Summer fun

It felt like there was more to say than a quick and pithy social media update, so I decided it was time to dust off the old blog!

Like most of the UK we've been melting through summer, though in our case with the added complication of not having a mains water supply... our spring didn't dry up, but for a long period of time we have had to be incredibly careful about the water we use just for general household tasks.
And dyeing, no matter how careful I am is water intensive, so for most of August I've not really been able to get in the studio. We've finally had some rain, so I am going to be able to dye the gradient club, but this winter's project is going to involve taking a look at our water collecting system and see if there's a way it can be improved upon in anticipation for more hot dry summers in the future. 

The dogs have certainly enjoyed the extra time with me though, we're lucky in that we have lots of shady places for exercise, and one of the favourite activities was simply going up and down the rivers and streams in the forest. The hot weather also  meant lots of my other dog training work being cancelled so it's really been a summer of lots of time at home.

After a spring of Connie focused activities Nellie dusted off her sniffing nose, and gained her final National Nosework badges at Elite, qualifying her to compete at the highest current level of competition. Connie had a super spring, completing her Foundation and Pre-Entry journey in less than 6 months, and we've then focused on her gundog training. She's still very much a beginner at this, but last week we went on a novice gundog training holiday and had a brilliant time together.

Then to finish off my week of holiday yesterday we went to the Welsh Kennel Club Championship show for us to try some showing for the first time... thanks to a friends brilliant handling (anyone who thinks showing dogs is easy should try it sometime) Connie won her Novice Bitch class and qualified to go to Crufts next year. 

As ever we had a lovely time at this years Tour de Fleece, it means the shop is stuffed with lots of limited edition colours, 1 has already sold out, and stocks are getting low on a couple of the other colours. Scarily my mind is turning towards this years 12 Days of Christmas...
As the days get cooler and your mind drifts towards your spinning wheel the shop still does have lots of lovely hand dyed fibre, and as we get rain I will be back to dyeing regularly again, best place to hear about shop updates is of course the email newsletter.