Doobie in Lelystad

Anne and Chris are the proud owners of Doobie (Plexat Derby), he is Chimay's grandson.
I met Anne through the mail and later we followed eachothers weblog, as Doobie has his own weblog. Today they came to visit us!

A first meeting is exciting, but soon enough we talked like we had known eachother for years.

Chris with Doobie and Ari

Doobie

Ari did not like to share HIS garden with an other male...
Doobie did not care, he just wanted to play!

Doobie and Ari

Anne with Doobie and Ari

Our house was still a bit warm, there was too much wind to sit comfortable in the garden, so we spend most of the evening in our garden house. We can talk about Chow Chows for hours, and so we did ;-)
Chimay avoided the camera, but I got her on this picture:

Anne, Chris and Chimay

Doobie did write about our meeting at his weblog.

Chimay and Ari sleeping

today Chimay became grandmother...

... of 5 little bundles of joy. Chimay's daughter Chinka (Xin-Feng's Embla) got her first litter of 5, 3 females and 2 males:


The sire of these beauties is Hary-Ming Snowstar Knut.

forgot my vitamin B12

I had too much going on the last weeks.
The Thyrax was upped again, Frank gets vitamin B12 shots too, slowly I get back on track with housekeeping and we visited some family and friends.

Today I found out that I was 5 days late with my vitamin B12 shot...
Looking back Chimay tried to tell me, 5 days back she kept looking at me, but neither Frank or I understood what she tried to tell.
When I took the vitamin B12 today, Chimay yelped as she was so relieved, finally I had understood what she tried to tell me.
She is such a great service dog!

Birthday Chow!

Today we celebrate Chimay's 8th birthday.
Happy Birthday Chimay and littermates!!!!

Chimay on the couch

Dutch Chow Chow Club walk

The Dutch Chow Chow Club organises a walk every year.
We never attended before, but this year we decided to go with Chimay and Ari.

The weather was great, a bit cold, but the Chows like that!

Chimay, Frank and Ari

there were a lot of Chow Chows!

the wood was beautiful in fall colors

Chimay

Half way a little rest with coffee and cake

And on we went again

It was a great day, we enjoyed it very much.
Chimay was happy to see so many Chows!

Venray and Mönchengladbach

After the long day on the Floriade we took it a bit easy the next day (September 5th).
We drove along the river Maas, stopped at Wellerlooi where Frank and Chimay stayed for some days in January. Walked the dogs and Chimay recognised the surroundings from her previous stay.

Then on to Venray to get some shopping done. Venray has a nice center with a lot of shops and we sat a while on a nice terrace at the town square. Two little boys were playing at the fountain.


Next to the gas station was a large pet shop, I had go in to have a look around. They had a nice collection of dog strollers.... well that would be handy for Ari! I had carried him around a lot at the Floriade and he became quiet heavy in time. And it would be great to take Ari on longer walks, as Chimay is getting older and doesn't appriciate the longer walks anymore. I wanted to get Frank to show the strollers, but he already arrived in the pet shop. We briefly discussed to pro's and cons and decided to buy a stroller. Tried it with Ari in it, he loved it, so we went away with a stroller ;-)

The next day the stroller was already used when we took a long walk in a park in Mönchengladbach (Germany).

Ari liked the stroller, he walked with us at first and when he became tired we put him in the stroller.

The park is called "Bunter Garten" (= Colorful Garden) and you can see it lives up to its name.

Frank and the dogs took a little rest while I took some pictures.

At the edge of the park is the Kaiser Friedrich-halle, with a restaurant at the park side.

We were ready for dinner, but had only an hour and a half left, because Frank had to be in time at the Hockey stadium where the Leonard Cohen concert was held. This concert was the reason we went to Mönchengladbach, Frank ordered a ticket months ago.

The staff of the restaurant was great, they managed to serve us a delicious three course dinner within time. We might go back one day to enjoy their food without (a little) haste.

We went back to the car and I delivered Frank at the stadium. He had a marvellous evening. I would have loved to go with him, as I love Leonard Cohen too. Sadly I get panick attacks in big crowds, so I stayed with the dogs.


A video of the Leonard Cohen concert in Mönchengladbach
And more videos of his tour Leonard Cohen in Gent

When I went back to pick up Frank, I heard a bit of the last songs from the stadium, so I enjoyed some of the music too :-)

Roses, mainly many roses this month

The red mini rose was the first in bloom this year. It is only 15 cm high and we were surprised it survived the cold this winter.

Then my favourite rose started to bloom: "The Prince", an English David Austin rose, deep red-purple and a strong spicy scent. I was a bit worried, as most branches were frozen dead in winter, but it came back strong with four flowers. Not an easy rose, but well worth the effords!

Rose "The Prince"

Most spectaculair and very easy to grow is the "Westerland" rose. A climbing rose with very many, sweet scented flowers. The buds are red-orange, almost the color of our car, the flowers start in orange and end in a pinkish color with a yellow heart.
One of the first flowers this year was this "siamese twin rose".

Rose "Westerland"

Rose "Westerland"

Ever faithful in bloom, easy, white and a light sweet scent, the rose "Schneewittchen", sometimes called "Iceberg". I have two of them in the garden. They flower very long, sometimes until December!

Rose "Schneewittchen"

Franks favourite is rose "Mein München", a red and yellow rose with a very light scent. A strong rose with deep green leaves.

Rose "Mein München"

In the back of the garden are some yellow roses. The rose "Marselisborg" is light yellow. It is in a bit dark part, so it does not flower very well, but the flowers are beautiful and it has a sweet scent.

Rose "Marselisborg"

A bit more in front is the "Easy Going" rose, a gold color and lightly fragrant. With the orange marigolds on the table in front and the yellow roses behind it conects the colors.

Rose "Easy Going"

An other English David Austin rose: climbing "Graham Thomas", a yellow, sweet scented, healthy rose. Although I sometimes wonder if this is indeed the climbing variant, as it doesn't reach very high. Anyhow a beautiful rose!

Rose "Graham Thomas"

The buds are dark yellow, the flowers start yellow and end light yellow and above all MANY flowers, that is the climbing rose "Lichtköningin Lucia". In the back of the garden the flowers almost give light.

Rose "Lichtköningin Lucia"

Rose "Lichtköningin Lucia"

In the back of the garden the Dutch Irises were in bloom early in June. An easy bulb that comes back faithfully each year.

Dutch irisses

Between the yellow roses the red lilies are in full bloom now.

At the end of May and early June clematis "The President" had its enormous blue flowers.

Clematis "The President"

Another clematis: "Niobe", exuberant in growth and flowering.

Clematis "Niobe"

And last but certainly not least, my faithfull companions in the garden.
Ari loves to lay in the shadow, with his long coat he doesn't do very well in heat.

Ari

Here is Chimay in front of the "Westerland" rose in full bloom.

Chimay

A man and his dog

Frank and Chimay enjoy the sunshine

Chimay and Ari love to be outside

Spring is in the air and no rain, so Chimay and Ari are outside.

Chimay in her favorite spot

Ari with his tennisbal

walking the dogs in the snow

Yesterday we went to the Zuigerplaswood. We can let Chimay off leash there.

It is hard to catch in a picture, the parts of the lake where is no snow light up in an azure color, like a glacier or the Mediterranean Sea on a sunny day.

View over the frozen lake

Ari in the snow

sniffing around, Chimay in front, Ari follows

Chimay looks so red againt the snow!

playtime!

Frank

Ari is a bit tired, but we are nearly back at the car