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Category Archives: photography
a short boston vacation
I had a long weekend over the 24th/25th/26th, so I headed down to see the grandpuppies and their family in Boston. I made lots of photo plans, including a “posed” session (babies with Ella, babies with their family, maybe even dogs and ME…), and while the sun was nice and it wasn’t TOO cold, the wind sabotaged my ambition. I did get a few, but nothing I am thrilled with.
I have traveled a lot, driven all over, and the drive from Warren to Boston is the easiest I have ever made. I have done it half a dozen times on my own, and several more with Dawn for shows or visits to Joanna’s, and the three hours feels more like one. And most of that one hour feels like it’s spent stuck in traffic on I-93, going INTO Boston, because apparently I can only make it there during rush hour.
What a cool town it is, though. I’ve only spent time in the area around Kathy and Jim’s house, but would like to go into the city and do a little touristy stuff when the weather gets better. Coming from the West, where everything is new, some of the larger New England cities intrigue me. They are like creatures. You can feel that they have been there longer, that they better understand who they are.
I am so in love with Valentine and Ollie’s family, if I haven’t made that obvious. They take care of and spoil those dogs they way I would, and those puppies have thrived, and really come to their full potential as doggy “people”. At night, when Jim and Kathy have chocolate pudding with whipped cream, the puppies each get a little whipped cream from the can in their bowls. I love spoiling dogs like that.
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Attending to Mommy Kathy.
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Valentine gets cooler every time I see her. She is so fun. Kathy finally put her finger on it when she said, “She is just so interesting to live with.” Never a dull moment with that one. Take this photo, for example:
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Valentine has no interest in fetching. What she does want is for the OTHER dog to run and fetch, so she can chase that dog, usually with something else – a ball or a toy – in her mouth. This is so funny, because this is what her grandmother Bronte liked to do: run along while the others played, with a toy of her own. Valentine is not one who is content to let things happen on their own. She knows how to get things done, and she knows how to communicate her desires. I was trying to take a photo of Ollie and Ella on the other side of the yard, and she was standing beside me, staring at me with this well-loved yard-ball in her mouth. Staring. And staring. And staring. So I turned around and took a few photos of her. Then she came closer and stood up on her hind end to dig at my leg with her tiny Tyrannosaur arms. This is how she insists that the toy be thrown, Kathy had told me the day before. “Don’t waste my valuable time,” Val says. ”Do you know who I am? I won’t stand for this!” This is how Val asks for everything. If you have spent too long not paying attention to her, she will sit up and dig at you to remind you she is there, and needs service. Also, Ollie does what his mother did forever (which took forever to break), which is to drop the ball 6 feet away and fail to understand why you are not throwing it. Val will not fetch, but she will bring the ball back from that 6 feet, so you can throw it. She will deposit Ollie’s ball at her people’s feet, pick her toy back up, and back away, waiting to give chase again. This is just one of many, many funny things she does.
Kathy has been training them to free-stack, and here Valentine is stacking for her mommy.
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“Cheese, please!”
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Ollie’s heart is as big as Valentine’s brain. He is such a good, sweet boy, and has really blossomed in his new home. He just finished dropping all his coat, so he should have hair again for the next show, at the beginning of April.
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We went out to Concord, MA, on Saturday and hit the town for some lunch and dog-showing-off. Few things get as much attention as a trio of Cardigans, if only because people can’t figure out what the hell they are, especially when there are three of them. One can be a corgi/border collie mix (or whatever), but a matched set blows their minds. Afterward we found a nature trail and stayed out until the cold drove us back to the car. The dogs were unphased, of course. They ran and ran, and played in the water, and marched in the mud.
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Ella and Val frolicking. There are several more photos in the album, here.
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And more…
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Kathy had this clock made for me, and I picked it up while I was down. Brian (Kathy’s son) found a black and white one in a shop in New York City, and Kathy contacted the company (Pink Cloud) to see if they would do a custom one (since she knows how nuts I am about Ella). It hangs above the dog cookie jar on my desk, ticking comfortingly and wagging away. I love it.
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Ella rated the weekend 5 balls out of 5.
monday, monday…
Time for another round-up post!
My weekend is Sunday/Monday – at least in the off-season. When tourist time rolls around we are open all week, and who knows what will befall me. I like to set aside one day to take a ton of pictures (because it’s good for my soul) if the weather is nice. Today the sun was warm and lovely, even if the wind was brisk. Here are a few from my yard session and my walk with Ella later on.
View the full album here.
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Whiskey, growing up like a dream!
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Ella tries to talk Ian out of his hard-won stick.
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Magnum prepares to pounce.
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There were no pictures of Elli, as she chose to sit on the porch and look disgusted while everyone ran around and chewed on sticks.
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Ella is in love with Whiskey. I don’t know if it’s Whiskey herself, or if it’s because Whiskey is a puppy. Ella has always liked puppies, and likes them more since she had some of her own.
Well, she likes her until…
…she tries to steal her stick…
…!!!
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There is a great nature trail a quarter of a mile from the house. It’s been impassable most of the winter because it’s shaded by timber and the snow doesn’t melt. I can’t wait for warm weather, to hike it every day.
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Under the category of puppy updates, the Rush x Ella babies (a.k.a. the mostly “Astronomy” litter – Valentine had to be funny, and mine, no matter what kind of star name I tried to give her, or how I tried to give her away) are growing up.
Rook (Hagaren’s Wandering Star) continues to be goofy…
“My ice. Mine.” (Narration by Brianna.)
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…Leeloo (Hagaren’s Blue Moon) continues to be beautiful…
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…and Caity (Hagaren Regent Calico Sky) has a new blue puppy to keep her busy.
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I am planning to go South next weekend to look at Joanna’s new Daisy Poppy babies, and to spend a little time with my own. I love having grandpuppies!
Valentine loving on Brian.
And Ollie getting in on the kisses, too.
Brian is Kathy and Jim’s son, and Ollie’s “official” owner. He is also (apparently) the most popular young man in the world. I swear I get more hits from Google because his name is listed as Ollie’s owner than I do from people searching for dog-related things!
Karen posted some current photos of Brady, Ella’s next husband, and I stole them from her Facebook feed. She says he was out playing with the sheep, and went straight from the pasture to the table. Valentine and Ollie are the first dogs I have owned with correct coats, and Brady is the same. I have to say, I may become a coat nut!
And, lastly but not leastly, a big congratulations to Carolyn Cannon and Mandy Katasse, whose boy Pilot (GCH C-Myste Baledwr Free To Disagree) went Best of Breed at Westminster today. He brought a whole cheering squad with him from all over the country, and it seems to have worked! Carolyn and Mandy bred my own foundation dog, Golem, as well as his sister Blue. They are the most wonderful people, and I am so glad they have been blessed with this amazing experience! They must still feel like they are dreaming.
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As of this writing they have not gone to group, but I know there will be many people sitting in front of their TVs tonight, cheering Pilot on.
01.08.12
In Camden, Maine.
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Bench in front of the Camden Public Library.
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magnum
Meet Magnum. Known to friends and family as plain ol’ ‘Num, he is “Blacksheep Smoking Gun.” Magnum is bred by Joanna Kimball of Blacksheep Cardigans, and is owned by Dawn Small. He also happens to be the most photogenic animal on Earth.
If you can get him in the frame, that is. He is so fast, and can turn on a dime. Once he grows into a brain (he’ll be two in a few weeks, and is a boy, so it may be a while…) he will be an agility monster.
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He has male model written all over him.
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“Hmmmm. Wha’s this here?” (He also has a lovely lisp, but you’ll have to provide that.)
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And he has the best huge, round, velvety Cardi ears I have ever seen.
welcoming 2012
It was an unseasonably warm, sunny, snow-free January 1st in Maine. Dawn and I took Ella and Whiskey on a socialization jaunt this afternoon to the Rockland boardwalk (by the water) and to Lowe’s.
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Ella on the rocks.
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Of course, Whiskey on the rocks!
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Miss Whiskey.
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Ella will play show dog all day for someone else. ”You gots cheese, Auntie Dawn?”
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Watching pigeons in front of The Pearl.
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Ella: “What is them birds doin’ over there?”
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back in the saddle
My friends either like me, or take pity on me for my various misadventures!
A couple of weeks ago I received a new-to-me digital SLR camera (an Olympus E-500), compliments of Mark Thorson of Samhain Cardigans in Washington. As I have been without a “good” camera for some time, having one is like being able to breathe again. You don’t appreciate what it is to have a descent piece of equipment until you are without. Thanks Mark, and thanks Kim for doing the shipping leg-work to get the old girl to Maine.
There are lots of photos from my practice sessions posted and shared publicly on my Facebook page. In fact, I’ve found that the easiest way to post pictures to the blog is to copy the URL from where they live on Facebook – who has a FAR superior uploader to WordPress – so these are old news for most people, but here are a few of my favorites.
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Valentine of the stunning brindle points.
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Velocicorgi Valentine takes on Whiskey..
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This is the kind of picture I missed being able to take. :)
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Ollie and Whiskey.
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Ollie’s “starburst” ear.
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The family sharing a stick.
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The Wonder Twins.
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Ella in a winter wonderland.
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Valentine and Ella have a stand-off.
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“Evil” Valentine. A wind came and blew all the snow off the trees in the back yard, powder-coating the dogs.
When Val shook off she was left with the eyebrows. :)
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Incoming.
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Ollie: “I tol yoo if yoo woodn’t be good, Valentine, I’d sit on yoo.”
