Dog Show Observations.....

The dog show in Des Moines is held once a year and is sponsored by the American Kennel Club. One's first impression when you walk in to the big building is the various staging, grooming areas scattered all around the show rings. Many people groom their dogs before showing, including washing and blow drying as well as trimming and combing out of the dog. The dogs are placed on grooming tables and have a collar to hold them in place. They, the dogs, don't mind any of it and have been doing it for a lot of the time of their lives.
Most people groom their own dog, but some families bring lots of different dogs and they may have one person designated or hired to groom them to get them ready. During the judging, we noticed one woman who showed up with different dogs under the different breeds. She could have been a trainer who showed for others or she raised different dogs and show them all.
I didn't know that I would like to see a dog show or not but once I had been to one, you just can't stay away. I snap pictures continually along with my wife all day. I would love to snap pictures of people too, as their are a lot of interesting people out there, especially those who show dogs, BUT I don't.
This is a judging going on with Afghan hounds. The one lady with the black dog, I had photographed earlier, as she was practice running her dog all over the building in and out of the crowd. She stopped for a pose for me, she and her dog, and I took their picture. I liked how her haircut allowed her to look like her dog with they were both running with their mane flowing. I noticed she tipped her head back just like the dog did when they both ran. She was proud of here beautiful animal and she should be. This little long haired Dachshund is sitting on the lap of a young girl who had just shown her dog in the ring. I noticed the little girl later and she was there with her parents, who had a large number of Retrievers that they were showing. She was helping to groom some of the dogs.
This young man had a apron on which made him look a little more serious as a groomer than some of the people there working on their animals. There were a lot of Retrievers there and they have to show them in different groups, with brackets rating until they have a final group to show for first, second, third, and fourth place.
The crates are everywhere in the building. These Papillon dogs were owned by one person or a mother-daughter team. They actually had seven carriers so one was carried separately from the others of those that were rolled in. The dogs take everything in stride and you can tell they are pampered and loved. It is a friendly circus atmosphere with a lot of dogs and a lot of people who love dogs. Some people bring their own dogs along with them to watch the show. A young family with two young girls in stroller were being pushed around by their mother, while the father walking around with two very large Mastiff dogs. I have more stories to tell about this with lots of pictures. I seem to be jumping all over the place with my life and what I do, but I will settle down as soon as the snow starts to fly. Thanks for reading......

The Tide Goes Out.....

When viewing this harbor in Bar Harbor everything looks normal. I have heard of tide's going out but I didn't really think it happened in the United States. My son talked about it on the telephone but we really got to see what happens when the tide goes out. This is not a normal view once I show you that the water on this scene is probably dropped ten feet at the time.
The position of the moon causes changes in the height of the ocean water and at this harbor it goes down 12 feet. Look at this photo and see the water line on the poles of the dock. The boat tied to that dock is on a very long line so it can adjust to the height of the water.
It is hard to imagine how they work around this, but to the left of this picture is a movable ramp and you can see two chains in the photo. Can you see that the water level is lower with the moss and water line underneath that land dock above the water level?
The chains extend out to hold onto that flat deck out there at the end of the bridge. The top of the bridge is attached firmly on hinges to the land dock. As the ocean water lowers, the bridge slides on the plate at the bottom on that flat floating dock. Everything raises or lowers in unison with that floating flat dock, boat and bridge both. The poles around that flat platform are probably fake and are there to make the structure look strong. I doubt the reach the harbor floor.
Another bridge extended out to this large mooring platform. Can you see the one metal loop that is loosely fit around the second vertical pole to the left of the green boat. That whole docking system raises and lowers 12 feet on all of those vertical poles.
In this last picture, Aaron and Keegan were having their picture taken, down on the rock where the tide had gone out. By late afternoon, their heads would be underwater there. So now when I hear about the tide is going out, I really do see how it can get very complicated.
For the people who work along the shore they have to leave early in the morning before the tide goes out in order to get their lobster traps set.
The smell of the coast near the island also smells really bad as while the water is out the dead creatures, kelp, etc rot and smell. It isn't everywhere but in some areas it is really pungent.
Ok, I will stop for now. I know this is more than one needs to know.
I went to a dog show today with my wife. You are going to get some dog show info soon that may really just bore you, but I got some great shots of the things that go on in these shows. The people watching is just as fun as the dog show itself. Thanks for reading.....

Sedum and Bees

I got a start of this from a friend many years ago. It is a sedum with light green stems and pink flowers. It has opened up pretty much completely, and it doesn't seem to attract any type of insects.
I purchased this red stemmed sedum a few years back and it is an insect magnet. I was out with my camera and the large plant had 25 or more bumblebees all over it. The bees didn't seem to let me bother them and they went about their business. With the stems being reddish it is funny how the flowers are a lighter pink.
I really never got a handle on getting the bees in focus like I would want but I do like the clarity of the individual blooms on the sedum. I regretted not seeing any regular honey bees around, which I know are having a tough time in this country.
This is a show and tell item that I bought at the Kmart sale. It was from the Martha Stewart collection and it's price was dropped to ten bucks. It was made in India and I thought it would be neat to put a candle in it in the evening when we are out on the patio. The door is actually soldered on a little crooked so I see why they still had it left on the shelf. The little guy in the glass box reminds me of a "Twilight Zone" story on tv a long time ago. Thanks for reading.....

The Wedding goes on......

This is the sky one views on a normal day on top of Cadillac Mountain. This was the planned wedding site for our kids.
But it did rain. In fact at 5:30 in the morning when we should have seen bright shinning sun on the ocean horizon, it was blowing clouds up the sides of the mountain. It was just not the right day. Plan B was to continue and have the ceremony no matter what so that is what we did. Everyone adjusted to the conditions and all were good sports. The wedding went as planned and then we drove down the mountain into Bar Harbor and had a great breakfast at beautiful hotel restaurant. Pictures were taken at the gazebo across the street.
Keegan and Aaron had just finished their vows. Rings had been exchanged and only a near drop of one of the rings. It wouldn't be a wedding without someone almost dropping a ring.
The couple will honeymoon in New Brunswick this weekend. The two of them both work at Jackson Laboratories there on the island.
The gazebo was a great place to get photos with the fog and sprinkle that never let up. We are very happy for these two. They are going to do an all family reception next summer, same date, and if the weather is good they may just go back up and do a renewal of vows in good weather.Two of their dogs were at the wedding and the sister to one of their dogs attended also. I believe Hannah and Penny are the two dogs on the right. Thanks for reading.....

The Wedding in Acadia, part 1.......

The night before the wedding we went to the top of the Cadillac mountain to see the sunset and to finalize plans for the wedding the next morning at 5:30 am. The site is believed to be the first light that hits the United States and when you go up there the parking lot is full of visitors waiting to see that sunrise. It reflects off of the ocean and the sky.

Keegan and Aaron at the harbor after the wedding checking out the harbor.
The next day it rained and we were on the mountain and the wedding took place. The story is too long to tell and I want to share the whole event to you, but not in this posting. It was a very happy wedding and we dried off and went to a beautiful restaurant for a great breakfast and family bonding. We are very happy for our son Aaron as he loves his new wife Keegan so much. Aaron loves that island and he and his wife dated and walked the trails of the Acadia Park for two years. The weather continued to be wet the entire day so plans had to be altered. We ate again at a Mexican restaurant in the evening with all the newly defined family and it was a lot of fun.
Our flight home consisted of four different airports and traveling from 11 in the morning until 9 at night. I will post about that along the way also, as two farm kids from Iowa made their way to place to place without error. We were so tired but very proud of our accomplishments of traveling on our own, something we haven't had an opportunity to do before but really enjoyed it. The people experiences are always the things you collect along the way, and the diversity of life styles and work ethics are so varied throughout our country. I will talk of those things in the future, not in a negative way, but as a point of difference and of meaning.
The photo is of JFK airport and the four hours plus that we were there gave me time to use the new camera. We actually were longer than four hours as an Air France plane was having trouble on the runway, it wasn't moving, and we sat for a half hour on the plane while they pumped enough compressed air into our engines so they would start. We flew through those clouds and headed for Cincinnati, Ohio on a 737 jet. More to come. Thanks for reading.....

Bar Harbor......

Setting on the northern edge of Mount Desset Island is the town of Bar Harbor. It is a thriving tourist town with a lot of very nice shops. I was impressed with the quality of the stores considering a lot of it shuts down by November. It is a special place and I see why people flock there from Boston and other big eastern cities.
I took a lot of shots of the store fronts as they really worked hard to give the public a good taste of a New England town. I love bay windows and this one was special. This should have been one of my Photo a Day shots but I couldn't wait to share it.
For all of my blogger garden friends I took this photo. A very nice garden store had a patio store to the side of it. You stepped down a few steps from the store and you then were in a grand patio display area. We really wished we had more days to appreciate the town but we were on a tight schedule, so we only visited one afternoon as much as we could. We were there the day before when it rained continually and that was fun in it's own way, but on a good day it was great. My wife and I took over 400 photos together so I have a lot of editing to get done to keep this blogging thing going. Thanks for reading....

Maine coastline......

Otter Cliffs is located on the Dessert Island, in the area of Acadia National Park. While visiting our son and attending his wedding, we became very familiar with this national park. The wedding was on the top of Cadillac Mountain and I will share more about that on another blog. The Otter Cliff area is directly across the bay area, where the huge waves came in and drug many people into the ocean. A seven year old girl lost her life there as this huge wave overcame the spectators and drug them against the rocks out into the water.
I bought a new camera the night before we flew out to Maine. It is sort of a point and shoot, but it did a nice job. It is call Coolpix Nikon. My wife has a much more expensive camera and I thought instead of sharing, we could both be shooting at the same time. We ended up with almost 500 pictures combined so we have lots of photos to remember our trip to the east.
I have lots of stories to tell, as you know I talk too much, but we had a great time. One story will be about the flight home. It was an adventure, which I am sure it is for anyone who flies anywhere.
The idea that we live surrounded by hay fields, cornfields, and soybeans explains our adjustment to living in a rocky area of islands and rocky cliffs and the ocean, with scattered populations. Maine is so different from Iowa. Just flying into the Des Moines area, we could see that we have become very populated here and there are houses everywhere, close together. Maine is so sparsely populated with townships rather than towns. The city south of us, Johnston is the fastest growing city in the nation. We are very populated, in spite of all of the farming. We also are so flat and our roads go straight, east and west, north and south. There isn't a straight road to be seen in Maine.
We are very tired today, but I need to get two different lawns mowed. I will get to my yard today and back to the normal life. Thanks for reading.......