Cricket 1 Tennis Nil

Well, the cricketers won the match and hence the One-Day best-of-7 series against the old enemy the Poms (but really, we like them).

Alas, in the Oz Open tennis (first Grand Slam tournament of each year) Andy Murray was outclassed by Novak "Nole" Djokovic who could well become the next World Number One, very soon. We shall see. Both players said correct things after the match. Murray looked glum and grumpy throughout and I suspect he had too much salt on his porridge for breakfast. A shame, though: his has been the best showing by a Brit in this sport for decades. Djokovic politicised his acceptance speech, referring to his nation's "tough time" in recent years, and said he dedicated the trophy to Serbia. (Can you do that??) but stopped short of expressing it as a hope for Serbia to rejoin the human race. (I am paraphrasing a classic line by Sir Humphrey of Yes Minister fame.)

Below is the happy snap I took last Wednesday of our mayor Ray Agnew with the main ladies at the Erichsen Literary Awards event in Ardrossan; Gwenda one of the winners and Leslie May the organiser.
The mayor is the one in the middle.

This morning over the steam wireless at my bedside I heard the alarming weather alert for an extreme heat warning. Not a welcome tidbit of news. Darn. So I had to abandon plans for my all-day hard-working session in the garden. Ha Ha. If you believe that you'll believe anything.

Now it's 4pm and the thermometer in the back porch says 36C. Outside is definitely warmer than that. I picked a plum in the heat of the day and it was a HOT plum, kind of cooked, but very nice; and I rescued some nectarines from the birds, beetles and ants. So much for the Will Horticulture. Gwenda meanwhile boasts of the mulberries she's gathered from a friend's tree. "You have to wear red clothes."

Uncharacteristically, for a weekend, a spate of editing jobs arrived on my computer yesterday and I finished them last night at 11.30pm. But not tonight. Andy Murray is playing Novak Djokovic in the final of the Men's Tennis at the Australian Open. Now, who shall I barrack for...? Scot? Serb? Let's be totally unbiased about this. I know, I'll phone my cousin in Glasgow for an opinion. Can't phone home to mum because her birthday was last week. Would have been 106. But sadly she only made to ... oh dear, the age I am now. Ouch.

So it goes.

More devastating news. This Wednesday will be the the final on ABC of the UK series (second season) Outnumbered, which had become an addiction. Trouble is, the TV family were very like mine. Déjà viewing.

Erichsen Literary Awards Presentation

Today, Australia Day (26 January 2011) I went with Gwenda to Ardrossan on the Yorke Peninsula's east coast where she received her prize for her short story entered in last year's Erichsen Competition.

Leslie May (competition organiser) introduced the winners and Yorke Peninsula District Council Mayor Ray Agnew made the presentations. I digitally "filmed" the three minutes' worth of presentation with all the camera skill of a half-baked potato.

Wolfdog sings baby to sleep

Singing? Sheepdogs? Sorry ... it leads me to share this clip which many have enjoyed recently. Some friends have great-grandchildren; some have dogs.
Use this idea.

Clyde the sheepdog does it tough but wins through!

OK, here's a video I made this morning - one of six - where gallant Clyde, age seven, with his owner-handler Lee Mickan does a great job with a stroppy mob of sheep in the pen and up the race into the waiting trailer. He scored 92% which is v. good. He even got tipped over the top of the race by the sheep - then jumped straight  back and got on with the job. Another dog, Andy, suffered a similar indignity and chose to leave the field at speed.

P.S. I've now inserted the first half of Clyde's performance, and have left the second half (where he falls from the ramp) in place, as the second embedded video.


And if you want to see it full screen on YouTube direct, here's the URL:

First half:

Don't forget to re-visit this blog :)

Second half:

or just watch it below ---

Sheep not animatronic. Nits.

The sheep today at the sheepdog yarding trials in Stansbury were not, after all, animatronic. Some escaped. So did one dog. Really, it was excellent to watch and I learned a little. Dogs are smart.

Now, below, because I can't resist, another scene from Outnumbered (one of the earliest episodes, late 2008 I think) with Karen and the conversation with Mum about nits as pets.

Sheep-pig trials. Oops, sorry, sheep-dog.

On Sunday at Stansbury Oval  - in fact for both days this weekend - there will be sheepdog trials and a visit is planned. My sole knowledge of sheepdog trials comes, on reflection, from the film Babe with the splendid  Magda Szubanski and James Cromwell as the farming couple with their story-book farm animals, including the piglet who wants to become a sheep-pig. And since it's a fairy story, he does. Will this background suitably prepare me for Sunday's event? Will the sheep be animatronic?