It's been a while

Somehow I seem to have left updating my blog to the end of the pile these days. What with Facebook and email and working on upgrades to 2 websites I manage, as well as having spent a whole week at a judges institute...time has flown by.

Many will remember at the beginning of our summer, which started very slowly and really has not progressed too fast (unlike the rest of the US and the world it seems) I planted some upside down tomato plants - well eventually they blossomed, and bore fruit and now just this last week, have started to go orange (just 3 of them!) so we still have a way to go - and I still have blossoms on the plant, which I am sure will never bear fruit, before the first frost. Anyway, we may have a few tomato's, soon... the yellow flowers are Marigolds, which I am told keep undesirable bugs away.

Pictures from Waukesha

This is a picture of the BEST part of my ring - the other pictures I took, did not really show how bad it was...

Ouch!!

I am in Wisconsin judging. I arrived here Thursday as I was judging specialties for min pins on Friday. Minpins were in the morning and I had some lovely dogs- in the afternoon it was old English sheepdogs - now, the fairgrounds had had a lot of rain in the past few days and so I had a ring full of straw and this was not ideal for hairy dogs, however the temperatures were mild and the clouds kept it pleasant.
Now saturday was a different story - we had more rain overnight and this was the day i had the ring from h**l, most of the ring was mud covered with straw - not ideal for an entry of over 50 white dogs (Samoyeds!)
but we persevered. Early in the morning the bugs were bad (Mosquitos) but later in the day a wasp went up my skirt and stung me... And as those who know me well are aware, I am allergic but in the middle of the ring there is not much I can do - other than take some benadryl.
24 hours later my thigh (where I was stung) is swollen to the size of a diner plate and is hot and itchy, and so it will remain for another week or so.
Today - Sunday was very sunny, humid and HOT. More good dogs and a beagle goes Best in Show, a good day.
I will happy to return to the moderate temperatures of home tomorrow




- Posted using BlogPress from my iTouch

It's warmed up

Super warm day here - summer finally arrived... it was 93 today (33.8 C) expected to be warm then down to the 80's for the next week - we all appreciate the air-conditioning!! But its not humid, so really quite bearable and there was a fairly strong warm breeze. And after our slow start to summer, its a change to have t-shirts on.

I think summer is finally here....

We finally seem to have our summer - the days have been in the high 70's and low 80's and no rain. The summer fruits are appearing and I bought some beautiful sweet Rainier Cherries today. We had a dog show last weekend with our new girl - Sophie and she won a group placement. A good start. This week we have been catching up on mowing - the grass has been going crazy. No shows this weekend, so just time to laze around and enjoy the weather.

My recent travels

I have been remiss in my latest postings, the only excuse - not enough hours in the day for travel and posting and judging....
After Canada I headed out to Louisiana, I went in early so that I could spend some time with my friend Alyce and get to see her new house (she moved in about 6 weeks ago) Its a fantastic property Alyce, I love it and it will be a great home for you and the Beagles. While in Lake Charles we went sightseeing. I was really surprised at how big the Lake is.
We also ate very well - Alyce's sister joined us and we wnt to a local Crawfish restaurant where they had live Zydeco music and wonderful Crawfish.
Apparently I was so capable at peeling the Crawfish, Alyce made me an "honorary Cajun"!! The great food theme continued over the weekend at the show, with the most wonderful home cooked Judges Lunches...yummy! Fortunately the show was in an lovely air-conditioned facility as it was 93 degrees and VERY humid, but we were all oblivious to this until we walked outside - then POW, it really hit you.
But it was a great weekend, but boy its good to be home for a while and to sleep in my own bed - nothing beats HOME

Almost out of Canada

I just had a few breeds to judge today and only about an hour scheduled judging and a start time of 9.30 AM for me.
Now I was the lucky judge as we had torrential rain overnight and many of the judges started at 8.00 when it was still teeming. By the time I got to the grounds it had stopped raining and then I discovered I was inside! Who knew there was an inside ring... The building could have housed all the rings, instead all the rest were outside under water. I asked the superintendant why the did not move inside and he said they only do that if the weather is really bad!!
Oh well - such is the life of a dog show judge.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iTouch