June 13, 2010: A Trip to England.
It has been nice being home this week, well, except for having to catch up on chores left undone for 2 weeks. The thistles have thumbed their noses at me in my absence, the grass in over my knees, the weeds in the garden have had a field day, and a fenceline desperately in need of replacement decided that it was no longer going to contain sheep. Only the fenceline has been repaired so far but some thistles better say their last rites today.

But first, we have had some lovely visitors from Sweden...and they left us this...(sorry about the photo quality). I am going to have to exercise restraint. That might be a first.

Bailey liked the ribbon that was wrapped around the chocolate so much, she has taken to wearing it as a neck tie.

Swedish Bailey

Our Swedish friends also left us two walkie-talkies!!! Kelvin will have no excuse not to hear me now! These walkie talkies are hugely helpful when training. One day this week we were doing outruns up the hill from the main training field. This outrun involves navigating various gates - a gate to get out of the training field, a gate into a smaller field on the way up the hill, and a third gate to the hill. The second gate is a tricky one because if the dogs miss it, they go left up the hill and don't get to the right sheep. Of course, there are many blind spots where the handler cannot see the dog. We had one person on the hill holding sheep with a walkie talkie, one person at the critical gate with a radio to make sure the dog successfully navigated that, and two of us with dogs at the start of the outrun. It was cool getting 'reports' over the walkie talkies and if our dogs were wrong, we could correct it quickly. This was great bend out and pull in training, and a lot of fun! Now all we need to do is put a gate on the right side of the hill and we'll be able to do a right hand outrun up the hill...I'll put that gate on my 'to do' list.

Yesterday I took my first foray into England for a trial. It was a new trial for me as I have never managed to get my entry in on time for this one. It was at Vic Morris's place and the sheep were excellent. They could well have been the best trial sheep I have ever encountered. What a treat! They were a little touchy but if handled well, they would stay together and walk around the course. They were very cooperative at the chute - just walking through with no shenanigans, although a little tricky to shed. The course was great! A very tricky cross drive which I could not get a read on at all so I just closed my eyes and hoped! I ran Sioux first and she thought I was whistling to the birds and not to her so I retired her rather than let her continue to ignore me. She is now on holiday as she is very tired from her Scottish escapade. Meg ran in the afternoon and I was very pleased with her. We managed to scrape into 6th place, which was a thrill. The best run of the day was by Gwyn Jones (Penmachno). CLASS! To see what that man does on a trial field is simply beautiful to watch. The way he handled the shed was exquisite...makes my fumbling attempts embarassing! This was a good trial to go to as the course was a big-ish one! Not as big as some of the courses we run at Bobby's place, but with tricky undulations! Highly recommended.

In my absense yesterday, Kelvin was stung by a bee. He had slapped on some 'Bugs-off' cream - a natural product made with citronella and a few other goodies and it was like a sugar bowl for bees. Citronella is good for repelling midges and mozzies...but bees seem to love this. The eye is not a good place to be stung, and this morning he can barely open his eye. Well, it seems fitting for a beekeeper to be stung now and then, but he'll be avoiding wearing his citronella Bugs Off cream around them again.

When I arrived back from Scotland, our sheep had been shorn. Imagine my surprise when I had a look at them and found that many of our training sheep, and some of Nigel Watkins' sheep we have here are in-lamb. Nigel's sheep, which were scanned empty, had lambs yesterday!!! He needs a new scanner. Some of our training sheep are also in lamb and for the life of us, we have no idea whose ram has done the deed on our girls! We think a neighbour's ram has jumped a fence in the dead of night, and disappeared before we spotted him. The scoundrel! Now we wait to see if the father is the ugliest texel on the planet. Nigel's 13 - now 16 sheep - are off home today, and some fresh training sheep are to replace them. Yippee!

This week I'm getting all the youngsters out for a turn on sheep. Really looking forward to that. I've managed to have Zoe out a few times and she is keen! She's just started to drive and she has a good stop on her. Her enthusiasm gets the better of her sometimes but that's good to see in a young one. I had Penny out this week too. What a little goer she is. She has switched on big time and now can't keep her eyes off the sheep if another dog is working in the fild. She wants to get out there, and is looking for holes in the fence through which she can escape.

Oh, I took a trip up to Richard Millichap's place this week and got a grand tour of his farm. Spectacular! It reminded me of Scotland. There is little wonder his dogs are so good when you see their 'workplace.' I saw a young 'Tweed-ster' - a 13 month old bitch off his Tweed. She is sharp! Liked her a lot. We all had better be watching out for her, and I think she'll skip the nurseries and go straight to open.

Well, the thistles are waiting... Wasn't it in Macbeth (?) that Shakespeare wrote:

"I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Hear it not, THISTLES, for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell."

OK, well Macbeth was talking about Duncan, the King of Scotland...but this seems appropriate. (As an aside, just after high school, I used to attend a Shakespeare festival at the Court Theatre in Christchurch, New Zealand. I loved Shakespeare! ...which would blow the socks off my high school English teachers as I hated these classes while at school. I am happy to report that the Court Theatre is still alive and kicking!).