Wandering Camera - March

It's been workshop after workshop here in my corner of the world and I might be all workshopped out!  I was so wrecked on Saturday after my 3rd and final workshop (more on this later) that instead of pulling out my photos from the past month I spent the evening watching Crufts on Channel 4 (massive dog show!) and so I missed linking up with Soma's Wandering Camera party.  I have been reading along all week and finally got around to pulling some photos together yesterday afternoon!

Last month, I went to Dublin to meet friends from college for lunch.  We had fun wandering around a shop called Deco Bake. Who knew you needed all these things to decorate a cake?  I really liked the cakes on display in the window and the angry birds one that hovered in mid air stuck to the elastic band!  We wandered over to the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin castle to see the Samurai chain mail made from silk strands and metal rings and the Royal Chinese robes on display.  No photos allowed there!

I also got to visit Croke Park - its the big national stadium owned by the Gaelic Athletic Association and our national sports Gaelic Football and Hurling are played there.   Limerick haven't won anything there since the 1920's.  I won a big hamper of chocolate and was told it would be the only win to go back to Limerick in 2016!  It was a very nice hamper and was fun all the same to see how many people take care of the field including those moving the lights to help the grass grow!

Given the week that was in it I thought I'd include the dogs and start with Charly!  Crufts dog show is huge over here and not without controversy.  I love watching the agility and flyball and learning about the dog breeds.  A Jack Russell Terrier took part in the flyball this year and I was yelling for them to win but the Border Collies always seem to make it across the line quickest!

Flyball is a relay race for teams of 4 dogs that run down a track, grab a tennis ball and bring it back - it's great fun.  Charly our Jack Russell loves playing ball and we have a game she and I play on the rare occasion when Wilbur is not sleeping on the sofa.  I throw the ball to her and she bats it back to me with both her front paws. This can go on for quite a while! Every now and again to show me who really owns the ball the she keeps it and rolls all over it!

Wilbur, on the other hand, doesn't really care too much about the ball, though he can usually be found sleeping on the tv remote control.   In the colour photos, I can see how old he is getting (91/2 now!) The front of his face is well grey!  My favourite part of him are his paws!  The breed standard for Basset Hounds has been changed as the Kennel Club in the UK has finally cottoned on to the fact that breeding for looks has made a mess of some dog breeds.  This year a German Shepherd Dog that won best of breed was found to have poor mobility.  Certain breeds have to pass a vet check to progress and the first year it was introduced the Best of Breed Basset failed the vet check.  Now the breed standard says paws large but not massive, wrinkles are ok but should not be excessive and the length of the ears should be to the tip of the nose and not any longer!  Their big droopy eyes are prone to infections and being long bodied and short legged they are not really meant to go up and down stairs!

Yes this is the new sofa - on account of him destroying the old one! And no he's not barred from it -  I managed a total of 2 days keeping him off of it and that was really because mum was staying and made sure he didn't get anywhere near it!  So I missed the linkup but am participating in the spirit of the idea: