A lovely puppy that I placed from our last litter, born almost a full year ago, went to live with a wonderful family who agreed to let "Oliver" be a part-time show dog when he was ready. We took him out last summer, and at his first show, was Best of Winners and Best Puppy in Group. I had other showing commitments at the time, so we let Oliver stay home and just grow up. We decided to enter him at the London Canine dog show in Tillsonburg, but that was his first indoor show, and he didn't know quite what to make of things, although behaved very well nonetheless. I took advantage of the day and shot these photos.
This weekend we entered Oliver at the Kent Kennel Klub shows in Chatham. On Saturday, judge Kristen Francis awarded him Reserve Winners Dog, Best Puppy in Breed, then Best Puppy in Group. Today, Oliver was Best of Winners under judge Mrs. S. Alexander. He's more than halfway to his championship in just 3 outings, and owners Victoria and Debbie Brewster are very pleased with their puppy! I think they gave him the right "start" with the name they chose for him - "Anamchara A Step Ahead".Oliver is out of our Am/Can Ch Shaydeechase Girl Interrupted (Jolie) and is by Ch Lynphil Mirror Mask. On Saturday, the club sponsored a "Be in the Pink" fund raiser for breast cancer, and the flower I'm wearing was in support of that. There was pink everywhere!
Two weeks ago, the 98th annual International Plowing Match was held on the grounds of the St. Thomas, Ontario airport. By all accounts, it was a stupendous event, with more than 80,000 visitors and spread over 1000 acres. The Plowing Match resembles a huge county fair, but minus many of the commercial and carnival-type vendors, rides and displays. There were hundreds of booths and tents hosting an expansive variety of retail and wholesale wares, as well as crafts, of course food and even religion. Most of the vendors were definitely geared toward the farming industry and country living in general, and frankly it was refreshing and reassuring to see that our rural roots are indeed thriving, at least at the Plowing Match! Plowing matches have been part of our agricultural history in Ontario for well over a century. History records that in 1846 when the first provincial exhibition was held in the city of Toronto, a special feature of the event was a plowing match. These matches not only gave farmers an opportunity to display their skill in the handling of a walking plow, but to show off their fine teams of horses, mostly Percherons and Belgians, many of which were imported or were from imported stock. Today's plowing match still highlights the skill of the single-row plow, plus a host of other competitions, activities and demonstrations.The parking for the plowing match was very far from the actual activity, but there were volunteers helping us out. Once leaving the vehicle, we were directed to walk up to the road, where tractors pulling different types of wagons were waiting, like a nonstop assembly line. Yes, it did feel a little like cattle going to market! 
The grounds of the match seemed to go on forever. Getting closer in the shuttle wagon, it was more and more difficult to imagine getting around and seeing everything in just one afternoon.
Once you made it through the gate, you could pick up a map and plan the sights and exhibitions that you wanted to see first. I just started walking ... there was so much to see!
One of the most amazing and hilarious displays was the tractor square dance. There were 8 couples on identical tractors, all "dancing" to the square dance caller. The funniest thing was that although there were distinct couples, each "female" partner was a man, complete with dresses with padded tops and long hair wigs. They put on quite the show!
There was also a rodeo at the plowing match, which I hope to upload in the next few days.
After our visit to Old Salem, we set out for the Blue Ridge Parkway, which stretches almost 500 miles along the crest of the Blue Ridge mountains. Starting in North Carolina and continuing up through Virginia, it encompasses some of the oldest settlements of both pre-historic and early European settlements. There are many mileposts along the way, which designate look outs, hiking and biking trails, historical landmarks and even a few restaurants and a lodge. Our goal was to get as high up and to see as much as we could in the few hours we would have before dusk. Dianne was a great tour guide! 
There are a number of old European settlements that have been preserved, and the Brinegar homestead is just one of them. Occupied for over 60 years, this 19th-century log cabin illustrates the isolated existence of mountain residents.
On our way back down the mountain to head home, we stopped briefly at one of the campgrounds. Before we even got out of the van, I spied a young fawn just beyond the clearing.
We had just finished our walkabout and were turning to leave, when we saw a doe we could only presume was the mother. It was a great finish to wonderful excursion!
