Posts filed under ‘weather’
Minehead: officially above water once again.
Last summer’s Minehead Open show was notable principally for the torrential rain and subsequent flooding that swept the show-ground, marquees and show rings. As vehicles were towed out of the showground one-by-one by a convoy of tractors, we assumed the entire area would probably sink, Atlantis-like, beneath the ever deepening sea of mud and water.
But no. Twelve months later the scene was very different and watched over by the magnificent Dunster Castle we dog-folks enjoyed what in the words of the song proved to be a: “Bright (bright) Bright (bright) sunshine-y daa-a-aay.”
Both of our beasts were out in action today. Mingus, though, was by no means at his best in a 10-strong NSC Graduate class, and, for the first time, failed to get placed, which was not a great surprise.
Phoenix, on the other hand, showed really nicely and was rewarded with 1st NSC Open and then Best NSC Gundog. She was also pulled-out & short-listed for Best Gundog in Show, for only the second time in her show career. Sterling work from Team Belatarr….
Steely focus from Phoenix & handler in the Gundog Group challenge, whilst fuzz-headed aliens noisily erect their chairs approx. two feet away.
This extra ring-time also allowed us to park Junior back in the “Belatarr Touring Motorhome”, enabling one of our crack-team of in-house photographers to nip back and take some pics of Phoenix in action.
One of our team principles also entered into a lively debate with our good friend Sam from Farlap Photography about the merits of using a remote-control device to correct future Belatarr handler errors. A bit like flying a model plane or performing key-hole surgery perhaps?
Weekend Antics…
Yesterday saw Mingus’ 2nd show – the Exeter & County Canine Soc Open. By the time the HWV classes came around the originally promisingly-cool-and-cloudy weather had given way to baking hot sun, which was less than ideal.
Judge & HWV owner Lesley Trow attracted a large entry of Wires, of which Mingus was the youngest. Despite the odds apparently being stacked well against him Mingus was awarded 1st Open, Best Puppy, and Best of Breed once again, which was pretty awesome going!
The, err, rather minimal judges critique read:
“Good coat, good straight front and feet. Best of Breed. Best Puppy in Breed.“
Hot dog Mingus.
The very large Gundog Group took the best part of 45 mins to judge, which, (coming on top of three visits to the breed ring) added up to a long time for Mingus to be out in such a hot ring, alleviated a little by lots of sprays of water. The Puppy Group, and more hot ring-time followed but Mingus kept himself together and performed admirably… then things started to get a little odd.
Mingus was chosen for Puppy Group 2 – which was an incredible result – but due to some ermmm…confusion, and ummmm… argy bargy in the ring he got recorded as Puppy Group 4 instead – much to Tim’s considerable bewilderment/frustration….which unfortunately kind-of put the dampener on what should have been (and which by any standards still was) a really great result…but so it was.
So, two shows and two Best of Breeds at 6 months old – couldn’t be a better start in the ring for our li’l lad!
“Pretty Good for his 1st Show!”
So yesterday, along with tens of thousands of others, we ventured West to the Royal Cornwall Show for what was to be Mingus’ first ever show.
The day was extremely hot and the showground literally jammed with people, many of whom (seemingly) wanted to stop us and ask what breed Mingus was or to comment on his “adorable face” etc. This was a benched show, and lots of other gundog exhibitors had placed signs above their dogs saying: “Please don’t talk to or touch the dogs as they are hot and grumpy and might chew your arm off” (and variants thereof) but Mingus was happy to see and be seen by everyone, taking the scale of the event in his stride.
As we’ve previously established, Mingus really doesn’t like the heat at all. It’s not that he gets grumpy or bothered, more that he turns into a floppy-ball-of-panting-lollop, so we were keen to keep him in the relative cool of his benching marquee for as much time as possible and then zip him straight to the ring when the class time arrived. It took Tim the best part of 6 months to figure out exactly how best to prepare Phoenix for the ring, (and even then things don’t always go according to plan – see Crufts 2010!) so this was the first time for him to learn about Mingus’ ring-time foibles. As it was he moved really nicely (as commented on by many who were impressed by how fluid he was for one so young) and stood well too, happy to be examined by the judge, which was a big relief.
We were delighted to be awarded 1st in HWV Open and then take both Best Puppy in Breed and Best of Breed. The judge really seemed to like him quite a bit, so we were hopeful that she might still like him when the time came for the Gundog Groups. Trouble was that time turned out to be more than 6 hours later on, by which time Mingus was getting a tad frustrated by not being able to run around and “do-fun-stuff”.
Despite keeping him cool and rested the heat took it’s toll too, so in the Puppy Group (we skipped the adult Group in the hope of keeping Mingus fresh for the Puppy Challenge) he was less than keen to “perform”. At just 6 months Mingus was by far the youngest of the 10 puppies in the group, and still managed to move very well (again, attracting lots of positive comments) but definitely didn’t give his best when stacked, when he decided it might be good to start leaning backward or forwards or sideways….
Nevertheless, the judge pulled Mingus out for her short-list of 5, although he wasn’t awarded one of the 4 Group places…so he was judged 5th out of 10 Best Gundog Puppies in Breed. The judge shook Tim’s hand, grinned and said “Pretty good for his first show!” and we can’t say better than that really.
The 13 hour show day ended with a joyous romp in the foothills and streams of Cornwall’s Rough Tor, when Mingus could finally let off some steam and much fun was had by all.
Once More Unto the Beach…
“Experts” tell us that today may be the last scorching hot day for the foreseeable, so the only possibly course of action was clear: head to the beach!
The scene of today's adventures - at Northam with the golden sand of Braunton Beach in the distance.
Mingus head shot.
Mingus sneaks up on some fast-moving seaweed.
Mingus self-stacking (sort of).
and Phoenix nearly manages the same trick.
Follow the leader.
The big boing!
Hungarian Wirehaired Sea Otter?
Antarctica.
Last night, or so we’re reliably informed, was the equal coldest night ever recorded in the UK, with temps dipping to minus 22C or thereabouts, the same as at the South Pole. Here in “balmy” Devon we dropped to minus 14C, easily cold enough to have potentially devastating consequences for some of the rare trees, shrubs and bamboos that inhabit our garden….we won’t know what damage has occurred until Spring, but in the meantime our bore-hole fed water supply has frozen and pipes burst, flooding the kitchen. The river has also frozen over (for only the third time in the last 25 years), we’ve had no post delivery for days and none of our cars can make it out of our entrance drive….so clearly the only thing left to do right now is go and play in the snow:
Our Valley.
Gotta Have A Stick.
Then Have a Stick Wrestle.
At the bottom of the garden.
Snow hoover.
Helping Adam to make a Snow bunny.
Finished!
1 flattened Giant Bamboo (foreground) & 12 snowy Redwoods (background)
Hock-deep in the snow.
There’s No Business Like Snow Business.
Phoenix sure does like snuffling, running, chasing and bouncing in the snow. We had the heaviest falls here for decades back in Jan & Feb 09, when she first arrived, so these recent falls must remind her of all the fun and games of her puppydom. These were a few shots taken today, before the heavy falls this of evening that have (surprise, surprise) closed all the roads hereabouts and left a lovely 3 to 4 inch fluffy white blanket over the landscape.
Snow Whiskers.
Point.
Profile.
Bounce - on the path to the woods.
New Year, New Snow.
Yep, winter's here again.
It’s been ages since we’ve updated the blog, largely because there’s not been a huge amount of activity or events to report. Phoenix’ season was on the long side, which put her and us out of action for more than a month, but was otherwise completely uneventful, with no real changes either physically or emotionally. She still seems a little hormonal (at least judging by the reactions of some other dogs) but is otherwise back to business…which lately has been the business of romping through the snow and wading through the icy river whilst balancing giant sticks/logs/entire-small-trees in her muzzle, (all clever stuff, and certainly good for building neck muscles) as the landscape is once again transformed into a winter wonderland.
Ever ambitious.
No log is too big for our gal!
Another new-ishly developed Phoenix hobby is taking the biggest & chunkiest of her beef knuckle bones with her on our hour-long morning walks. These often involve fording the river a few times and going in and out of various woods, but the bone is carried merrily along throughout, with occasional stop-offs for a good old gnaw.
Yummy.
But when the last log has been hauled out of the river, and the last vole has been fruitlessly chased down it’s burrow, there’s still nothing that Phoenix likes more than a good old snuggle on the sofa….
Cuddle.
It's a dog's life.
Belatarr Hungarian Wirehaired Vizsla. 