Wednesday, October 5, 2011

We are 3 weeks old!

Here are Ellie and Simon's babies at 3 weeks of age. Too cute!
The sable merle boy appears to have 2 dark eyes - bonus!
Look at that gorgeous finish of underjaw!
Here is his sister, the blue girl.
Such a pudgy little face she has, and again, beautiful underjaw. Can't wait to see how they continue to develop!

Destiny and Simon's babies are now 3 weeks old. Below are some pictues taken today!
This is the smaller sable girl...
and her sister, slightly larger...all three have the same lovely underjaw.
And the sable boy!
Here are all three together.

We are very pleased with how these five Simon babies are developing!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Ellie and Simon's Babies at 2 weeks

Ellie and Simon's babies are now 2 weeks old, and eyes are just starting to open. Although there were only 2 babies in this litter, we are very excited about their potential!
This is the sable merle boy - very elegant, gorgeous neck and outline!
This is the blue girl - look at that gorgeous, short blocky head!
We will continue to post new photos weekly so you can watch them grow and develop.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Eight Days Old

Across the hall from Destiny is Ellie, with her two babies, also sired by Simon (Ch Apple Acres Skyehaven Spendthrift). Ellie is a tri-factored sable merle, so there were all sorts of possibilities for colour - we should have held a lottery! Ellie donated the merle gene to both babies, giving us a blue girl and a sable merle boy. We are very impressed with this litter - elegance is already evident in the length and arch of neck on both puppies.


What a cute little face this is!

Eleven Days Old!

Destiny and Simon's babies are now 10 days old. Such plump little babies they are! Even the smaller girl, 5 ounces at birth, has almost caught up to the other two. All three have beautiful ilittle blocky heads, lovely arch of neck, and nice long tails. The one boy's eyes are showing a tiny crack of light this morning - I expect by tomorrow they will be starting to open. The two girls have declined thus far to admit even a crack of light to their eyes...!


Who can resist babies at this age?

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Hello, Hello!

We are excited to welcome three new sable babies to our Sheltie family. Sired by Ch Apple Acres Skyehaven Spendthrift ex Ch Skyehaven Destiny's Child, the babies arrived late Monday September 12, 2011. This is Simon's first litter, making this doubly exciting for us!



Sunday, August 14, 2011

Little Finn

We are happy to welcome Apple Acres Skyehaven High Finance" to the Skyehaven clan!
"FINN" came to us last month (already named) from Wanda and Tim Fletcher and Locklyn Guzman. We are thrilled with this young man. Finn is almost 6 months old, beautifully structured and has a head and eye to just dream about!
Thank you Locklyn for parting with your "pick puppy back"!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

A beautiful day...


The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the flowers are blooming - who could ask for anything more?
Our perennial "sun garden" is coming along nicely, with painted daisies, cat mint and irises in bloom. The peonies are not yet open, but next week they should add a riot of colour to the mix.






Our perennial "shade garden" located under the trees behind the house has a small pond and waterfall off to one side. It is very lush this year (could be all the rain we have had!) and is recovering from the damage it sustained 18 months ago when we put the addition on the south side of the house.






The French lilacs have finished blooming but the Villosa lilacs are absolutely gorgeous right now...







especially with a puppy posing in front of them!



Saturday, May 21, 2011

Player


Canadian Champion Laureate Cold Play, bred by Kim Aston and Peter Culumovic, came out of a five year retirement in 2011 to attend ASSA in St Louis Missouri. Entered in the Open Blue class and handled by Becky Johnson, Player placed second in his class. A big thanks to Kim Aston for the great pictures she took of Player both from ringside, and outdoors.





Player stayed in the US with Becky to attend a few American shows. On May 20th, at the Greater Kansas City Shetland Sheepdog Specialty, Player was awarded a 4 point major (Winners Dog) for his first US points, tyhen took WD, BOW 2 days later for a second 4 point major! Thank you to judges Sulie Greendale-Paveza and Professor Douglas Taylor for these major wins. We are absolutely thrilled! Thank you also Becky - we hope he continues to shine for you!


On May 26, at the Greater Cincinnati Specialty, Player was awarded his third 4 point major under breeder jusge Jean Simmonds. What a team he and Becky make!

These pictures are from his week at ASSA in April 2011. Thank you again Kim for the great photos.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

And the winner is...!

Thanks to Clarice, we have the answer!

The first is a white crowned sparrow, and the second is a chipping sparrow!

What is it?

The bird feeder fell down (again) - the string holding it together broke (again). Darned cheap bird feeder!

Speaking however of cheap - or is that "CHEEP"? - when I noticed it was "gone" I leaned over the deck rail to look down to the ground. Lo and behold, there it was, surrounded by several very pretty little birds. Now, I am not a birder - I can identify robins, meadowlarks, crows, redwings, hawks, eagles and sparrows - and of course those annoying grackles - but beyond that I am a bit (more than a bit) hopeless.

So people, help me out here - what ARE these pretty little birds?







I went back with the "big" camera to see if I could get a better shot, and found another similar bird hopping around. Good grief, that must be good bird seed! Anyone able to identify this one?

Both varieties/species are about the same size - bigger than a sparrow but much smaller than a robin...












Saturday, May 14, 2011

A Gorgeous Day At Last

The sun is shining, and who cares if the wind is blowing! It's neither raining, nor snowing, nor sleeting, nor hailing - yippee!

The Ellie Brother babies had a good run in the yard this afternoon. Even managed to avoid the pond - bonus! We managed to snap a few pictures of them "au naturel"...




This is Loni (Skyehaven Valonia)





Such a pretty face and outline!






But more than a pretty face - look at her side gait! She is coming along nicely on leash as long as there are cookies in the offing!










But standing and looking pretty can be pretty boring!





Bethany (Skyehaven Verona) is also a very appealing puppy. She is a bit of a clown when the leash is attached...




However, with a bit of encouragement, she also shows her style...














Of course, the joke was on us when she sat and laughed at us when we tried to encourage her to stand once more....








But with a bit of encouragement she once again cooperated and showed us her pretty face...complete with teething bumps!






After a good romp and a bit of bite-the-butt, both girls joined me for a lap cuddle and a kiss - or was that a dental check-up?

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Back from ASSA!

We got home from ASSA Sunday evening - it was a long week but was great to see so many old friends and to make some new ones as well. Can Ch Laureate Cold Play traveled down with us and was very well received by all who took the time to visit him. He was handled by Becky Johnson in the Open Blue class, where he placed second - what a thrill! Player is staying with Becky for a while to attend some AKC shows.

Kim Aston (Laureate) was kind enough to take these pictures of Player in the ring and outdoors between rain showers - thank you so much Kim!











Congratulations to GrandGables for Brother's Award of Merit - he looked lovely!




Our Frat Boy babies grew up a lot while I was away - here are some candids of them while trying to leash train them... here is Bethany (Skyehaven Verona)




And here is Loni (Skyehaven Valonia)






We are still having a difficult time picking bewteen these girls! One will be made available to a discerning show home within the next week or so.


Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Couldn't Resist!

photo above taken with my iPhone, and below with my Panasonic Lumix!