is why we no longer allow the gang among them. Sometimes I come into the kitchen and the floor is strewn with blooms like some kind of Hawaiian welcome. I was moving this pot and laid it down for a minute to pick up something and they were on it, initially sniffing but, given the chance, would soon have pulled off the heads.

By the way, we've had a day with no rain!

Saturday, 10 July 2010

Raindrops keep falling on.................

True to the forecast, rain has been falling steadily for most of the day, sometimes a gentle drizzle and sometimes not so gentle. Plants are bowed down with the weight of water.

Some places in Britain are suffering from drought, but not here.

According to pictures on the TV the revellers do not seem to be dispirited by the dampness at the music festival down the road.

Friday, 9 July 2010

T In The Park.

That huge pop music festival that is T In The Park is with us again. It takes place about 15 miles from our village and there has been a mass evacuation of young folk from here, mainly to camp for the weekend duration. 80,000 people are expected to attend each day with thousands of those camping in the designated fields surrounding the site. Massive planning has gone into the whole operation with preparation having been visible for a few weeks. Traffic for the festival has been coned off on to specially designated routes in an attempt to avert the chaos and disruption to traffic flow of some previous years. We took a run down to see what was visible from the road ....not much! I took the photos through the moving car window as there was nowhere to stop and we had to drive for a few miles to even turn as every road end within miles was closed off.

During our weekly shopping trip to Perth yesterday we saw lots of young people arriving at the bus station. They are easy spot as most wear wellies and are lugging all sorts of luggage. Some were still trying to acquire tents but these are as scarce as hens' teeth at the moment.

I watched a bit of the TV coverage later tonight and I sure feel my age! What a din! (I'm sounding like my mother now).

It drizzled rain for most of the day but in the afternoon the sun came out and the evening was beautiful for the start of the "music". So if you like that sort of thing, conditions were ideal, but rain is forecast for tomorrow. I don't think that matters much to the youngsters.

The tented village can be seen in the background. How do they find their own tent?

The caravan park seems a bit more civilised!

It's not just music there. To the right of the picture is a big carnival wheel and chair-o-planes.

This relatively uncluttered girl is still looking for an entrance! Just in front of her, but out of the photo, was a young man trailing a wheelie bin, presumably containing all his necessities for the weekend.

Friday, 2 July 2010

The Golden Wedding

Ross and Alice on their wedding day.

A few weeks ago we received the invitation adorned with 50 year old and present day photographs of my elder brother, Ross and his wife, Alice and the added words, "No presents, please." I liked that bit (what with the current high price of gold etc...!!).

It turned out to be a real good old fashioned farming (mainly) community get together with a huge meal, an accordion band, lots of old-time Scottish dancing and everyone dressed in their "Sunday best". I think what I enjoyed most was chatting to people, some of whom I haven't seen for 10 years or more but I did put my foot in it when I asked my cousin, seated at table next to me, who the gentleman was, seated opposite her. He seemed a little left out of the conversation and I thought that if she knew his name we could include him. "That's my husband," she replied. I'd forgotten she had remarried!

Another cousin, Neil, gave a little speech and proposed the toast to the happy couple but he did make one gaffe. He referred to the wedding 50 years ago, as their funeral! I don't think it was intentional. However he related how my father had been a bit annoyed when the day of the wedding dawned bright and sunny--perfect for haymaking. Who in their right mind got married at haytime!

Chic very gamely accompanied me, hampered as he was with his multi coloured chest and shoulder injury.

A display of the wedding photographs.

I took so long to get out of my seat with my camera last night that they had cut the cake and Alice was on her way back to her seat followed by Ross before I was in position to snap them.

"Not much had happened in the last 10 years (since their Ruby Wedding party)", said Ross, "except that Alice had broken her ankle while herding cows into the milking parlour and he had had a hip replacement!"

Wednesday, 30 June 2010

Views From The Surgery Car Park.

This morning we had occasion to visit the doctor's surgery in the neighbouring village of Newburgh. On Sunday morning Chic had tripped when he got out of bed and fell striking his shoulder on a plastic box containing dog show catalogues and smashing the box to smithereens in the process. A day later the bruising appeared and he couldn't lift his arm but still would not go to see a doctor. I gave him very little sympathy until today when he asked if I would drive him to the surgery(his chest now being fetching shades of purple, lilac, green and yellow)....nothing broken, they could do nothing but give him painkillers.

I happened to have my camera in the car and, as I waited, took the following photos from the surgery car park on a beautiful sunny, warm morning.

Looking north over the steep banking towards the River Tay.

A closer view of the reed beds on the island in the river.

Looking south up out of the car park towards the main street. The village is built on a steep hill with the main road running along it.

This wood pigeon sees these views every day.

Monday, 28 June 2010

Showing at Blackpool in the sun.

This day turned VERY hot after a slow start, although the photographs show clouds and a breeze, thankfully, picked up through the afternoon.

I had taken Maisie, Roley and Swallow and I was also handling Emma for my friend, Carole. We were fairly successful with all dogs being placed. Maisie won her class then ended up best bitch pup but was unfortunate enough to come against the winning dog pup, who had won the Dog Challenge Certificate, and he came out the winner, Best Pup in Breed. Roley came 3rd in his puppy class and so has qualified for Crufts 2011, while Swallow was 4th in Limit Bitch and Emma 5th in Open Bitch.

Some sat in the sun (and burned!) at the end of judging.

I bought a straw hat--"It'll be better when it's finished", someone said!

It had already blown off in a gust of wind and I had lost my newly acquired Mr Whippy trying to grab it. However the ice cream wasn't wasted. Several dogs cleaned it up quickly.