Where does the time go??

Have had quite a busy past week, the usual stuff with the puppies and dogs but then we had a really hectic weekend with the family to celebrate my gran's 80th birthday. It was all organised pretty last minute but my Auntie Jan came up from Cornwall, she came up to Birmingham on the coach and I drove down there to pick her up on Saturday afternoon, she stayed with us 'til Tuesday which was really nice. It was a big suprise and no-one else knew she was coming which was great! Sunday morning my grandparents came for breakfast and were really pleased to see Jan. I took Teal to agility training, I must confess, I'd set up some jumps and the channel weaves on Saturday morning and spent 20 mins or so doing some bits with her so she was a bit of a class swat when we made it to class ;) lol I'm really pleased with everything she's doing at the moment, she's so fast and so ethusiastic about everything she's an absolute pleasure to work with. We did A frame and dogwalk, running over both to a tennis ball...she just has such a lovely action over both :) curved pipe tunnel (she loves this too), jumps to teach lefts and rights, tyre and channel weaves, no problems with any of it she's loving it all! We were both absolutely knackered after our session though!

I got back and had a (very) quick shower and change and we all went out for lunch to the Birley Arms (which is actually in Bryning) ...28 of us!! lol It was a nice meal and good to catch up with all my aunties, uncles, cousins and their kids. Everyone (yes, all 28!) came back to our house after the meal so the puppies had LOTS of cuddles which resulted in a phone call from my cousin Barry the next day asking if they could take the half white face boy from Kitten's litter...they've been talking about having a dog for ages (in fact Ella has been asking for one since she could talk!) and they'd all fallen in love with him (he is a super pup) so 'Patch' will be staying local which I'm really pleased about :)

The evening took a rather dramatic turn after everyone had left when my brother noticed a fire in the farm yard at the back, a boat stored on the yard was ablaze with flames reaching some 20 or 30 ft high and the yard owners car parked some 6ft away (he'd gone out in another vehicle)...pretty scary stuff! We called the fire brigade who arrived within 10 minutes (thankfully we're not too far from Preston fire station!) and they quickly got the flames under control and then continued to fully dowse the boat to ensure there was nothing left burning.

Charlie, my (nearly) 4 year old nephew thought it was all brilliant and calmy announced that he thought he might like a fire engine for his birthday next month! lol

I took Monday and Tues off work. Monday was my gran's birthday so we went for a walk and picnic at Cuerden Valley Park, my gran outstriding and outwalking us all! I just took Squirrel and Lori so we had a nice peaceful walk ;)
Lori on the lookout for Squirrel...

Ah, there she is...the seldom seen lesser spotted parson!!

My Gran did keep commenting on how like Spangle Lori is, she is very similar in character and temperament which I guess isn't that suprising since Lori is both Spangles great grand-daughter and niece. Both my grandparents still really miss her, she was a very special girl. We did a bit of shopping in the afternoon and I bought Charlie's fire engine, it's fab, has flashing lights and siren and everything! :) (hope he isn't reading this??? lol). Jan treated us to dinner at our local pub which was really nice but we were tracked down by Barry and Sarah and two very tired little girls, Ella and Niamh, desperate to see their new puppy again! He absolutely loved the fleecey ragger they'd bought him too.

Tues morning I drove Jan back down to Birmingham coach station and then carried on down to Oxfordshire to see Joy and Becca since it was Joy's birthday. We had a nice lunch and did a bit of shopping, popped to see Sally with Digger and Skye at their lovely garden centre near Banbury, Purely Plants (and spent more money!). Well worth the visit if you're in the area, they have some really beautiful things for the garden and home and some lovely gifts. Sally was also preparing for a vegetable lecture, offering help and advice to people wanting to start growing their own veggies at home, some really great ideas. We could have stayed there all afternoon (well, we nearly did!). It was great to see the dogs, I haven't seen Skye since she was a tiny baby and she's grown up into a really beautiful young lady, she's very like her granny Dazzle to look at (only better ears!), carrying less coat at the moment but I think that will come as she gets older. Digs was his normal bouncy and smiley self and had great fun playing chase with Spark, all round the garden centre!! Batty pair! lol Skye wasn't quite so sure about her dad (well, he does look a bit like a big hairy yetti at the moment!!). Wish I'd taken some pics...I am useless!! I also took Beau and Casper (pup still waiting for the right home) with me and they were great in the car, no screaming and no sick! They had a wonderful time tearing round Joy's garden!

We made it back to the house in time to do some training, I wanted Joy to see Teal just to make sure that we're not doing anything that might cause problems going forward. Joy is very good at picking up on things that I don't see (benefit of experience and a whole load of dog sense I guess!) but was happy with the contact training so we'll just stick with what we're doing and try and get in as much practice as possible. We then did some jumping exercises to teach Teal to look for the jump wings and keep working forward to her toy, so she sees her toy at the end of a sequence of jumps but knows she has to do all the jumps first before she gets it. This is quite hard for Teal because (a) she LOVES her toys more than anything else in the whole world and (b) she likes to please so wants to do it right. The beauty of that is of course, that once she knows she has to do (b) to get (a) she does (b) as fast as her little legs will carry her!! She's already proving to be one speedy little cocker, wish we'd video'd some of her work because I'm really proud of her. I'm starting to feel a bit nervous about having a dog whose ability and potential in agility far outstrips mine!!