Domestic Goddessry

No shows this weekend!!! So I decided to try to have a 'normal' weekend, like 'normal' people have? ;o)



(No dogs were harmed in this domesticity, we still had a lovely long walk and playtimes!) but I also:

Cleaned the house – not just the normal flick round so it looks not too embarrassing on the surface, but real proper cleaning that involves moving heavy items of furniture and evicting civilisations of fuzz-bunnies


Washed curtains & rugs, beat heavy rugs


Caught up with a (non-doggy!!!) friend and had the loveliest hour drinking coffee and laughing :D


Bagged up all the change in the ‘copper’ jar - £27+


Re-plumbed the kitchen sink so it drains in a more logical manner - ie. mostly downwards


Re-potted and fed houseplants


Tidied the cellar and found, amongst other things: a dusty bottle of wine – vintage chateau neuf du co-op, a (very) dead mouse, my favourite lump hammer, a bottle of rust-killer – slightly irksome after buying a new bottle yesterday, a teapot I’ve never ever met before, some fab turquoise paint – still can’t find anything to paint it on to but it’s such a pretty colour anyway :)


Cooked a huge pan of Aloo Gobi


Here’s a recipe(ish)


Aloo Gobi


Smallish cauliflower – roughly broken into florets
About 2lb potatoes – medium chunks
Handful of frozen peas
Small red onion – chopped small
Bunch of fresh coriander
1 fresh red chilli – finely chopped
4 big cloves of garlic – mediumly chopped
Half a sq. inch of fresh ginger – finely chopped
Spices – teaspoon each of powdered: coriander, cumin, garam masala, turmeric
Salt to taste
About 4 tbsp veg oil


Use a large pan – I use the largest Le Creusset casserole pan


Heat oil then add chilli, onion, ginger then garlic


Add potatoes and stir well, add powdered spices and salt, then add about half a mug of water and stir again


Turn heat down (electric mk 2-3ish) and keep stirring, cover and leave about 20 mins, keeping stirring and adding a little water to cover the bottom of the pan. (The potatoes cook by sort of a combination of frying and steaming – there is probably a proper name for this process.)


Add in the cauliflower and frozen peas and cook for about a further 30 mins until all veg are cooked through

When finished the dish should be quite dry


Leave to stand uncovered for about 5 mins


Check and add salt to taste


Stir through and garnish with chopped fresh coriander


Serve with rice &/or chapattis, mint raita (natural yoghurt and chopped fresh mint) and pickles – I used garlic pickle – and nice cold lager. Yummmm.


So what do the 'normal' folk do next?? I might try watching a film - curled up with a pile of hairy doggies of course :o)


Tomorrow I might try do some "Culture" ?!?!...

Bright Spark

This morning I electrocuted myself three times before leaving the house.
Then I got in the Landy to find the battery was as flat as a ... flat thing. Left the lights on last night & never thought to check when I went out to turn them off. Luckily I've got a plug-in charger.
This aft I walked up to the field with a couple of jumps and weaves and two willing participants - got them all set up and then the heavens opened and it thundered - electrical activity in the sky :-O So we came home again, untrained. Of course by then it was sunny.
Oh & this is not strictly an electrical phenomenon but Maisie had rolled head-to-toe in pea-green slurry and so she's had the full shampoo-bath treatment. Now she's drying she looks like she's stuck a paw in a socket!!! Her fluff is all puffed up and she looks like a pretty cloud :D

Weardale ... Planet Ginger Dog!

Just got back from Weardale. Yesterday there was much ginger dog action:

Ginger 1: Tim did a couple of good runs – he just gets that bit better each time :) On one he sent from the startline down a line of 4 bounce-stride jumps then on to another jump further on and then right at the top over a further two jumps – not ducking under any(!!) Meanwhile I was still somewhere behind jump two gathering my thoughts and feeling like I was moving in slow-mo! On his other nice run (& this was defo his best yet) he did the whole course perfectly apart from ducking under the start jump and a jump before the cloth tunnel. The best bit was that he stopped on the A-frame - which was followed by the weaves - and even when I walked forward to the weaves, pointed and said “weave” he would not release himself till I said “OK!” Either his release is proofed better than I thought or he’d slipped into a brief trance, lol. Anyway, he then did the weaves beautifully too. Good boy! Of course today he was cr*p and back in lala-loony-land but never mind eh!! Two steps forward, one back is still moving on.

Ginger 2: Karen & lovely Mac finally got their passport to bog off from the G1&2 queues by getting that agility win that they’ve been threatening! Very, very well done to them both, well deserved.

Ginger 3: Katie (who is well up there on Tim’s most-snoggable-humans-in-the-universe list) & amazing 3-year-old ginger boy Copper won the Large Champ class!!! Soooo exciting, seriously amazing runs, an agility fairytale!! It was really thrilling to watch all of the Champ competitors – WOWEEE!!!

& the Mouse … well the great news there is that she found her weaves!!! Not sure where they’ve been off to, but never mind! We didn’t get chance to practice at all during the week so I wasn’t expecting an improvement. One of the (many) fab things about Maisie is that the reward she works best for is praise, so I can reward her in the ring without needing treats/toys, and so her confidence soon came back once they started to happen. On her agility run this morning she missed a contact (my bad) & rolled a pole so I then sent her quite fast into the weaves from right behind and she did them v happily. She did get a clear round each day – both in Jumping classes, but not fast enough for the places. She’s been placed on less good runs before but that’s just the way it goes and she was most chuffed with herself anyway.

Billy had a fun walk along the riverbank with Skip this morning, and Tim had a romp with baby Belle who was playing for the first time in big classes - she did sooo well. Skip also got some clears and maybe a G3 place – good big lad!

Tim had a naughty-comedy moment … I let him out of the car and his Auntie Helen made a tactical error in the war on ginger chaos – bending right down and giving him a lovely big tummy tickle – he was so overwhelmed with luuuurve he got a little over excited and projectile wee’d right in her face!!!! Oh how we chortled :) :) (Tim sez sooooooo sorry Auntie Helen, but your complexion really did look extra beautiful afterwards, honest!!!)

Otley

Oh what a fab one!! Busy, strange weather, but fab. It's amazing how well the human body can survive on beer, coffee, sweeties, and about 8 hours sleep spread over 3 nights :)
I'd more or less decided not to run Tim at all with being busy, I didn't think it was fair if I couldn't give him enough focus, but then found time to do one run each day after all. And soooo glad I did! It is something of a journey with Tim - specially getting him up to full height jumps - not sure why it's been such a long process but so be it. Anyway, on his run on Saturday he only ducked under the first jump (my fault!) and his run on Sunday he didn't run under any!!!! Yippee!! His contacts were really, really good - I actually sprinted past him on the A-frame and he stopped perfectly! So now it's really just tweaking the steering. The difficulty therein is that sometimes he responds to the slightest twitch of an eyebrow, and other times something else attracts his attention and then it's like trying to turn a supertanker with a thread ... One really good bit of progress is that I've started giving him food rewards rather than a thrown toy/tuggy at the finish, and this is defo helping him focus on me more - on his run on Sunday he even came screeching into a sit at the finish for his treat. His forward drive was really good and he also did some really nice focused tight work on a double-pinwheel-y bit. Both judges he ran under are great handlers and it was v encouraging that they each made a nice positive little comment about him :)
I don't know what happened at Lune/Barrow a couple of weeks ago but somehow Maisie's weaves got broken  :( Specifically, she is getting the entry but then tending to miss the second gap but then carry on after a fashion, though she's clearly not happy with them at all. Her weaves have never been stunningly fast or independent, but they have been at least fairly reliable for quite a while. I can only think that something spooked or maybe hurt her - toe on a peg perhaps?? And this happens at a time when I'm finally feeling really happy with her contact performances!! Arrrrrg! LOL. Anyway, she had a couple of runs each day - two of which we aborted coz the weaves didn't happen (real big shame on one coz she set off like sh*t off a shovel!!) and the other two I practically poked my fingers up her nostrils and (gently!) towed her through the 6 weaves - not ideal but ... the other bits of her runs were pretty good and it was a relief she was more "normal" after being so under par at the Finals last week; she finished with a 6th in a 1-2 comb Agility, and 3rd on a huge gallopy Jumping course - that was a super surprise, especially as I'd woken her from a pleasant afternoon snooze and plonked her blinking in the ring at the final call, ooops! I'm so lucky to have her and, gosh, has she taught me a lot!
So our project for the week, for Weardale next w/e is Operation Mousey Weaves ............
It was fab to spend time with so many friends this w/e and share beers, biccies, sweeties and laughs, great stuff :)

Our Little Champion

Well, we went to the DARL Finals :) On Saturday morning I saw 4am from the wrong side, setting off to the East of England Showground near Peterborough – as it turned out the journey wasn’t that and only took just over 2h.
On arrival I found a nice shady spot behind a big hedge, but was soon moved by an officious carpark bod - into the only shaft of sunlight. Some people really shouldn’t be allowed a high-viz jacket & badge … Anyway, we moved back into the shade PDQ. Found the Finals ring which was in front of a big grandstand! The whole show (Just Dogs Live) was quite huge with streets of trade stands, display rings, a champ posing show, and RVA agility show. I’d been asked to liaise with the gundog display team and the police to check if/when they would be using gunshot in their displays … thankfully they had been asked not to after all, big Pheeew.
In the morning we had a “warm-up” Jumping run – same course for all G1-7, then the main event was the Agility Finals in the aft. The day was soooooo hot – hottest day of a hot summer … and unfortunately Maisie never really settled, what with the extreme heat, along with lots of background noises, she was distracted and our runs weren’t great. I was a bit disappointed for (not with) her coz she’s been running so very well & joyfully lately and on a different day would’ve right enjoyed both courses. Nonetheless it was an amazing day and an honour to take part. There was a super atmosphere with everyone supporting one another. The standard across the grades was fantastic and I believe there was almost full attendance across the grades – quite something with it being a national league. There was one dog & handler who’d qualified in our grade but the poor dog had suffered a sudden spinal paralysis a few months ago. His owner bravely told his ongoing recovery story and then presented our rosettes – very tear-jerky but fab. All of those dogs there had been unwanted/unloved/abused/thrown away at some point in their lives, and no doubt many had/have "issues", and yet you couldn’t see a happier, more adored bunch of dogs and their humans.

Everyone got a lovely rosette for taking part, "winners" on the day or not, and I think we all came home feeling we’d been part of something very special.

The previous couple of weeks had been difficult for our family, with Dad being poorly. Thankfully he came home from hospital and got a whole lot better last week. At one point I wasn’t sure we’d make the Finals at all so to be able to go, knowing he was so much better was extra wonderful. He always calls Maisie ‘Our Little Champion’ and he’s right, she so is :)

Huuuge thanks to Jules for coming to support us and share the day and taking some fab jumpy pics and having a good day agility-ing into the bargain! :D

Came home via Sheffield, picking up a dog guard for the Landy I’d bought on Ebay. Got chatting with the sellers and met their two huge snarly GSDs – they mentioned they’re planning on breeding from their bitch, not because they even want a puppy but “because she needs her temperament calming down” and they weren’t going to have any health checks “coz they’re too expensive.” How deeply depressing.

Barrow

So we got to Barrow after all :o) Went back up Friday morning, arriving about 10.30am, just in time to walk two courses, run them and be done for 11.30! I felt a bit rushed and didn't run Tim (have to be in the right frame of mind, lol!) but that was maybe a blessing as later in the day I took him in the practice ring and he was ACE!!! In the morning's classes Maisie got a 5th in her agility classs - dunno how as it was a dire run - she'd got very spooked en route by some RAF jets so was on go-slow - however, that flukey result made up for the disappointment of a lovely jumping run (on a course with pushy-outy bits that she should've hated!) at the end of which the last pole slowly toppled ...
Maisie did nice runs all weekend actually - just odd poles & whatnot, She's such an angel.
& Tim was much better! He got half a clear round!!!!!! ;o) Going lovely and I was getting a bit shocked when he was still clear by obstacle number 10 - his super weaves have re-appeared, yay! and he was jumping beautifully! But then he spotted his tug on the finish line ... oh well, he came back and finished OK and went on to do some other respectable runs. One day he will be Fabulous!!......
I got the cartoon above of them done - kept meaning to last year but never got round to it. The bloke who does them is fab and such a nice person. I think Maisie looks a bit evil, Billy's pretty cool, but I think he's captured Tim to a T! Can't look at it without chortling :o)
Maisie's Rescue Finals next Saturday ... if I don't explode with excitement first! :-O