Today was a big day for me - my first foray into judging at a dog show. Paula from Greyhound Welfare asked me back in the spring if I would like to judge at the annual late summer show at All Saints Church, Llandaff North. I agreed, with a certain amount of trepidation. Over the summer, we've taken Boola to plenty of local charity shows and I've been keeping a close eye on judging practice, and wherever possible, looking at dogs with a "How would I judge these?" sort of view.
It was at this show last year that Boola really made his showing debut, and of course won a beautiful challenge trophy, which sadly had to be returned today, though now of course with his name on it. I dithered about what to wear, and eventually settled for a black printed cotton fitted dress with a below the knee full skirt and a long sleeved black linen mix broderie anglaise fitted jacket, which I bought many years ago at Marks and Spencer and has been one of those reliable old faithfuls that every wardrobe should have. Unfortunately, my choice of outfit was not successful as the weather was changeable, and in particular the wind was very gusty, so I spent most of the afternoon battling with my billowing skirt.
We arrived in good time, armed with trophy, water, clipboard (for Andrew, who agreed to steward for me) and a tin of Quality Street and a bottle of wine for the raffle. The weather all day had been veering between clouds and showers, with the occasional flash of blue sky. This, along with the rugby, had affected numbers attending, but there was a good crowd and it was nice to see stalls for Greyhound Welfare itself and Four Paws, another local all breed dog rescue. The church hall was doing a roaring trade in teas and coffees.
We started at 2 p.m. promptly and I recognised several faces from other shows we've attended over the summer. First up were the pedigree classes - these are contested very hotly, by people who take their breeding and showing seriously. It's a big responsibility when competitors are so committed to ensure they are judged as fairly and thoroughly as possible. There were some gorgeous dogs and it was a pleasure to give out the rosettes, which I found out were made by one of GW's volunteers, a very talented lady. Then I judged the Best Pedigree (another super rosette) and it was half time and time for the raffle, to draw breath and have a quick drink of water. Then back into the ring for the novelty classes, and these were great. A much bigger variety of dogs, with lots of non-showy owners and handlers - mainly family pets, often with the dog charging round the ring and showing the child! The classes that are hardest but also the nicest are the ones for the veterans/oldies and also the Best Rescue - I'd love to be able to give a rosette to every competitor in those classes as they all have heartrending stories to tell. Today was no different - there were dogs who'd been dumped on a motorway (understandably still nervous around traffic), dogs who'd been pulled out of a pound hours before facing the needle, dogs who'd been abandoned, beaten and starved. To see them all now with delighted happy owners, looking well fed, happy and loved was a wonderful and joyous occasion and it was a real pleasure to be able to, in some small way, celebrate their new lives. These classes will always matter to me much, much more than the "pure" pedigree ones, lovely though the pedigree dogs are.
Finally, after the mayhem and anarchy of the egg and spoon and the sausage eating race, it was time for the Best Novelty and then it was all over. Andrew and I helped return the chairs to the church hall and just as we were leaving, down came the rain. It had been a very enjoyable but surprisingly tiring afternoon. We've had a quiet evening, with a beef casserole that Andrew prepared last night and a nice bottle of red wine.
Next weekend is another interesting first for me. I've decided to take the plunge, and am having a stall at Rumney Folk Festival, a local, annual event hosted by our local folk club. It's very low key, and rather nice, with lots of local bands and musicians, food and stalls, all raising money for the church restoration fund. I'll be selling a range of stitchy gifts, with some pretty gingham applique drawstring bags, tissue holders, lavender bags and fabric holders for cleansing wipes and so on. It'll be a nice foray for me to see what sells (if anything!) and if all goes well, I'd like to have a stall at a few more events in the run up to Christmas. So, I've been pretty busy over the past few days, stitching up a storm, with lots of cutting, pressing, trimming and measuring. My job tomorrow is to order some tissue paper and paper bags via Ebay. When I'm ready for packing up the goods, I'll post some pics on the blog. The drawstring bags will, I think, be handy for things like laundry, lingerie when packing, nightwear and so on. I could also see them being handy for children, or even for popping into a gym bag. I'm particularly pleased with the cleansing wipe holder - though I don't use them myself, these have become very popular recently with lots of the big cosmetic companies like Nivea doing them as well as the supermarket own brands. They are generally a standard size, so I worked out (with much swearing and cursing at my appalling maths) the measurements needed and made a prototype which went to Leila for approval (she's someone I know who uses the wipes, and I can trust her to give me straight answer). She gave them the thumbs up and production is now rolling. If successful, I think the idea could also be extended for baby wipe holders - I will keep thinking about this.
We arrived in good time, armed with trophy, water, clipboard (for Andrew, who agreed to steward for me) and a tin of Quality Street and a bottle of wine for the raffle. The weather all day had been veering between clouds and showers, with the occasional flash of blue sky. This, along with the rugby, had affected numbers attending, but there was a good crowd and it was nice to see stalls for Greyhound Welfare itself and Four Paws, another local all breed dog rescue. The church hall was doing a roaring trade in teas and coffees.
We started at 2 p.m. promptly and I recognised several faces from other shows we've attended over the summer. First up were the pedigree classes - these are contested very hotly, by people who take their breeding and showing seriously. It's a big responsibility when competitors are so committed to ensure they are judged as fairly and thoroughly as possible. There were some gorgeous dogs and it was a pleasure to give out the rosettes, which I found out were made by one of GW's volunteers, a very talented lady. Then I judged the Best Pedigree (another super rosette) and it was half time and time for the raffle, to draw breath and have a quick drink of water. Then back into the ring for the novelty classes, and these were great. A much bigger variety of dogs, with lots of non-showy owners and handlers - mainly family pets, often with the dog charging round the ring and showing the child! The classes that are hardest but also the nicest are the ones for the veterans/oldies and also the Best Rescue - I'd love to be able to give a rosette to every competitor in those classes as they all have heartrending stories to tell. Today was no different - there were dogs who'd been dumped on a motorway (understandably still nervous around traffic), dogs who'd been pulled out of a pound hours before facing the needle, dogs who'd been abandoned, beaten and starved. To see them all now with delighted happy owners, looking well fed, happy and loved was a wonderful and joyous occasion and it was a real pleasure to be able to, in some small way, celebrate their new lives. These classes will always matter to me much, much more than the "pure" pedigree ones, lovely though the pedigree dogs are.
Finally, after the mayhem and anarchy of the egg and spoon and the sausage eating race, it was time for the Best Novelty and then it was all over. Andrew and I helped return the chairs to the church hall and just as we were leaving, down came the rain. It had been a very enjoyable but surprisingly tiring afternoon. We've had a quiet evening, with a beef casserole that Andrew prepared last night and a nice bottle of red wine.
Next weekend is another interesting first for me. I've decided to take the plunge, and am having a stall at Rumney Folk Festival, a local, annual event hosted by our local folk club. It's very low key, and rather nice, with lots of local bands and musicians, food and stalls, all raising money for the church restoration fund. I'll be selling a range of stitchy gifts, with some pretty gingham applique drawstring bags, tissue holders, lavender bags and fabric holders for cleansing wipes and so on. It'll be a nice foray for me to see what sells (if anything!) and if all goes well, I'd like to have a stall at a few more events in the run up to Christmas. So, I've been pretty busy over the past few days, stitching up a storm, with lots of cutting, pressing, trimming and measuring. My job tomorrow is to order some tissue paper and paper bags via Ebay. When I'm ready for packing up the goods, I'll post some pics on the blog. The drawstring bags will, I think, be handy for things like laundry, lingerie when packing, nightwear and so on. I could also see them being handy for children, or even for popping into a gym bag. I'm particularly pleased with the cleansing wipe holder - though I don't use them myself, these have become very popular recently with lots of the big cosmetic companies like Nivea doing them as well as the supermarket own brands. They are generally a standard size, so I worked out (with much swearing and cursing at my appalling maths) the measurements needed and made a prototype which went to Leila for approval (she's someone I know who uses the wipes, and I can trust her to give me straight answer). She gave them the thumbs up and production is now rolling. If successful, I think the idea could also be extended for baby wipe holders - I will keep thinking about this.
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