On Wednesday I left quite early, to make the drive to Canada. I Took Thomas and Susan and met Carrie around Seattle to drop off my 4 ½ week old puppies, which she minded for me, while I was in Canada.
Hot weather had been predicted for while I was away, so I had purchased an air conditioner for the kennel, so that the dogs would not be too uncomfortable (they have heat in the winter) but although the kennel is well insulated I felt A/C was needed and the beagles gave a big cheer!
I arrived in Canada, without any problems and made my way to Jenn & Rob’s home – where I was treated like royalty, for the whole weekend.
The 4 shows had promised an interesting selection of judges, with 1 from each of the following countries – Canada, USA, India and Philippines – however the last 2 gentlemen were unable to obtain visa’s and were substituted with 2 more Canadians.
The first day Thomas won the dog points (1) and then Jenn’s young puppy won the breed & best puppy (3 points) - so everyone was happy. Although the weather had been predicted to be in the 90’s, it was actually overcast and quite chilly (and I was beginning to wonder if I had been stupid not to bring some long sleeved clothes) On Friday Thomas won the breed (3 points) and Susan (2 points) but none of us did anything in group. So it was back to Jenn’s where again she showed her hospitality skills and we enjoyed delicious Bar-B-Q and salads washed down, in my case with a NZ Sauvignon Blanc and Jenn had a Brahma beer.
Saturday was a repeat of Friday - Thomas won the breed (3 points) and Susan (2 points) and another great Bar-B-Q, this time Jan & Uli who live just up the road, came over and added to the great evening which was followed by a heavy rainstorm, complete with thunder and lightning.
It takes 10 points to be a Canadian champion and Thomas now had 7…… and Susan 4.
Sunday dawned hot and humid. We showed at 11 and it was Thomas’ day to win the breed, but we had one less dog and so he only got 2 points and Jenn’s puppy, again was the bitch winner for another 2 points. However Thomas went on to in the hound group which gave him 5 points and so he finished his Canadian Championship in style. To celebrate, we went off to the Olive Garden, so Jenn did not have to cook.
Today I drove home, collected my puppies, which had grown in my absence (I will do some pictures in the next couple of days) and got home to discover it was HOT (107°F degrees or 41.6° C) and so we all collapsed in the air-conditioning – happy to be home!
But it was a successful weekend and congratulations to Annette & Jesper on breeding a new Canadian Champion.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
It's been record breaking hot for the last few days (107°F degrees yesterday - that's 41°C) and I have blessed my Air-conditioning. We have some summers when it does not get much use, but not this one. And the unusual thing for us, is it has not cooled down much overnight. Today has been a mild 95°F!! And actually there was a slight cool breeze and so I got out on the lawn mower, not that the grass has grown, but the weeds have - now they are all the same length.
