Summer's End at the house.So now as summer begins to wane, the vines on the front of our house have a rich bordeaux colour beginning to creep up from the roots and we settle into life. The bustle has returned to the villages around us as all the family holidays segway into school life and we can finally move beyond our 'camping' holiday at the house to our home at the house. As we haven't yet located our renovation guide (Mr/Mme Architect(e) ) we are left to explore what activities we can now invest our interests in.
Saturday we explored life with Freya. The previous weekend at one of the local village Comice d'Agricole (local village Fall fair) we discovered a regional dog club putting on an agility exposition and found out that their headquarters is not far from us. They had put a lot of time into their pamphlet, equipment and everyone (doggies included) looked like they were having a great time--and Freya was watching everything with keen interest....and so we were hooked. They invited us to a couple free lessons and to visit the headquarters and see what they were all about and so this is what we did Saturday afternoon.
The property is great: forest, clubhouse, fields and a full setup of different arenas for all kinds of dog activities. Several rings, completely enclosed for puppy & adult education classes (yes, even our angel Freya needs a bit of obedience tweaking & with her impending sight handicap we know we must all three be more disciplined in making sure she always listens to us), rings for Flyball (this is hysterical to watch--the dogs love it!), agility, Scent work--our truffle girl is going to try this one, Vtt-cross (mountain biking with your dog), running cross (trail running with your dog), walking cross (trail walking with your dog) and more. There were all walks of dogs and all walks of owners--again, people watching tickles us to no end--and then we wonder what image we portray with our little girl? (please e-mail responses privately...ha ha).
We entered a ring with all the other debutants and the director of the club came and gave an introductory lesson--working with one lady's rescued pit bull type dog--and we were duly impressed to say the least. He did everything right and followed what is currently the best methodology with dogs (pack mentality--anyone seen the dog whisperer? Cesar Milan? it rocks!) with unbelievable results in just a quarter of an hour....it never ceases to amaze me how successful the relationship can be between humans and animals when we find the right path to treat it....too bad mankind hasn't found it yet....(brief political aside there...). So, it looks like we've found something to do on Wednesdays & Saturdays and I hope Freya can begin to find some good friends too. (She has officially become pals with the dairy farmer up the road's beauceron dog).
On the way home we stumbled upon a new shopping center, and when we pulled in we had a 
brief chuckle and joint exclamation of 'it's American!'...with a few design flaws....but we were happy to find it at any rate and became the new owners of some small kitchen appliances (all I can bare to add to our current life in boxes). As anglo as the concept was, French influence 
prevails when we couldn't find anything to eat after 2pm (even though the restaurants were advertised as all day...hurrumf) and I post a few photos for comparison sake to those Anglos abroad who understand the humour in finding this in the middle of nothing here....and for the
rest of you to prove we aren't really in the middle of nothing!It was a good day, weather-wise, spirit-wise, life-wise....but then, though it's nice to have the affirmation, we knew in our hearts when we made this decision it was right for all of us....
I conclude with Freya's contentment in her Papa's arms of what the day was....
1 comment:
So what was it? A French Wal-Mart like place? I love that the dog thing you went to had all those different types of classes. Too cool. I was also happy to see G-dog's food as a sponsor. :)
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