Quick update

First the good news. Riley is back. She ran of during a thunderstorm and was found a few days later. This family looked after her for a few days, then called the dog catcher. He picked her up last Thursday. Since Riley was due for her rabies shot the Vet. Clinic phoned yesterday. I told what had happened here. She mentioned then, that a dog had been found, similar to ours and gave me a phone number. And yes, it was Riley. It really taught us a few lessons.First put all the up to date tags on the dog. Since she never left the place anyway, we just dropped the tags on the desk and then forgot about it. Right now she is wearing her latest tags!!! Second we should have phoned around more and to the right places. But it all ended well. I do not know, when I will post again. I will be out of comission for a week or two. Then I will show you my new socks and crazy quilt block.

Riley

Not quite 13 years ago we were without a dog. We had lost our dog due to old age.Our neighbours knew that and phoned one day to let us know, that they had just the right puppy for us. I was a little hesitant, but once we had seen the pup it was love at first sight. She was a mixed breed, part golden retriever, part Australian cattle dog.We took her home with us and it has been a faithfull dog on the farm ever since. Right from day one I would take her with me for a walk. First on the sideroad with no traffic so she could run as much as she wanted. She was never much of an inside dog, maybe on the coldest day of the year, but then only for halve an hour or so.She loved to get wet and dirty. Once we moved closer to a very busy road, she had to walk on a leash, but no problem. She never left the property unless I had the leash in my hand. I figured we walked 3km x 5 days x50 weeks is 750 km per year. Do that for at least 12 year and the total is about 9000 km. That's a lot of steps in all kinds of weather. The one thing she was scared of was thunder and lightning. She would try to get as close to the door to the house as possible. On Friday there was a heavy thunderstorm with a lot of rain. When Laurence came home from doing the chores she was in the garage. We usually leave the garage door partially open, so she can come and go as she likes. When I checked on her at bedtime....there was no dog. I called and walked around the house in the rain, but she was nowhere to be found. The next morning we went to the neighbours, but no sign of her.And she has not returned. We have not given up hope completely, but it does not look good. And going for a walk just is not the same by yourself. While working in the back flowerbed I noticed a very upset killdeer. Both mom and pop tried the wounded wing thing and then I saw it. Right on the path, in a little dip were 4 eggs. Since then I have kept an eye out and they are still there. Now that we know the eggs are there, we try to stay away as much as possible. Next week some quiltery things again. The weather has been cold and wet. From a very early year it has turned into a not so early year with no soybeans in the grounds yet.

Back home again

I'm back home again after a good visit out west. It started with a visit to Shawn and Emily and it turned out to be the right time. Not too nice, so Shawn would be busy in the fields, but also no snow yet. That would come later. On Sunday they dropped me of at my sister-in-law Anne in Calgary. On Monday we visited the Glen Bow museum. I really enjoyed it and will be back. There is way to much to see in one day. Tuesday morning I was dropped of at the Hyatt and in the afternoon I attended the annual meeting of the Canadian Quilt Association, which was short and sweet. The teachers were taken out for supper at a nearby Chinese restaurant after which the show awards for the National Jureid Show were announced. And I'm happty to tell you that both quilts won an honorable mention. "Plain and Fancy", the quilt made and quilted by members of the Waterloo County Quilters Guild and friends won in the bed size category. This one meant a lot to me. To have co-ordinated a quilt with around 100 different quilters from beginners to advanced and then get an award at the National Show is fantastic. This quilt will now go to the quilt committee for the Relief Sale and it will be sold next year. "Oriental Treasures" won in the traditional wallhanging category. Once the awards were handed out, we could go and see the quilts. There were a lot of beatiful quilts, more than in other years. Then my work started. I taught for 4 days, 2 one day and 1 two day workshops. It is always a lot of work to get ready, but in the end it is worth the time and effort. I had great groups,coming from all over the country. And there was a lot of picture taking. Here is my "helper" being very helpful in holding up the sample. Evenings were busy with dinners and entertainment. In between I found time to go to the merchant's mall and I came home with more ribbons and beads. I promised myself to finish the crazy quilt blocks, put a border around it and have it ready for next year's show in London, Ontario. But that will have to wait a few more days. I came home on Sunday and that night we had a good shower. Everything looked so green here.And with all the warm weather the weeds grew like crazy. Beside mowing lawn and weeding the flower beds I will have to start putting my pots together. Maybe later today. We have another nice shower, so no more outside work for today.