18 Months Old!!

Lanny was 18 months old on May 13!!  He's such a big boy, I have to remind myself that he's still a puppy with lots of maturing and filling out to do!! We were all out at the farm on Sunday, Mother's Day.  After a trip to the cemetery to clean up the graves and refresh the flowers, I wanted to get some photos of the dogs and especially of Lanny as his 18th month BD was coming up. It was a pretty nice day, until the wind swung into action around noon!! But that's par for the course these days!!

Lanny, Duffy and I.  Don't know what was capturing their attention to the right.  There's a whole story about the jacket I'm wearing, which you can see is a bit big!! But it's very useful!!

"Who are you lookin' at?"  Who are YOU lookin' at?"

Mister Athletic Lanny in Overdrive

Camouflage Duffy!! That tree trunk was perfect for sitting on and enjoying the scenery and the dogs.

And for climbing up on!!

Pretty as a picture--or more correctly, handsome as a picture!!

Silver Wedding Anniversary

Yesterday, May 6, was our 25th Wedding Anniversary--the Silver Anniversary!!

Weather wise, it wasn't a sit out on the patio and sip wine kind of day!!There was a cold northern wind blowing, some snow, then rain, and then some sun--in other words a typical day in Alberta--apparently for 8 months of the year now!! We went out for a very nice supper at Joeys on Jasper, then home to sample the Canadian Ice Wine that Dave had bought a couple of years ago and that we had decided to save for our 25th anniversary. I found Canadian Ice Wine dark chocolate truffles at Purdey's--the woman there made up those cute little silver boxes for our special occasion.  The wine--well I guess ice wine is supposed to be consumed closer to the purchase date?  It was supposed to be white wine, but had turned a claret color and tasted like claret or port!!  Not unpleasant, still quite fruity, but not what I had expected. A little went a long way!! We had a lovely day, with lots of laughs and that's one of the most enduring qualities about our relationship--the friendship and the sense of fun and humor. Here's to as many more years together that the Creator will grant us!! ♥♥

Duffy's 6th Birthday

I can't believe we are at Duffy's 6th birthday already!!  I don't want him to age any more than this--or at least not for a long time. It was a rainy, snowy day all day and not a fitting day for going out and taking birthday pictures.  So I contented myself with grooming Lanny and Duffy, and taking a few shots here and there in the house.

The Birthday Boy in a reflective serious pose--thinking about what it means to be 6!!

Lanny on the grooming table--I think we are going to tape/glue his ears down again.  You can see a tip, but we should see if we can get a better fold.   It's a 2 person job though--Lanny is very bendy and twisty!!

The boys enthusiastically (as per usual!!) greeted Dave when he arrived from the farm!!

Mister Lanny!!

A little over to the left please!!! 

Happy Birthday my Duffy!!! Dave and I hope you know just how much we love you!! XOXOXOXO

Pruning and Brushing

Dave was finally able to get some of my fruit trees pruned today--2 cherry and one apple were done. This still leave a big apple tree , a smaller tree, and maybe the lilacs and saskatoon tree.  But maybe just the apple trees. He's going to fix my cousin's air seeder first though. There were lots of brush piles around the yard and then the wood chipper made short work of most of it.  The 2 big apple trees are old and parts are dying, so they were cut off--that wood is really hard and doesn't go through the chipper.  The neighbor gets the log sized pieces and the bigger branches of dead wood for his fireplace.  We had 2 helpers--well maybe more like supervisors!! Lanny was right there beside us, except when the power saw fired up and he backed right away.  He's got excellent machine and vehicle smarts--stays back of dangerous things.  That makes for a really good farm dog.  Duffy is reactive to a lot of noisy machines and that can make him get too close to them. And that's not good!!
Then we had supper from Lan's--our most favorite restaurant--and it's only 4 blocks away!! It's a SE Asian fusion place. Delicious salad rolls and my fave Red Curry Chicken Stew!! Yum!!  A busy and productive day outside, ending with great food!! Who could ask for more???!!

Duffy is sitting beyond the brush piles, waiting for Dave. 

More branches

Dave and the wood chipper.  Neighbor Iolanda and son Frank in the background.

Let's chew on this stick!! Okay!!

Happy, smiley Lanny--one of my most favorite pictures of Lanny!!! ♥♥

It's time for another "Carefree in Camrose" trip!!

I can't believe that it's been over a month since I had my little holiday in Camrose--I loved it!! I need another one, like right now!! I had so much fun and Jolene and I had a chance to spend lots of time together, along with her dogs, and her sister.  Lots of laughs!! I didn't get very many pictures of the Collie National as I was videotaping for Jolene.  I did want to get all the proper names right for all the dogs' pictures, before I posted them.

First and foremost, here's Jolene with darling Tate-CH Mariner Storm Chaser who won the 10 and Over Veteran Class and then Best Veteran at the Sweepstakes on the Friday evening, under judge Karen Fairbairn. Then at the Collie National Specialty on Saturday, he won the 10 and Over Veteran Class and Best Rough Veteran in Specialty. I absolutely LOVE Taters!! He turned 12 on April 11!!To see more of the videos etc., check out Jolene's blog at:  www.onecollie.blogspot.ca

This is Jolene newest addition to her family--Lync, Blazingstar Galwey. He was just a couple of days shy of being 7 months old and this was his 1st 'real show' (he had been shown in Baby Puppy Class in January). Lync got his 1st point toward his championship at the Camrose show.  He's a thoroughly delightful boy and he and Jolene have a great future together!!

The beautiful trophy table at the Specialty.

A long shot showing the Collie Club of Canada banner and the Best of Opposite in Sweeps.  If I have any of this stuff wrong, Jolene, let me know!!

Danya Angell and Keltan Davenloch's Power Point winning Juvenile Best of Sweeps.

Best Smooth Bitch in Specialty, Ch. Sunnland's Marie Antoinette (the tri), shown by Jo-ann Friend

Jolene and Tate and Val Simpson of Uneeda Collies showing GCH. Uneeda Heavens on Fire (Phoebe), who had won Best Smooth Veteran in Breed Specialty and went on to win Best Veteran in Specialty

Chillin' with the boys--Kort and Lync in the x-pen and Tate in the crate.

Featured in this short video are Jolene and Tate, Marilyn Hofstra ( in the brown long skirted suit) with CH. Classique Man in Black (JC), who went on to win Best of Opposite Sex in Specialty.  You can briefly see Nancy Anstruther, with Am/Can CH. Tallywood Rainforest Vignette, BB in Specialty.

 After Camrose, it was back to the usual stuff!!

Second Wind Dreams had our 4th Annual Bake Sale.  Here's Dianna and a customer at the Greek section of the baking--baklava and Greek Easter bread.  Those loaves were huge!! I'm still working on the one I bought!!  But oh so delicious!!

Edith and I putting price stickers on baked items.

Easter weekend has come and gone, but not before we had this mini snow storm on Good Friday!!

Meanwhile at the farm, Dave got Uncle Mike's 1979 Oldsmobile out of the old garage--it was very dirty and had lots of bird poop on it.  It has only about 1000 miles--beautiful car. It's the big uncle version of my 1978 Blue Belle!!

Dave got the car all washed and shined up--looks wonderful!!

The snow started to melt and the water had no where to go...

...so it formed a huge lake in the barnyard, pasture, area.  It looked like it would never go down!!

But one day, the ice and snow plug in the bar ditch broke and the water could drain away!!

So that was March into April. Now we wait for warmer weather...and we wait and wait some more!! There was even a little skiff of snow on the grass this morning and in Olds Dave woke up to 4 inches of the stuff!! But the robins are back, the neighbor has his tomatoes in his greenhouse--I have a pot full in mine and the heater going!!  I've raked most of the back, so that it was nicer for the dogs to be out on and it just looks better to get rid of all the leaves and snow mold. Happy Spring!! We have big events coming up in May--Duffy turns 6 and Dave and I celebrate our Silver Anniversary!!