Red Gate Fun

The temperatures hovered comfortably around freezing all last week, wouldn't you know it though, this weekend we are in back in a deep freeze. And, of course, it was time for Red Gate's fun match. I left Tucker home with one of my neighbours to check in on him; I didn't want to have him out in the cold all day. As it turned out it wasn't all that bad inside the arena. We had another sunny calm day so it warmed up inside the arena and with the days starting to get longer it was even comfortable at the end of the afternoon.

The runs yesterday were a Standard and a Steeplechase; only our first Steeplechase run was videoed. Our second Steeplechase run was perfect, always helps to have a  practice run. But Beckett did just fine the first time around too. A lot of dogs missed the very last jump as they were turning back into their handlers rather than moving forward. I thought I would really have to run when I saw the course map for this Steeplechase but it wasn't too bad. In any case, we only ran it once each time and then played some Frisbee. Even though Beckett loves agility, I'm sure that he really enjoyed that as Frisbee is his passion.

Weather forecast are for the temperature's to rise back again to above freezing by Wednesday, wouldn't you just know it.  Next weekend, we have no agility as our classes end today too.  What will I do??  Oh wait, I could do some housecleaning, or some painting.

True Colours - Eucalyptus

I guess I'm going to have to start doing my True Colours post on Wednesday nights as by the time I have it up for True Colours Thursday, its nearly the end of the day.

I didn't find anything eucalyptus coloured, but I did have a basket with eucalyptus on it. My mother made it for me, as well as a cat that hides a roll of toilet paper and a doll for an air freshener.

Basket with dried eucalyptus

As you can see I use the basket in the bathroom for toiletries so that if a guest has forgotten something I may have some they can use.

Basket with air freshener doll and toilet roll cat.

For my items from Australia, they were brought back for me by my sister and brother-in-law. They were on deployment in Afghanistan and got to go to Australia for their holidays, how cool is that. A trip to Australia is on my bucket list.

My boomerang and Australian prints.

A Crane Dance?

Going Walk-about?

I think the prints are supposed to represent dream time. They certainly are bit whimsical.

Masters Q ..... Not Quite Yet

Yesterday, Beckett, Tucker and I went to the Absolute Agility Trial in Spencerville which is about an hour away from home. It's a nice place to trial as the crating area is big and heated so that's why Tucker came along as a spectator. The facility is located on a fairgrounds and as the weather was very nice, we also had fun roaming around and playing Frisbee.

Beckett was entered in five events, two Standards, one Gamblers, one Steeplechase and one Jumpers.  In his first Standard, Beckett had two refusals, missed his weaves and had an off course which led to an elimination. In Gamblers, our opening was nice and we got 33 opening points,  you need 28 points in Masters Gamblers to Q so we were all right there. The mini gamble was tunnel, A-frame, tunnel  layered with the weaves. The A-frame is kind of our nemesis right now so we didn't try it as a mini just ran the obstacles. We didn't get the main gamble which was tunnel, teeter, tire, jump; again the tunnel went under the dog walk and you had to turn the dog nearly180 degrees back onto the teeter which was just past the entry of the dog walk.  I hesitated as I didn't want to turn Beckett too soon and he missed the teeter and once he came out too far, I couldn't get him back. Our Steeplechase was nice but two A-frames caused us to be over time. Jumpers at the end of a long day was kind of a train wreck but he did do some parts of it very nicely.

Masters Gamblers - Judge: John Willis

Our best run of the day was the second Masters Standard. Beckett ran beautifully. His turn into the tunnel after jump 10  and 16 were incredible. From my perspective (although you can't see it in the video), he turned into the tunnel at the last possible second. I'm not sure how he even did it and stayed on his feet. Unfortunately, he didn't collect enough in the weaves and hit the third pole and popped out. I didn't notice at the time that he back-weaved, I thought he had skipped a pole, so erroneously posted on Facebook that it was his first non-elimination Masters Standard. But that's okay, it was a great run and we'll get those Q's sooner than later, I'm sure. He had a time of 64.19 seconds on this run with a course time of 66 seconds, so with a faster A-frame and a good set of weaves we would have been well under time.

Masters Standard - Judge: John Willis

Beckett - Masters Standard

I'm very happy with Beckett, he loves to play agility and he's great fun to run. And he does make me run.

True Colours - Terra Cotta

Fredericton City Hall Collectible

Okay, this week's colour was a little difficult. I thought I would have lots of terra cotta since I like earth colours but I didn't find many items around the house.

The first item really might be considered brick red but what the heck. It's my Katherine Karnes Munn collectible of the city hall in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

City Hall, Fredericton, New Brunswick

The next item I chose is a painting I got from what I call "a starving artist sale". It's a one day art show and they have all kinds of canvases painted by art students. You can also buy frames and they will frame the painting for you right at the show. The frames usually cost more than the paintings.  Most of the oil painting I have in the house come from shows like this.

I liked the painting because it was of horses. Also because the painting style was unique; the gold outline around the horses and warriors is all raised like embossing. But best of all the colours tied in the new fire place mantle and stonework that I had just had installed.

 

Lastly, there was the twist. I thought I had a terra cotta pot and I did, but as you can see in the picture that pot is no longer terra cotta in colour. I had to go to hardware store to buy a terra cotta pot. They are cheap but not a lot selection in mid winter. What to put in my terra cotta pot that was unusual. Can you guess what they are?

Did you guess? They are my collection of glass swizzle sticks. I have 13 different pairs, coke bottles, Scottie dogs, top hats and candy canes just to name a few. They are hard to find now as more and more people drink wine or beer, so usually what you find are wine charms or those elastic bands for beer bottles and vodka coolers.

I had fun with the challenge this week.

Pet Photo Contest

Iams Christmas Pet Photo Contest

I registered Tucker and Beckett in a photo contest. If you register and provide some good feedback on our photo, we can win a Valentine's gift basket.

I think our picture is more Christmassy than many of the others. I think we have a good chance.