LeRoy - Saturday, September 29, 2012

LeRoy owned by Jennifer Sanders and showed by Guy Fisher  became an American Kennel Club Champion at the Monroe Kennel Club show today in Monroe, Michigan under Judge Martin D. Doherty. Lee finished with a major, his career third major, and a Best of Winners. Congratulations Jennifer and LeRoy!

Lee with his three favorite girls - Sylvia, Jennifer, and Lulu the Boxer, his canine girl friend. (That's Scooter, Lee's best buddy, with Sylvia and Lee at the bottom of the fourth photo.)

Korpur

Someone asked me about Korpur - he's an amazing American Kennel Club Icelandic Sheepdog that I got from Virginia Crawford of Alaskastaðirs kennel in Alaska almost nine years ago. He has a wonderful gentle temperament; his inbreeding score is 0% at five and six generations. He has Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Canadian, American, and, of course, Icelandic ancestors. He is registered in the Canadian Kennel Club (CKC), the United Kennel Club (UKC), and the American Kennel Club (AKC). He has his Canine Good Citizen award (CGC), his Rally Novice (RN), Rally Advanced (RA), Rally Excellent RE), and Companion Dog (CD) titles in the AKC.
(Please click on his photos to enlarge them. He's even better when you can see him better.*)

                                      (Count his toes on the ground - five, not four.)
He is a very intelligent, masculine male dog. Genetically he has good strong dew claws "on the ground" which act like extra toes and are good for fixing weak dews in a mate; he's also got a marvelous "korkur" (corkscrew or double curled) tail which is good for fixing weak tails. He has almond-shaped eyes, smaller ears, straight legs, a nice top-line. He has produced black, tan and white (tricolor) puppies, tan shade (cream through reddish) puppies, sable pups, and black and white pups in roughly equal numbers.

I'm biased but he is the nicest adult male I've seen up close and in person.

I love this dog! 

* - some of the above photos are courtesy of Cathi Winkles whose photos appear in major dog sport publications like Clean Run.

Do Them!

Moose and Squirrel

Moose (on the couch) and Squirrel love to play together.  They take turns "winning".

Sans Souci & Goodells

On an absolutely gorgeous autumn day, Tryggur and Totty, my Icelandic Sheepdogs, went with me up to see the progress on the NX this morning. Looking very good! Daren came up after we got there and worked on the water heater, the two sinks, a double one in the kitchen and one in the bathroom, the doors and lock, and the new window for the Dutch doors. The painting is finished and it looks terrific.

Maybe if you click on this to enlarge it, you can see the bees drinking nectar on this Sedum, appropriately named "Autumn Joy" - it is - a joy!

This Sedum used to have only white flowers but a few years ago a somatic mutation produced a couple of stems with hot pink flowers. I need to separate the two plants!

Daren said in addition the the doe with her twin fawns we also have wild turkeys.The dogs and I took a walk down the road - there are all kinds of smells there to intrigue the dogs. The leaves are just barely beginning to turn color.

Because it was a bright sunny day, the Colchicums have opened more. I believe they are actually larger than tulips (but the squirrels leave them alone).

After the visit we stopped at Goodells where Sylvia, Jennifer and Darlene were at an AKC trial. LeRoy was shown by Jennifer and got Reserve Winners.Yay! I met Karen and her dog Ernie - really nice boy. And saw Tina again. It's nice to visit old friends and meet new ones - dog people are really nice. Also met Deb a friend of Debbie; they co-own some very handsome dogs together. It was a very nice show and everyone was very friendly. I was out in the sun a little too long but it really was worth it!

They are such a delight and always a surprise because I forget they are there. After the leaves die down in the early summer, they seem to disappear.

Daren offered to help me with some of the moving and I took him up on it. I think moving the sofa bed, the queen sized bed, the heavy coffee table and a few other things would have been too hard for me.

Sedums

It's easy to see why most people have at least one kind of Sedum in their yards. This pink old-fashioned one has been around seemingly forever. It's among the first to flower for me in the late summer/early autumn. The first photo also shows Grandpa Ott's morning glory, one of the very best varieties that easily seeds itself, behind the Sedum. Seeds from Grandpa Ott will definitely be going up to Sans Souci.

I also enjoy Helenium or tick-seed called that because the seeds of the wild or species Heleniums tend to stick to fur and clothing thereby hitching a ride to new locations, but not in an annoyingly cloying way. This particular one is a volunteer that I like better than the one I bought because the flowers are larger and the yellow is so bright. This one is about two feet tall.

This Eupatorium, probably coelestinum, came from my Grandfather's garden and I have moved a piece of it every time I've moved. I love, love, love the heirloom plants in my garden because they evoke memories. That means that this Eupatorium has been with me for about 60 years. Who knows how long my Grandfather Firn Harding had it. I'll bet he got his from his mother's (Esther Harding) garden when he moved his family from the country near South Lyon and New Hudson to Rosedale Park. Photographs never seem to capture the delicate gorgeous blue color. Pity.

       (Clicking on photos enlarges them - maybe the blue will show up better?)

Colchicums

The blooming of my various species of Colchicums now reminds me that autumn is here. The nights are getting cooler and it will soon be time to bring in my houseplants and tropical Bonsai. The orchids stay inside all year to avoid insect infestations. 

I have included a US quarter for size comparisons. Can you find it in each of the photos? Although sometimes people call Colchicums "Autumn Crocuses" they are not technically speaking. There are, however, crocuses that do bloom in the fall. Can you see the differences between the species? Each one of these clumps started out as a single bulb.

The clump above has many more flower buds emerging from the soil which expands the flowering season. Colchicums produce large green daylily looking leaves in the spring which make food and store it. These leaves, which can get quite large, die back before mid-summer. The dormant bulbs remain just barely under the top layer of soil until about mid-September here. (It's hard NOT to plant another plant on top of the dormant bulbs; I forget where they are.) Different species have slightly different flowering times. It's a delight to see the flowers finally emerge from the ground. The flowering season lasts quite a long time as the garden gets ready for winter, a time for the garden and me to rest.

The quarter is hard to find in this shot. In my new house up in Palms, Michigan near Forestville there will be a sun-room so I can leave my plants indoors all year. I will be able to sit in the sun read and drink tea, coffee, or cocoa surrounded by green plants, orchids, and Bonsai - Yay! Needless to say, my Colchicums will be up there with me.

(Clicking on photos enlarges them. Click on the X in the upper right corner to return to the text.)
The drug colchicine came from Colchicums.

LeRoy

Here's Lee and Jennifer with Judge Edward Wild at the recent Pontiac Kennel Club Show.

 

(Click on photos to enlarge them. Click on the X in the upper right hand corner to return to the text.)

Somehow Lee manages to run through the fence when he's chasing rabbits at Jennifer's house. Once on the other side of the fence in a neighbor's yard he gets a puzzled look as if to say, "How on earth did I get here?" and "How on earth do I get back home?"

Jennifer is trying to solve the problem by putting up some screening. Will the rabbits still be able to escape Lee or will they bounce off the new fencing and run back into the yard right into Lee's path. If so, I think Lee might be even more surprised than the rabbits!

The fencing works!

Nodding Lady Tresses

We went up to Sans Souci yesterday and while exploring the beach found an orchid, Spiranthes cernua or Nodding Lady Tresses

Small but lovely.

This photo is from: -
Douglas Ladd @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / USDA SCS. 1989. Midwest wetland flora: Field office illustrated guide to plant species. Midwest National Technical Center, Lincoln.

Thora

Here's a recent photo of Thora the Red who has to be kept away from Wooki for a while!

New Litter - Solsteinn kennel

Three new male Icelandic Sheepdog puppies arrived in Ohio on August 31, 2012 - Blue Moon night!

You can visit them by clicking on the Icelandic Sheepdog International Breeders (ISIB) home page in the upper right corner and then clicking again on Solsteinn. These mid-western beauties will not last long so if you might be interested, please contact the breeder: - gohsgirls3@aol.com (Copy and paste that onto your email.)

It looks like they will all have very nice blazes on their foreheads like both mom and dad and full or partial collars. Aren't they beautiful?

The pups should be very good show quality dogs. Each one will carry two genes for long fur, one gene for black & tan with white, and one gene for chocolate brown. There are NO REPEATED ANCESTORS through the great grandparents. That's a good thing in my opinion. The ancestors come from a diverse list of countries including Canada, the US, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark.

They will also be fantastic pets.
(To enlarge the photos, click on them.)
Here's a photo of the proud father Tofi: -

 And one of the doting mother Meyla: -

They could not be better looking parents, IMO.