We wish Cooper and his human’s all the best in their new venture, a 2 year posting abroad in the Far East. All your pals from dog walking in Banbury will miss you Cooper.
Cooper goes abroad
August 24th, 2011August is a quiet month
August 23rd, 2011
You might expect that August would be quiet for dog walking in Banbury, but nothing could be further from the truth. Folk are on holiday but many cannot take their dogs with them.
Dogs seem to enjoy there holidays as well whether they go with the owner or come to us for a short stay.
Mo has settled in well and has had plenty of company with the many doggy visitors each day. I am sure he’ll be glad to get home for a rest.
Here he is just setting into the large bone which has now half the size, these terriers have no limits.
September next week already and holidays will be over, everyone will be back.
More updates later when we get time.
Winners at the Show
August 8th, 2011
As a break from dog walking in Banbury I took Charlie and little Mo, a customer’s dog, to the Bicester and Finmere Show hoping to have some fun. It was a great family show, the old fashioned type with rides for the kids and some very posh horses.
Charlier wins best terrier
They had a little dog show in the side rings with obedience and novelty classes. Charlie went into the Best Rescue and Terrier class, and won best terrier, clever boy!
Mo wins first in obedience
I thought I could have a bit of fun with Mo in the pet obedience class. Mo and owner had recently gained their Kennel Club Bronze with the Banbury and District Dog Training Club, so I thought we had a good chance. Imagine our surprise and delight when Mo put in a perfect round of heelwork, novice recall, control at gate and a one minute downstay! He came first. Well done Mo – and his owners who have done all the hard work.
Charlie wins fourth in obedience
That was a hard act for Charlie to follow in the “Triers Obedience”, but we did very well against some stiff opposition and got a fourth. We had to do heel on and off lead, a recall and a retrieve over a jump, and two stays.
A long and successful day, with two firsts and two tired dogs.
Some Icy Pictures
December 9th, 2010
Painting – some photos
September 12th, 2010As promised here are some photos of the painting so far….
Engine Room Door Panels
and the new grey cabin side.
Cabin side in grey
Rudder
The rudder is still to be finished but colours now on, still need to do the stern.
Atalanta Back Cabin - first coat
Only the first coat….lots more work to do.
Painting
September 11th, 2010Well the blog has been very quiet for several months but we have been busy. We did spend June and July out with Atalanta at Stoke Bruene and Braunston festivals.
Karen has been getting very busy with Pet Care Servcies, which has restricted our boating as she needds to be back at base to walk dogs. So I decided this was a good opportunity to repiant Daniel Oakley and get started with Atalanta.
Six weeks later and I have almost finished Daniel Oakley. I have added the small red panels on the engine room that never got done 4 years ago and changed the forward cabin sides to a dark gray. The roof has had a repaint and the rest of the boat a general tidy up after 4 years of boating.
Atalanta is starting to get back to the 1930’s coronation colours of red, white and blue.
I’ll take some photos and post them up later.
Flight to La Palma
February 15th, 2010Just to remind you that we have gone with friends to La Palma in the Canary Islands, except we aren’t there yet! Our plane couldn’t land because of high winds, so the plane diverted to Tenerife. We are now on the ferry with a lot of Spanish people dressed in white, on our way to La Palma. The people in white are on their way to the last night of a big festival on La Palma, where “talc bombs” are thrown about, and tourists are seen to be fair game.
Anne, who is terrified of flying, felt the flight in was a little bumpy and the 3 attemts to land were unessessary. Vicky is now struggling because she hates anything to do with water. Paul and I are happy to be taking it easy and glad to be back on a boat. Piccies to follow.
London Boat Show 2010
January 13th, 2010 
A big thank you to Barry for our free tickets, we had a great day out at the boat show. Our aim was to research bathrooms and to see what was new. We failed miserably in the former but Paul spent a lot of time looking at generators, solar panels and calorifiers!
I looked at the boats, most of which were way outside our pocket. In fact I would guess that, for the most part, potential buyers were the retired, or soon to be retired members of the banking fraternity (after all they are the only ones with huge amounts of spare cash at present! If I sound bitter its because the HE Sector have just been told there will be huge cuts in funding).
Here are some of the bigger boats
Smart Boats Excel Centre 2010
And some of the smaller boats
Narrow Boats at the Excel Centre 2010
If anyone else goes I would be interested in what you think. Oh and you might want to take your lunch with you as the food options were dire and very expensive.
Dogs in snow
January 11th, 2010I was walking Charlie in the park when I noticed the guy ahead of me bury his dog’s “download” in the snow. I wondered how many other dog walkers had been doing this and what would we see when the snow melts?
A Trip to the South West – Part 2
January 7th, 2010The following morning after seeing the boys I popped round to Exeter CVS to see the folks I used to work with. Great to see John, Liz, Von, Jo, Sue, Em and all the gang. Too early for Gabi, sorry I missed her. It seemed to be really buzzy, loads going on, really good to see.
Paul was keen to get up to Bristol before the snow arrived. He had meetings and the dentist and I had a reunion with other members from the SW Action Learning Set (see the new page I have set up http://danieloakley.org.uk/?page_id=809 )
The following day we woke to 6 inches of snow in Bristol. Should we stay or should we go? We went.
Paul drove. The roads getting out of Bristol were a bit dicey, but almost clear of traffic. The M5 was down to 2 lanes but OK. The worst bit was turning into my sister’s road, when we called to collect Charlie.
A quik cuppa and sarnie and it was off to banbury on the M42 and M40. The worst bit of the journey was the approach to Banbury in Oxfordshire. There was a huge amount of snow and we pulled thankfully into the car park at Wickes, near the boat. We went round into the arm to see a delightful winter scene. Jim had kept the fire on the boat going for us so it was It was good to be back.
Snow on Atalanta