Arbor Dogs

The Arbor, famous in Port Dover for their Hot Dogs and Golden Glow, are the sponsors for the Annual Wiener Dog Races, run by the Port Dover Museum. I had been once before and found it to be a lot of fun. This time I shared the experience with Rick.

We started the day by dropping off donations to PDThrifts and then, as we were too early for the races, had a coffee at the pier while watching the boats and wildlife.

 

There's a small patch of grass beside the museum and the event takes place there.

Owners registered their dogs for the costume competition, races or (most) for both.

Just lying on a picnic table trying to pretend she wasn't dressed as a "disco dinosaur".

Spike wouldn't keep his sunglasses (to go with the Hawaiian costume) on."Spike", because his human Dad refused to own a dog with a "fru fru" name.

Although its billed as an event for Dachshunds, all shapes, breeds, sizes of dogs are accepted. Its a very inclusive event.

However there are lots of Wiener dogs - short haired, long haired, miniature, wire haired.....

This is Dewey, who ultimately won the costume contest in his sailors outfit. His handler wore a matching shirt.

Most were on very good behaviour, aided by the liberal distribution of treats.

This was my favorite 

and his handler, a young girl, was also dressed as a cheerleader.

While the results were tallied they had a costume parade along the pier and then returned for the prize announcements.

A couple of German Shepherds cooled off in the river, 

boats went buy,

and we were introduced to Maple, a Nova Scotia Duck Trolling Retriever, whose claim to fame was that he, as a puppy, was featured on a Purina Puppy Chow bag.

The inflatables raced,

the Coast Guard came in

and then it was time

for the races.

4 or 5 dogs in each heat, with one person to let them go and another, at the finish line, calling them.

Hilarious chaos, as some understood and others wouldn't start or turned back half way or were more interested in the other dogs or just stopped not going forward or back!

After the overall winning wiener had been declared then the other breeds got to get in on the fun too.

All in all, great fun and Rick and I finished it off by walking over to the beach and having an ice cream for lunch.

A valuable address

 

Last weekend, Heather and I hooked in the garden of this lovely house that was on the Horticultural Society Garden Tour. One of Christine's favorite addresses: the corner of Silver and Gold.

The weather forecast called for storms (that never materialized) so we set up under the gazebo. These were the examples we bought with us and we both spent 3 hours hooking and chatting to people who were touring the gardens.

To stretch my legs, and because it was beautiful,

I also toured the garden.

Some plants that I was not familiar with

but also lots of Coral Bells and

Hostas.

As most of my Iris do not flower

I had major

Iris envy.

Decorated porches,

a very organized garage,

a pond,

a water feature, bird houses, bird feeders, mature trees, colourful shrubs, birds, squirrels and chipmunks. A very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

Now for some catch up photos:

Spellbound during our first Wednesday Night race of the season. Hit a mark, had to do 2 full rotations as a penalty and came in 4th.

 

Unusual to see them fishing this close to my shoreline. (Taken from the sunroom)

Typical cat behaviour; Rick installed a new fan in my bedroom and Rasta adopted the box. I put his bed in there and he slept there for a day then abandoned it.

Evening clouds and

another night capturing the Whirlpool Galaxy.

Change of Seasonal Hobbies

Racing starts next week for the Port Dover Yacht Club Racing Division. Last week was the practice race and Spellbound was the committee boat so I got the first boat pictures of the season.

Rick handled the radio and the horn, Fi and Gord managed the flags going up and down and I had the lovely job of sitting by the mast and ensuring that no boats went over the start line early (and took pictures)

 

There were far fewer boats out than usual. The cold wet spring has meant that many owners have not yet finished the spring boat chores and some boats aren't even in the water yet.

We conducted three practice starts for each of the 3 fleets (that's a lot of flags up and down and horns going off)

On the final start they raced to a windward mark and back.

A gusty strong wind kept things interesting.

These two, "Sheets and Giggles" and "Dolce Vita" are both J80s

and they had some fun harassing each other

and taking the competition seriously. Afterwards we all headed for the Yacht Club for drinks and dinner.

While sailing is just starting up, rug hooking is winding down. J.J. Ruggers final meeting of the season included these "mug mats" which we all made in memory of member and rug hooking teacher, Cheryl Krug-Wiltse. They are to be donated to the Brantford hospice but some of us bought them and we donated the proceeds.

I ate far too much at the pot luck portion of the meeting.

We also discussed ideas for "program" next year and held a silent auction with proceeds from that going to the Paris food bank. Our meetings will start up again in September.