Crusoe,Dana, Sam and Deepha(top to bottom)

What a lovely week of sunshine we have had, and I have been attempting to do a bit of gardening--I made a couple of deep boxes up with herbs and have one waiting for a decision as to what to plant in there. Gaston and Claire brought me some lovely Thyme plants from Belgium which I have put against the side wall where they can get some reflected heat from the brickwork. I have asters and Bamboo as well, the latter, hopefully, will form a screen of foliage at the bottom of the field. The dogs have had a great time lopping about in the paddocks soaking up the rays too.

Yesterday was WELKS at one of my favourite venues-Malvern. It was very warm with a light breeze so consequently my face feels rather stretched and is red. I showed Frizzle for Sue in AVNSC PB and she had a 2nd and was very well behaved, and had lots of admirers(someone was heard to say "that is one of those wire haired Malinois!).

Briards, Tervueren and Groenendaels were before Malinois so the dogs were really quite tired by the time we got in the ring. Crusoe (B.Tete a Tete) was BD and BOB, Sam (B.Saumur) RBD, Dana (B.Sorciere) BB and Deepha was RBB. This was the first time we had entered the new Breeders class which is held after the main classes. It was exciting to be in the Pastoral Finals class, with about 12 other teams-I think this will give breeders much more incentive to compete in what is a very important competition. We didn't get placed but the dogs did a good presentation, but it was great to see the Hawksflight Tervueren team get 2nd.

In Tervueren B.Deja Vu (Deja) was 4th in OB and was also 4th in the Veteran Stakes class.

Ann Browns' Deepha has been doing quite a bit of winning lately at Open shows with her latest being Best AVNSC and Group 2 at Accrington & DCS. Deepha is Chers' sister and they will be 9 in May but, like good wine, they get even better as they get older.

The bottom pictures are of Chatter and Rodes this morning taken through the window, hence poor quality, but they always stop as soon as I open the back door, so I had to be sneaky!