Originally posted Nov 23, 2017. Updated Jan 20, 2022.
I’ve been training my two primitive dogs (a Finnish Spitz and a Finnish Lapphund) for a couple of years now. We have had many successes and failures. We’ve had frustration and tears of joy. Just this past week, my little Finkie (short for Finnish Spitz), Ama, achieved her first obedience title (Rally Novice). [Update: this is ancient history now. We are no longer attending classes or participating in dog sports.] Read more
Weekly Photo Challenge – Experimental
I am sharing two photos today – one of a flowering bottlebrush and another of the birthday girl (for no other reason than its her birthday).
There was a time when I was youngish and shallow, when I sort of lost perspective about the important things in life. I guess I was embarrassed and also so very tired. I was embarrassed about my weight, my strange and difficult children, my parenting skills, my lack of career progression, and most of all, I was embarrassed about the suburb I lived in and my shitty little house that was so untidy even my mother didn’t like to visit me (cue violins playing). Read more
Weekly Photo Challenge – Peek
Sometimes it is a bit hard to blend in. A peacock’s tail peeks out from the brush.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Rounded
Whoever said dogs give unconditional love, never had a Finnish Lapponian Dog (Finnish Lapphund as we know them in the English-speaking world) or a Finnish Spitz. Anyway, here is my cartoon celebrating unconditional love between (wo)man and dog. The drawing needs work, but you’ll get the general idea. Life is never boring with this pair.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Glow
Thought I would have a go at participating in the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge. Here is a photo of my dog. He just shines in the late afternoon sun.
I want to give hope to all those people out there, who, like me, have felt, and still feel, that they don’t have an artistic bone in their body. As a kid, I used to like drawing. I drew butterflies, dogs and horses. They were all out of proportion and simple; just a kid’s drawings really. I wasn’t gifted but I had fun. When I reflect back on that time, half the fun was in day dreaming about my drawing, or starting with a blank page and just seeing where it would take me. Pencils were everywhere and anywhere, left lying around when the drawing was done. There was no packing up art supplies. There was no helicopter parent offering a critique or having special art time with me to foster my ‘creativity’, whatever that means.
Then I went to high school and I thought I would try art class as an elective. I know a lot of children thrive in art classes. But for me, it was torture. Read more
Reflections of An Untidy Mind 