So who reads this blog?

Well according to my stats (and these are over the time the blog has been up and running) there is quite a world wide readership - but I would like to see more countries on the list so forward it to friends in other countries...
Today we have sunshine, which is very welcome

I had some minor technical glitches -trying to get the photos off my memory card in the camera, but finally rescued a picture of our friends Anna & Miikka (in the rear) and Pia & Knud (at the front) having breakfast at the Kro we stayed at in Denmark last weekend. This is what makes travel so much fun - meeting friends around the world.
Our next overseas trip will be to Cruft's in March - where I am sure we will meet up with more friends - See you there...let me know if you are going.
I found these pictures taken of last years show - see what you are missing.

And here is a picture of the boy we brought home - Thomas. (thank you Gerner for the photo)

I wish

If I was actually looking at this sight (instead of a grey day, watching the remaining snow melting on the grass) it would be wonderful. However, its warmed up today and I have chores to do, both inside and outside.

Things we saw in Denmark

When you travel, one of the interesting things is to look at what you don't see at home

This is a scootcar - sort of a combo scooter and a car - very fuel efficient! We saw a couple of these on the roads, but I am sure they are a bit chilly to ride in.Then when you read magazines you see other interesting things - we like wine and this intrigued us
This is an aerator, to make ordinary wine taste great.

and here is the girl we brought home - she won Best puppy with her breeder showing her at the show in Denmark. Thanks Annette (Gold Line Beagles)

A long Weekend

We went to Denmark! We arrived on Friday at about 2pm and collected our rental car and drove about 60km west of Denmark to where we were to stay the night. The weather was right around freezing, gray and VERY windy (which made it feel even colder) but dry.
The Bromølle Kro where we were staying was built at this location in 1198, and although it has undergone modernization in the years since then, some of the original beams can still be seen. We had a wonderful meal here on Friday night with friends Pia, Knud, Anne & Miikka. After a good nights sleep we left Saturday morning to go to the January Awards Party and show of the Danish Beagle Club, held just a few miles away..
The tables were set up around the ring and lunch and dinner were served amidst the judging – it did make for a very long day. The show had an entry of 99 and the judge was Manuel Borges, from Portugal. Full results. Several dogs we had sent to Denmark over the years did quite well with Starbuck Torbay Talbot Hill Grand Cru being 3rd best dog in show. We had made this trip to evaluate some puppies and 2 of them came home with us – Susan & Thomas. They are just 7 months old and will not be shown until they have grown up a bit, I will update our webpage soon with details on them, but they are by Danish & American Champion Starbuck Torbay About Face out of Danish Champion Gold Line Romantic Issue.

We flew home from Copenhagen on Sunday and stayed overnight in Seattle with our friend Carrie and drove home today. The youngsters handled the whole trip marvelously and came out of their crates at the airport tails wagging.

Travelling light

After many years of practice I have finally mastered the art of travelling light. We are off to Denmark this weekend - leave Thursday return Sunday - and so dont need to take much, other than warm coats etc as the forecast is for rain/snow showers. Both David and I are just taking a rolling tote as carry on.
We are going to Denmark to collect a couple of puppies that we saw when they were just 10 weeks old, and if we still like them, they will come home with us.
We are going to a Beagle show held somewhere just west of Copenhagen, on Saturday and we will catch up with a lot of friends who will be at the show - Pia & Knud (Ahlen); Jesper and Annette (Goldline); Michael & Gerner (BeagleBoys); Anne & Miikka (Skilo Mas) who are coming from Finland; and a new friend Susan (Sparklingwoods) who is coming from the Netherlands. And there will be many other people at the show we know, I am sure.
So must go and drive to Seattle (3 hour drive) as we are taking the nonstop flight from there to Copenhagen, as it will be better for the dogs to have a nonstop on the return flight.

Troll Mole - Bad hair day

Someone shared this picture with me - and it made me smile, so I thought I would share it with everybody - I am sure that our "rare" moles dont look like this - even on a bad hair day!

This is a common site on our front lawn recently, its a mole hill - apparently we are blessed to have a rare sub-species of moles in our area - its called the Brush Prairie" mole - well our property must be a breeding ground for this critter, as they leave a lot of evidence of their presence!!

Uninspired

I really don't have a lot of news, but thought I should post something.
The new bed is a hit, David's back feels good and we are both sleeping well.
We had a dog show today, here in Portland - but the results were not good for us (or Carrie, who was visiting) but congratulations to the winners.
I attended a dog seminar, which was also not wonderful, it actually spent more time talking about cow judging than dog judging! - so all around it was a miss of a day

What is YOUR Sleep Number?

David has been complaining for several months that when he gets up in the morning his back is sore, yet on any night we have been travelling and staying in hotels or with my parents, he did not have the same problem. This led us to suspect it was our mattress (and yet, its was only 3 years old, but I think we chose the wrong one when we bought and that the extra soft pillow top was not what we should have got.

So with nothing else to do on a dreary Sunday afternoon we headed to the Mattress shop and spent the next couple of hours lying on mattresses - soft, hard, foam, tempurpedic and every other variation in between. Eventually we decided on the Sleep Number Bed

This is a bed with air chambers in the mattress and you can adjust the amount of air in the mattress (separate controls for each side - Yes!) and you can adjust infinitely - from 1-100 (with 100 being the firmest)

The mattress was delivered yesterday and on our first night - I was at 70 and David 65, we will play with it again tonight and find our personal "Sweet Spot"

Quiet Weekend

We had a lazy weekend, as we did not go to shows in Seattle - but you can see pictures and a report on Team Beagle Blog.

We went to a wine tasting on Friday night - always an interesting event at our wine shop - this week was no exception - he had a vendor challenge and invited them to bring their 5 most interesting wines. One vendor brought in several Portuguese Wines, which were totally unfamiliar to us, but very good and enjoyable. The first was Esporao Alandra Blanco (obviously a white) made from Mantuedo and Diagalves grapes - which i had never heard of before. The same vineyard also made a red wine Esporao Alandra Tinto from Periquita, Trincadeira, Bastardo & Moreto grapes - again all the varieties are new to me.

We may have to go to Portugal!

Staying Home

This picture is of the closed freeway I-5, which is the main route between Seattle and Portland. The freeway was closed last night about 6pm and is expected to remain closed for 3 or 4 days, due to flooding. We had 3 shows near Seattle this weekend but will be staying home, as there are no detours as all the East/West roads are closed also, due to mud slides and avalanche danger, over the mountain passes.
So another weekend off, and thats not all bad - we have been so busy over the last few weeks, that doing nothing is relaxing.

A Quick Visit

Today saw me to a quick visit to the dental school to have yet another mold made for the implant that they hope to do in about 2 weeks. This has been a VERY slow process - just over 2 years ago I had a bad toothache, that resulted in a root canal, followed by a bone graft, then an implant of a steel pin in my jaw 10 months ago and now apparently all is healed and they are ready to make the tooth.

We have had 3" of rain today and everything is pretty saturated around here, but its 50 degrees - so not too bad.

Back to Rain

Here are some pictures from our trip to Palm Springs this past weekend. We start off with the hotel, where there was a Happy Hour each evening (free drinks and snacks for everyone at the hotel from 5:30 to 7:00) David, Carrie and I were enjoying the warm weather (while the sun was up - but being a desert, it does cool off once the sun goes down) but it was still dry and enjoyable.
The weather for the dog show was perfect - sunny and dry and not too hot or cold. It is held on a Polo Fiel and so the grass is short and smooth and there is plenty of tenting, in case of inclement weather.

I only took a single Beagle photo - this is the 13" variety and the winner is the second dog.

I saw some new AKC breeds - the first is the Redbone Coohound and the next is the Treeing Walker Coonhound.

When we were all done in Palm Springs we drove to Fresno, California to see the litter of puppies that Terri has raised. The drive from Palm Springs took us through the dramatic scenery of the Mojave desert (desolate, and unusual - not the garden center of the USA!)
Then we stayed overnight and Oohed and Aahed at the puppies, who were just wonderful.
Then we drove to Sacramento and flew home to Portland.
We are home for a couple of days before heading off to Seattle area for shows this Friday through Sunday

Off To Fresno

We are leaving Palm Spring today to drive to Fresno to see the litter of puppies raised by our good friends Dan & Terri. We have not seen these puppies yet - except in pictures and they look fantastic - very excited to see them.

Palm Springs Life

We arrived here on New Years Eve (along with our good friend, Carrie) we arrived at about 2pm and it was just superb - not a cloud in the sky and about 72 degrees. We went to our hotel, which is actually in the nearby town of Palm Desert, settled in and then tried to decide where to go for dinner on New Years Eve. We settled for an Italian restaurant on the main street of Palm Springs - which was very busy and crowded. We saw the New Year in on TV (the New Year in New York - that is - which is 3 hours ahead of us in time!) By the time we had dinner and returned to the hotel, we were sound asleep by the time it was really midnight in Palm Desert.
The next 2 days I was judging on the beautiful Polo Fields, which is set up with many long huge tents, sufficient to accommodate the 3300 dogs entered for the shows each day. The weather remained fantastic on Thursday & Friday.
Today (Saturday) I was at leisure, but we still went to the show to watch and meet up with friends, but it was a little cooler and cloudier - but still no complaints from ANYONE.
I took some photos, will hopefully upload them on my return home.