we revisit Sherwood bridge

We had to go to Sherwood bridge to gather river stones for decorating our garden. There are an amazing amount of stones, so nobody will miss the few buckets that we took.

This might have been the last fun time we had since Christmas. It has been work, work, work ever since!

Neil and Kay built a cool deck up at the Arakoon house. Once the decking was in place I realised that I had the perfect spot to keep an eye on the entire neighbourhood... hah! nothing will escape my eagle eye now. Here is how it looked as it was being built.

Once we got back to Sydney, the work continued. It's all ladders and drop cloths as just about everything is getting a fresh coat of paint. Word is that the house is going 'on the market', which is different from going to the market. Hmmm. Mostly it means less trips to the park for us dogs!

Christmas morning

We had a simple Christmas this year. We are up at the beach house, which is different. We used to rent it out at this time of year before, but have decided to move up here permanently soon, so have it all to ourselves now!

We had already done prezzies with Megan and Marieke last week, but we still had a few more on the morning.
I am a master unwrapper...see the blur that is me, ripping the paper off this one.

Gracie tried to help, but I was fine doing it all myself.

What's this...?

I think it is... yes, it really is... a big Wobble that dispenses food everytime you knock it over! Yay! It took me about 5 seconds to work it out. I whacked it all over the living room getting treats with every swipe.

Kay said I had to give Gracie a chance too, but she was so slow at it - I couldn't watch. Anyway, while she played with the Wobble, I got the rock. It is very chewy and bounces in crazy ways...it's a challenge to work out which way it will go.

Unless Gracie gets it first, then it goes where she goes - and I chase her round the yard until she is too tired to get away from me.

We hope all you doggies in the blogosphere also had a fun day and got lot's of fun toys and all the best for a great new year!

cheers,

Ruby

update on the pupsters

Sometimes we wonder what those puppies are up to in their new homes...
and then we received some photos from Miss Squiggle, now known as Chili.

Doesn't she look just like her big sister, Gracie!

What a cutie.

We also got a gorgeous pic of Elsa (was Purple ribbon) with her pal, Charlie.
She looks just like me! What a handsome girl she is.

They are about six months old now and certainly good looking examples of an Airedale. We've heard reports that the others are doing well too.

Some even auditioned for the Great Gatsby movie, but Baz ended up going with a Schnauzer puppy as our guys were a bit too big for what he had in mind.

Could have been a path to stardom, but it wasn't to be.

Gracie's first trial

Gracie entered her first obedience trial on Saturday evening.

She did really well and got a qualifying score (and ribbon which she is modeling here).

She got a score of 94 out of 100.
The judge said the dog went really well, but it was Kay's sloppy
handling that lost most of the points - ha!

Two more of these certificates and Gracie will have her Community Companion Dog (CCD) title!

I, ahem, unfortunately bombed out of my class. The Open class is MUCH more difficult than the CCD ring and although I started out really well, I lost concentration after awhile :(

Lucky Gracie was there to bring home a win for Team Airedale.

dawn patrol

5:07 am, Monday morning...

5:12 am, Monday morning...

5:20am, Monday morning...

(Accompanied with deep sighs and slight moaning)

5:25am, Monday morning....

6:00am, Monday morning...

Success!

at the beach again

Here we are at the beach again. We just love it up here!

The seagrass was covered in magical star-shaped seed heads.
They blow around in the wind and we chase them.

We also fetch sticks.

And check out everything that anyone is doing.

Dive off the dunes.

And just enjoy the wonderful light on the water.

It's pretty good!

never take your eye off the ball

Kay brought in two new balls from the car and put them down on her dresser. She didn't think about it, but in a few minutes, I had a bead on them. I sat and looked at them like this.

Ten minutes later, I was still looking at them like this. I don't think I even blinked.

Focused staring, it works every time. Eventually Kay couldn't resist me and she picked one up and threw it. Ha! The game was all on then.

The balls would ricochet down the hall and we kept missing as they rebounded. We played until our tongues were to the floor.

Because the hallway is scheduled to be repainted soon, it didn't matter so much about all the slobbery tennis ball marks all over the walls...

For the finale, we got to chew and chew on them to our hearts' content. They were wonderfully chewy and kind of just squished in your mouth, but you could never quite get a bite out of them. Kay brought them from America. We love them.