Blog

It may sound a little self-indulgent, but seeing the photograph of my working sheepdog Corrie on the cover of the latest edition of Pembrokeshire County Living magazine gives me great pleasure.

Not so long ago she was enduring intensive chemotherapy treatment for canine lymphoma, with a bleak outlook for the future.

All the expense, stress and heartache was worth it, to see her in the photograph I took on the Pembrokeshire coast path, near Porthgain, while writing a feature about top dog walks on a beautiful sunny day.

She is still in remission and enjoying life as much as she always did before the diagnosis. She is particularly enjoying competing at sheepdog trials again.

Fourth place in a novice class may not be a big deal to many, but returning to the field at this year's Coedkernew trial and having a half-decent run did feel like an achievement. And it could have been a lot better if she'd taken her away whistles on the fetch!

We've been to a couple more trials since then and she's been working well, so it's fingers crossed for some open points this year.

During her treatment she hardly saw sheep, let alone work them. After her chemo I was almost too scared to start working her, in case something happened to make her ill again. Unfortunately there's also been a distinct lack of training since I moved house. A town environment doesn't lend itself to easy training sessions and I need to come up with a plan to rectify this.

Corrie spends most of her time living at mum's (which I hate, but town life is not for her, especially when I'm out at work all day) and now that the trials are back in full swing, our weekends are hopefully going to be spent competing.

Plan A is to win the lottery, buy a smallholding, bring Corrie and my ponies to live with us, borrow some of mum's Kerry Hill sheep to train with and live happily ever after.

I'm still working on Plan B.

This year, for the first time ever, I've had very little involvement in the lambing of mum's Willowbrook flock of Kerry Hill sheep.

This is mainly because I now live in a town away from home and also due to my lack of transport (see Back on the road to trialling). As well as staying up for the night shifts, checking on any imminent arrivals, I usually take a week's holiday from work to give mum a helping hand, and I feel I've really missed out this year.

Corrie always loves lambing time too. When we were both starting our training, lambing time gave me a real sense of achievement when we could both prove our working worth. Corrie particularly enjoys shedding off ewes and their newborns to bring them in at night to their cosy pens, out of harm's way from the many foxes and badgers we have on the prowl.

Last week, the final ewe gave birth to twins. Unfortunately one was born very weak. In spite of mum rigging up the heat lamp and tubing her, she didn't get any stronger. One morning she was very cold, so as a last resort she was put in a box and transferred to the bottom oven of the Rayburn.

Rayburns are wonderful things with an infinite amount of uses that go far beyond cooking the perfect Sunday roast.

Living in a town with mains gas and central heating, I often yearn for mum's solid fuel Rayburn in her Pembrokeshire cottage.

While it's much easier to have heat in every room at the flick of a switch and lots of people mutter about how much work solid fuel stoves are, or the amount of dust they create, I think they emanate a warm, comforting welcome to any home that has one.

One of my early childhood memories is of my younger brother and I coming in from a day playing in the snow, clothes drenched and freezing cold, and shoving our feet into the bottom oven to thaw.

It was always good for helping to produce winning conkers too.

A little warmth goes a long way, and it's not just lambs and feet that have been revived in the bottom oven. Injured birds have also been brought back to life. The trick is to take them out before they get too lively.

So, in the ewe lamb went, closely guarded by Corrie. So intent on her protective duties was she, that she wouldn't let anyone else near and sat glued to the spot until the lamb was taken back out.

In spite of mum's best efforts the lamb died a few days later.

Overall this year's lambing has been a success with the majority growing well and enjoying life. Nothing is standing out as a show prospect yet, but there's still time for them to develop and catch the eye.

At last I'm back on the road with a new car - mobile and independent once again - after more than five months.
It's a long story but the condensed version goes like this...
Last November I had a fall at work and damaged the nerves in my elbow,
making it impossible to make a cup of tea let alone drive.
Unfortunately this meant I missed the last couple of Pembrokeshire nursery
sheepdog trials. I had been running Corrie in the sweepstake classes and it
was doing us both good to be competing again.
Then in December, on the way to Gatwick airport to jet off for a snowy
holiday, my fiance and I were involved in a car crash. I wasn't driving - my
arm still wasn't up to it - so Lee was at the wheel of my car.
A bit of advice for everyone -­ try to avoid mad Land Rover drivers who pull
out in front of you on a dual carriageway when you're travelling at speed.
It isn't a nice experience.
So, basically I've been without a car since then.
Living in a rural county like Pembrokeshire, people rely on their vehicles
and I have been lost without one.
I have been able to use my fiance's car at weekends, but being a cabriolet
it's not exactly practical for sheepdogs or travelling to sheepdog trials.
Happily I picked up my shiny new car this week and it has ample room for the
dogs, my wellies, waterproofs and crook.
Now I just need to get back in training with Corrrie and hopefully we'll
both be back up to speed.