This morning after starting to catch up on laundry and house-cleaning I headed out to the stores to re-stock our fridge and freezer! Unfortunately the electricity went out while we were in Sweden and defrosted the whole lot. So we lost everything in the fridge and freezer. What a pain as I had just stocked up on some chicken and steak for our next weekend away. Everything had to be chucked out as it looks like the fridge was out for days. Our electric does funny things sometimes and one little blip and the whole circuit goes out. After shopping I went to pick up Jordan who was on holiday with Sonia and Bob while we were in Sweden. She is such a good dog and fit in so well with their lot of shelties. I think she enjoyed her weekend away!
The weather got pretty ugly today with lots of wind and heavy rain so I cancelled my lessons and have decided to sit down and catch up on the blog.
Dennis and I went up to the Lake District for the first time. I entered the Lune and Barrow agility shows; this was great as Lune was the first weekend and Barrow was the following weekend. Each show had 3 days of agility and each day had 3-4 runs. So I had 6 whole days of agility with 6-8 runs each day. Fabulous! The week in between we stayed on at the showgrounds and this is fantastic as then we do not have to move the caravan and re-pack. So 10 days in the caravan with 4 dogs and we actually enjoyed it!
Here is a photo of the showgrounds. The show grounds were really good and it was a nice well organized show. I intend to definitely go back next year; I just don't want to say how great it was or then everyone will want to go and camping is limited!
The weather was not great; this was the only downfall of the show. We tried not to let the weather stop us from exploring the region as it is main reason why we went to this show. On the first day we arrived to great weather and we took a walk right from the show grounds. You can walk right out of the showgrounds onto a canal path (The Lancaster Canal?) and then we tried to do a circular walk. We intended to make it a short walk but it grew longer and longer! I do like these walks where you do not really know where you are headed but you feel very accomplished at the end when you make it back safe and sound!
Here is me and the dogs heading out with the showgrounds in the background. Even Jordan came on this walk! Bless her! She is 12 1/2 years old and really did well on this trip with us.
Since we were "Up North" we saw lots of stone walls. They are just beautiful and one day I want a house with my own stone wall! Instead of stiles, they sometimes have stone steps built into the walls that cross public footpaths. Three steps and the perfect photo op.
After that first day the weather got pretty bad. Luckily the showgrounds drained really well and there was no mud. (remember Scotland last year?!) I am really protective of my dogs so I skipped a few runs when the rain started going sideways. Then the wind picked up and sadly the show committee decided to cancel the last half of Sundays show. I think this was a very smart move on their part; there is no need to risk anyone getting hurt. Quite a few caravan awnings blew down and got destroyed. Luckily Dennis had the smarts to roll-up our awning and our awning was spared. It is quite cozy yet scary sitting in the caravan all snuggled up while the wind and rain goes crazy outside!
Monday was better although still a little wet. The grounds were good and not slippery. I was really pleased to have so many runs over both weekends; it gave us a great opportunity to get back in the swing of running. Even with so many runs; I cannot say I tired of running at all. The runs were nicely spaced out and the caravan was not far from the rings. Really a fab show for us.
During the week between Lune and Barrow; we explored as much as we could with the rain. We had a really good walk around Lake Buttermere (Thanks to Tim's advice!) and that day was not too rainy. The walk was not too strenuous although the drive there was a little hairy as the roads around the lakes are really narrow and hilly.
The weather was pretty bad on the other 2 free days but we tried a few walks anyway. We found a walk that looked good only about 1/2 hour away near Ambleside. The description of the walk looked fairly easy but unfortunately we missed the part towards the end where it said "steep descent"! So we got up the hill (which wasn't easy!) where the wind and rain was coming down really hard only to find that the other side was really really steep! So back the way we came; still it was a good walk although a little scary at times!
Here is one of the few photos of both Dennis and I. We only took Hex and Zen on this walk as we thought it would be too much for the old girls. This was a smart move as they never could have scrambled up the rocks.
Overcast but still pretty!
The last day of walking was rainy to begin and then the weather improved. Dennis wanted to go out on this rock (which was high up!) for a photo with the dogs. No way would I let all the dogs out on this rock; but he took Pax. I must admit it is a great photo but I do hate heights!
I have to go thru the videos and will post a few later. The courses were really fun as lots of them had something different for us. They do things differently up north! I like having courses with something interesting in it. The only bad part of many of the agility courses was how so many of the courses had only 6 weaves. Oh that and plastic poles! Darn plastic poles fall way too easily! HA! Only one dodgy call from one judge but I will blog about that later!
Overall Hex and Zen did well at both shows. Zen probably had a better overall clear run average but Hex had better placements. This will happen more and more as the border collies are starting to dominate the medium class but that is OK as I like Zen just the way she is!
More later!
1 comment:
Such lovely photos!
Woof,
Latte
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