Catch up time Pt I : Olympia; End of 2010 Agility Season & the Garden

At last I feel like posting on my blog; I really miss keeping it up to date but I just haven't had the heart for it lately. However at the weekend my special little sheltie made me very happy and I want to record that emotion on the blog so here we go with part I of a megga update completing with very good news (well for me and Zeki anyway!)

End of 2010 Agility Season

Both my girls were brilliant last year with Niamh getting into four champ finals and Zeki winning into G7. We are really looking forward to our first champ class in 2011!

Here they are with there 2010 hauls.

Olympia 2010

I was proud to have Naughty Niamh at Olympia for the second time. We had a great time despite the worry about getting home through the snow. As it happens we were fine especially as we were travelling in Jay's super duper 4x4. We ran clear in the morning event but were just out of the top ten times. There are a couple of places I could have saved precious time but hindsight is a wonderful thing! I was thrilled that Niamh was so close to the qualifying times. We got to run in the pairs and she ran clear again; our partner had a lovely run also but picked up 5 faults.

Here are Niamh's videos and some pictures. I so love Olympia. Whenever I watch back video of Niamh it makes me proud and quite emotional as her honesty always shines through to me. She is such a wonderful dog and I am so lucky to have her. I know, I am biased but that's how I feel about her.

Me and Naughty Niamh at Olympia 2011

The little snowman Dan and Mac built in my front yard for when we returned home!

Niamh with her Olympia rosettes at home

Garden

I had written on the blog back in the Autumn about the work we were doing on our long border. I am excited about this as we have put lots of new plants in and it's lovely to see them start growing.

Right now we are just finishing the lovely display of spring bulbs and we have to wait and see what else will happen this year. Obviously it's going to take time for it to mature but it's still so much better than the mess it used to be. Andy has cleared a couple of areas and put down grass seed. The downside of this wonderful sunny April is that the new grass isn't growing very fast as the ground is too dry.

At last my bird house/table has been fixed. Andy made this years ago and we had it at the old house but the post had rotted and it has laid under the shrubbery here for nearly four years. Whilst I was at Shuttleworth show the other weekend he mended it and it's lovely to have it back. You can see it in one of the pictures below.

Here are some pictures of the garden.

During March when not much happening

Above and below the height of the daffodils and tulips, really gorgeous

A few tulips left but now bluebells starting

It seems to be a really good year for pansies. Ours are looking gorgeous and some of them we planted before all the snow last winter and they have survived. Julie who helps us in the garden gave us a tip to feed them once a week with tomato feed. It seems to be working!

Happy Birthday Poppy - fourteen today!

Happy birthday to darling Poppy my beautiful little girl, fourteen years young today. Here she is on her birthday which is an absolutely glorious April day. We are going out to the garden centre and there is a nice pet department so Poppy (and of course Princess Kizzle) will be coming along for an outing.

Happy Birthday Zeki Beeks - three years old today!

Happy Birthday Zeki and her littermates: Zinna, Zev and Ziga

Rest peacefully dearest Mum

I haven't been able, or wanted, to post on the blog for a while. My mum was taken ill just before Olympia and was taken from her nursing home into Kent & Sussex hospital with double pneumonia.

It became clear that she was unlikely to recover and so with the help of our local GP we managed to get her transferred to our cottage hospital just over the road from me. It's a wonderful place and we were very happy to have her so close by. My step-father, Ed, has been in the same hospital for some weeks and so it was good that he was able to see Mum whenever he wanted. We were able to visit as much as we liked and my brother Dan, sister Sally and her two children, Kelly & Sam, spent as much time as possible with her talking, singing songs and making sure she was comfortable. It is time we will always cherish and are very grateful for.

As we feared she didn't recover and my lovely mum passed away on Saturday 15th January. Even though she had been in the nursing home for almost four years and we knew she couldn't withstand another chest problem it was and is a heartbreaking and shocking time. I thought I was prepared but I wasn't.

She was a fantastic mum and a great person; we will always be very proud of her and of the work she did for Oxfam. We got a lovely letter from head office after mum had passed away saying what an inspiration she had been and how she had touched the hearts of all the people she worked with during the 20+ years that she managed the local Oxfam shop. Oxfam was always the cause dearest to her heart.

Throughout her life she was fiercely proud of her Irish and Roman Catholic roots. She was a regular member of the congregation of St. Lawrence’s RC church for many years and it was of great comfort to us all having a service in celebration of her life at the church where we all attended mass every Sunday.

I can't believe she has gone and I miss her very much but I know for certain that she is with the angels.

RIP

Kathleen Elizabeth Belcher nee O'Farrell

25th March 1933 - 15th January 2011

Nearly Olympia!

I can't believe where the time has gone since we qualified for Olympia back in early September. I know it sounds clichéd but it's true "time flies" (actually I think that phrase is probably an example of an idiom but I'm never quite sure!) Anyway the fact is that Olympia is only just over a week away for the large dogs and I am very excited.

The only downside is that we haven't had any training for two weeks. I can't train outside as we still have snow and, more worryingly, ice. On top of that the indoor school has been inaccessible. Andy drove up there on Tuesday to see if there was any chance we could train but the yard had about 9 inches of snow and ice covering it and it would have been too risky. Today it's really sunny and the temperature has risen but so far the snow isn't thawing very much at all. We really need more rain to wash it all away.

I know it's the same for quite a few people going to Olympia but it really worries me as it is far from ideal. Obviously there is the issue of fitness for both Niamh and myself but also the worry that we will have lost our self-confidence. So I am trying to counter this by making sure Niamh gets decent exercise despite the icy conditions and that I am keeping fit by walking and doing my pilates exercises. Andy is walking Poppy with his dogs so I just have Niamh and Zeki to walk. It's much better because Niamh is calmer; she doesn't herd Zeki like she does our other collies and so the walk is much gentler. She still gets a good run but doesn't do all the hand brake turns and crazy charging around. I am also having a trick training session every day and getting her to do some exercises on her wobble cushion and pilates peanut ball. Hopefully we will hang on to our connection by doing bits and pieces together.

I am hopeful that we might be able to access the indoor school one day next week to do some agility training but it really depends on the state of the yard.

Meantime here is Niamh's latest little gift from Leah - isn't it great and the words are just perfect. I am going to use it to save up for a new bed for her!

Even more snow pictures

Some pictures from the front yard:

Walking in the snow

I took the doglets over the road for a walk but didn't get as far as the fields as it was just too deep, instead I stayed in Blossoms Park and walked round the cricket pitch a few times. Phew, that was hard enough work so god knows what it would have been like out in the fields. Not very nice I suspect!

The dogs are exhausted, especially little Zeki Beeks. She nearly disappeared from sight at times!

They had huge snowballs on them and I had to give them all a warm shower to get rid of them. I even had to rinse them in their Equafleeces as their coats had stuck to their legs with all the ice. Not fun!

More snow pictures

We had a lot more snow overnight and it's still snowing now. I'm trying to muster some enthusiasm to walk some of the dogs across the road to the fields but it's not very enjoyable as it's hard to walk. The snow is above my wellies so I'll have wear waterproof trousers over the top of my wellies. I will only take NN, Zeki and Murphy as I don't walk Becky and Poppy out in the snow (will explain why in another post) and Princess, well it just doesn't bear thinking about. She would much rather stay on my bed!

Here are some more pictures from the garden. It shows how much more snow we had overnight. It varies in the agility area as a lot of the equipment is under the oak trees but even under all that cover there is about a foot of snow. Out in the exposed parts there is a good two feet. Too much!