True Colours - Royal Purple

Here we are with another coloured blog post, this week it's royal purple.

My selections for the week are somewhat mundane. I do have quite a bit of royal purple in my wardrobe but who wants to see purple shirts.

My first selection for this week is a tapestry that I bought off eBay to hang in the stairwell as it looked kind of blah otherwise. The royal purple is in the grape vines that cover the arch.

Garden tapestry

 My next selection, I wear everyday of the week. It's the lanyard for my building pass and on it you'll see my yellow Support the Troops ribbon.

Lanyard

For my last selection, I chose, and boy am I glad I have a wide variety of brightly coloured agility ribbons, Tucker's Advanced Agility Dog of Canada title ribbon.

Tucker's AADC ribbon

I had some fun with the twist. I think William and Kate thought I was inviting them to the Winter Gardens and not to a Winter Garden party, so they were rather undressed for the occasion.

Winter Garden Party

It wasn't as grand an affair as a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace.  I was lucky enough to have been invited to one of those while I was posted in England. Actually, if you hadn't attended either the Garden Party or the Trooping of the Colour, you had a pretty decent chance of being selected by your High Commission.  It was very nice afternoon spent in the gardens behind Buckingham Palace with lots of sandwiches, canapes, fruit, desserts and a variety of non-alcoholic drinks including iced coffee, something I had never had before; it was wonderful. I didn't get introduced to any of the Royal Family but I was quite close to both the Queen and Prince Philip as they mingled and were introduced to some of the guests.

Invitation to Buckingham Palace

My niece's actually met William and Kate during their tour in Canada, well at least they got to shake their hands and say a few words. Very few, my niece said she was tongue-tied and all she could say was "Thank-you".

William in Prince Edward Island just after shaking hands with my nieces.

William and Kate in Prince Edward Island

I've also had the opportunity to attend a Garden Party with Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother at Fort York in Toronto.  She was the Colonel Commandant of the Medical Corps and I was, at the time, a Medical Associate Officer. I don't have any pictures of that function as it was a private affair, like the Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, so no cameras were permitted.

Happy Leap Day

Leaping Lizards? No just Beckett!

Beckett, the Frisbee Fanatic

Tucker, able to leap tall dandelions

Mishmash Monday

We had a snowstorm on Friday and I tried to get photos of the dogs as they came in the house all covered in snow with not too much success.

Here are a few of the oops photos and couple of ones that are not so bad. Didn't get that perfect picture.

Tucker starting to shake off the snow.

Beckett shaking off the snow.

Beckett outside in the storm

This one didn't turn out too bad although a little out of focus.

It was hard photographing at night with the snow.

Snow dog!

Blended Front Cross

I went to an agility seminar yesterday with Beckett. Wouldn't you know it spring-like weather all week, then Friday we get a snow storm. It was still snowing and the wind had picked up on Saturday morning so the highway going down was snow covered and the visibility was not great. Again, I thought, why am I doing this. But once we got there and got started, we had so much fun and learned so much that it was well worth the drive. I car-pooled with friend and her dog so that made the drive down and back fun too, well maybe not that much fun going down.

I found out once again how awesome my little Beckett is, we did lead-outs that I didn't think he would get. And while he might have not got it the first time around, he was quick to pick up the new skills. Some times he surprised me by getting things the first time, and I would think: how did he know that?

One of the big things we learned at the seminar was a blended front cross. If you can find places to use it, it is so much easier on your knees.  Personally, while I understand why they called it a blended front cross, I don't know why they didn't give it another name all together like S-cross or just Blended cross. The seminar presenter told us that it can be used where you have to do two front crosses on one obstacle or where there is a serpentine.

Blended Front Cross Exercise

This was the first exercise we had that used the blended front cross. If you look at the course map, you could have run the sequence with a front cross on the take off side of 3 to get the dog over obstacle 3 and a front cross on the descending side of 3 to get your dog around to obstacle 4. The other option to handle it was as a serpentine composed of 2,3, and 4; lead out between 1 and 2, supporting the dog to stay out after they've taken 2, call him over obstacle 3 and move off to obstacle 4.

But as a blended front cross, it was so much easier on the handler and I think would flow smoother for the dog too. In a blended front cross, there is no change of arm and, for those of us with older knees, no hard pivot.

Blended Front Cross - first position

The first position for this exercise depended on how much of a lead out you could take from your dog, but I would have to say that in this sequence, you would have to lead out to where I did, between 2 and 3 as shown in the picture. As you can see the dog would be on my left and I'm facing towards jump 8.

Blended Front Cross - position 2

Once you released your dog and they have committed to obstacle 2, you start side-stepping to the right hand wing of obstacle 3.  The seminar presenter called it a grapevine step. If you've seen line dancing, you should get the idea. Your dog will come back in to you. I gave Beckett too much room the first time and he came between me and the jump, of course though he had never seen this move.  Note, the dog is still on the left arm and I'm still facing obstacle 8.

Blended Front Cross - position 3

As your dog is approaching the jump, you drop your shoulder back over the plane of the jump and, when a dog is learning this body language, you may have to take a step backwards.  Again, note the dog is still on the left arm and the handler is still facing obstacle 8.

Blended Front Cross - position 4

In this sequence, once the dog is committed to 3, you start to move off to obstacle 4. You might think the dog would back jump but this isn't likely since you're heading off the other direction, they just wrap around and follow.  Note the dog is still on the left arm and the handler is only now turning their shoulders towards obstacle 4.

I hope I've got the key components down correctly. I didn't take notes yesterday. I find it better just to listen.  I find I miss too much by taking notes and often miss things that are even more critical than what I'm making a note of. I had people try to explain and show me a blended front cross before, but I didn't get it. The key things are no change of arm and no hard pivot like in a front cross. I didn't get any video yesterday so I've added a YouTube video that might give you a better idea of what I've been trying to say.

Blended Front Cross example

True Colors - Pearl Grey

This week's True Colour is Pearl Grey.  I didn't have much of a problem finding pearl grey except that I didn't think all of my stainless steel appliances should count; once I decided that it was a little more difficult.

First is a piece of art that I bought for my mother one Christmas. It's a winter scene of a village church done on ceramic. The frame is also pearl grey.

My printer, which is right beside me as I type this, is also partly pearl grey. My last selection is made of metal but I think it still counts.  It's a beer stein that, in the military, was often given as a departure gift when you were posted from one unit to another. It's not the stein but rather the crest on it that made this my third selection for pearl grey.

It's the crest of the 5th Canadian Brigade Group, notice the roman numeral five under the lion. The motto "Allons-Y" translates as "Go There" which signifies the willingness of the men and women who serve in the Brigade to go where they are most needed, to the four corners of the world if need be (note the compass arrows around the lion).

And my photos of the twist, I have to admit come from the idea that Reilly and Denny's Mum had, they are just photos taken in our backyard.

Tucker and Beckett in the backyard

One of the maple trees in the yard, unfortunately, not sugar maples.

If you haven't tried the True Colours challenge yet, give it a shot. It makes you look at the world a little more closely and it's fun to see what everyone else has found.

True Color Thursday Blogspot