Baby you can drive my car
We had a visit yesterday from Haydn and Aspen, the two chocolate girls I photographed back in February, and their humans, Jim and Ian.
Aspen is nearly as big as Haydn now, and has bounced back amazingly from shoulder surgery not so long ago.
It was a pleasure to see them again, and to photograph them. They could certainly give my two hellions a lesson in obedience.
I hope that sometime soon we can get all four dogs swimming together.
Happy Canada Day
Canada celebrates 149 years as a country today. My Dad would have celebrated 76. It's always a bittersweet day for that reason. He chose to bring us here from the U.K. when I was just four; he left his young family back home for a few months so that he could secure a job and a place to live, then he brought us over on a BOAC plane; my little sister was still young enough to travel as a baby, on my mother's lap. This is us with our cousins, on my gran's doorstep, the day we left for our new home in Canada:
I'm grateful for the life he made for us here, and the one I have been able to make for myself. Canada isn't perfect (I've never come to terms with the snow and the cold) but it's a pretty nice place to be in terms of culture, politics, geography, and opportunities (not necessarily in that order). I don't think my parents ever regretted taking that enormous step of emigration, and Canada allowed them to retain a connection to their British roots. And today is a holiday to enjoy this country for what it is, and who it makes us.
The fireworks below are a composite; we're deep in drought at the moment, and the forest fire risk is too high for such activities. But the landscape below is 100% real, 100% Canadian and 100% home.
Happy Canada Day.
Cookie monsters
Our friend Beth sent us personalized cookie cutters to make dog biscuits with. Here we are in quality control:
