Lexington

Yesterday I left home early in the morning to fly to Lexington, Kentucky where I was to judge 4 shows over the weekend. It was an uneventful trip to Chicago, but once on the small commuter flight to get to Lexington, we had to sit on the tarmac for about an hour, as there was a line of storms just South of Chicago, right in our path. Once they passed, we were on our way.

Upon arrival in Lexington, you immediately know that you are in "Horse country" as there are several lovely horse/racing statues at the airport.

Today I had a light day of judging, just 36 dogs, starting at 10:30, but my goodness it was hot - in the 90's and high humidity to add to the discomfort. Once I was done, I left the show site and headed to the American Saddle bred Museum (inside and air-conditioned!)

This was a fascinating look at the story of this breed and its accomplishments. There are lots of wonderful statues in the area
Having played tourist, its now time for a little retail therapy at an air-conditioned shopping mall.

Tomorrow and the rest of the weekend, I have full days and no time to play!

Blackberries!!

Everyone at our house loves berry season - dogs included! Great acrobatics are done to get the best berries, and it does not take long for them to learn the best techniques. Pictured above is Zoey - just 10 months old, this is her first berry season, but she has mastered the art of standing on her back legs to attain greater height.

Now the 9 week old puppies are just learning and usually they just find a lower level berry, when someone with more experience comes along and steals it.

Bike Riding

I have taken the opportunity during the summer months to get my bike out and get some exercise. I have no intentions of doing anything competitive, just getting some exercise and enjoying the scenery. So I have had my bike in the back of the minivan, and taken the opportunity to go on several different rides, while I am driving around town. today I did a 7 mile ride along Marine drive, which parallels the Columbia river on one side and the Portland airport on the other.

Danger

I am one of those people who is highly allergic to insect stings (particularly wasp/bee type critters) and do carry an Epi-Pen (injectable antihistamine, to prevent me suffocating, due to swelling, should I get stung) well summer is Yellow jacket season and they are very active at the moment. They are less active in cooler weather, so I have taken advantage of the cooler weather we have been having over the last few days, to bait and then empty the traps I have set, after they are full. Usually this is a job I assign to David, but as he is not home at the moment, it falls to me to do it. So with Epi-pen handy I changed the traps over
I wish I had the protection shown above, but I don't. However I survived the challenge and my newly baited traps are doing a great business
After just a couple of days, this shows my catch, with both dead and live yellow jackets.

A Visitor

My friend Alyce has come to stay for a few days and we have been having fun together. We have played with the puppies and taken their 7 week photos.
Then we went to the movies and saw Julie and Julia and thoroughly enjoyed it, if you have not been, try and see it's very good. We followed this up with a dinner at Joe's Crab shack, where we had wonderful Dungeness crab, sitting out on the deck of the restaurant overlooking the Colombia river - a great place to be on a summer evening.
Today we went for a drive to Mt Hood and Timberline Lodge. The picture above is Alyce at the front door of the lodge. I don't think I have ever been up there in the summer, when there was so little snow - I guess our hot weather a couple of weeks ago wiped a lot of it out.
However it is one of the few places in the USA where you can ski 12 months of the year. We took a ride on the chairlift as high as we could go and sure enough below us we were able to see keen people skiing and snowboarding and a lot of other people just hiking the trails. It was a lovely day up there with temperatures in the high 60's, and hardly a cloud in the sky.

Travel planning

In anticipation of our trip later this year to Europe, for the world dog show in Bratislava, I have been researching the places we are going to, so that we maximise our stay in each place.

The picture above is of the Grand Place , in Brussels which in August each year has a carpet of flowers (about 700,000 begonias) laid out for several days. It looks spectacular. It wont be there when we are, but Brussels is always a wonderful visit for a couple of days.

Then we are going somewhere new - Dubrovnik in Croatia - it's at the bottom of the map


It is supposed to be a spectacular place along side the Adriatic, so hopefully lots of great seafood and a chance to try some new Croatian wine. It is also a world Heritage site like the Grand Place in Brussels - so 2 for 2, so far.

Our Hilton hotel is just outside the old wall and is supposed to be very nice and the old town is well worth exploring, according to all I have read.

Then we go to the show in Bratislava (its about 1 hours drive East of Vienna) and apart from meeting up with friends and perhaps a quick city tour, most of our time will be spent at the show. According to the guide books, Bratislava does not have a lot of "must not miss" items. We will spend a day in Vienna and that's another of my favorite European capitals...I have many!